MARATHON,
NE Attica, Greece.
A coastal
plain inhabited from very earliest times down to the end
of antiquity. Home of the Marathonian Tetrapolis (Philochorus
FGH 328 F 94, 109), it is best known as the
site of the famous battle of 490 B.C. (
Hdt. 6.102-16),
though Peisistratos also landed there ca. 545 (
Hdt. 1.62).
Pausanias described the area in the 2d c. A.D.
The remains date from the following periods: Neolithic (cave of Pan, Nea Makri), Early Helladic (Tsepi),
Middle Helladic (Vrana), Late Helladic (tholos tomb),
archaic and Classical down to Roman (Plasi) at the presumed site of the ancient deme. Many of the landmarks
of the great battle have been securely located, the most
conspicuous of which is the soros, the tomb of the
Athenians; also, the Herakleion, the trophy, the tomb of
the Plataians in Vrana (?), the charadra, the great
marsh, the Makaria spring. The estate of Herodes Atticus, or better of Regilla, has also been found.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
B. Stais in
AthMitt 18 (1895) 46-63
(soros); J. G. Frazer,
Paus. Des. Gr. (1898) II 431-35;
E. Stikas in
Praktika (1954) 114-22; (1958) 15-17; A.
Orlandos in
Ergon (1958) 15-22 (cave of Pan) & 23-27;
id. in
Hesperia 35 (1966) 93-106
M (trophy); E. Vanderpool in
AJA 70 (1966) 319-23 (Herakleion); N.G.L.
Hammond in
JHS 88 (1968) 13-57, with references (battle); W. K. Pritchett,
Studies in Ancient Greek Topography (1969) II 1-11, with references (deme); S. Marinatos
in
AAA 3 (1970) 14-20 & 153-66; id. in
Praktika (1970)
5-28, with references (Vrana & Tsepi)
MPI; id. in
AAA 4
(1971) 99-101; id. in
Ergon (1971) 5-11.
W. F. WYATT JR.
