The Olympic running event is called the Marathon to commemorate the legendary run that supposedly announced the Athenian victory over the Persians at the Battle of Marathon in 490 BC.
The Historical Battle of Marathon (490 BC)
During the First Persian War, the Athenian and Plataean forces met the massive invading Persian army on the plain of Marathon, a small coastal town in Attica, Greece.
The Victory: The Greek forces, though significantly outnumbered, achieved a decisive and strategically crucial victory over the Persians. This was largely due to the tactical genius of the Athenian general, the strategos Miltiades, who successfully used a double envelopment maneuver, crushing the flanks of the Persian line.
Casualties: The victory was overwhelmingly one-sided. Herodotus, the primary historian of the era, states the Athenians lost only 192 men, while the Persians suffered thousands of casualties. The victory not only saved Athens from invasion but also marked a turning point in Greek history, proving that the seemingly invincible Persian Empire could be defeated.
The Legend of the Runner
The legendary run that gives the race its name is a combination of two historical accounts:
Herodotus's Account (The Real Runner): The historian Herodotus names the runner as Pheidippides (sometimes called Philippides in later sources). However, Herodotus says Pheidippides ran a much longer distance before the battle: he was a professional runner sent from Athens to Sparta (a distance of about 240 km or 150 miles) to request military aid prior to the conflict. He arrived in Sparta a day after leaving Athens.
Plutarch and Lucian (The Marathon Legend): The popular legend, which connects the run to the battle, was not recorded until centuries later. The writers Plutarch (Moralia, 347C) and Lucian of Samosata record the following story: a herald (often conflated with Pheidippides) ran from the battlefield at Marathon to Athens, covering approximately 40 kilometers. Upon reaching the city, he announced the victory with the words "Nenikēkamen!" (Νενικήκαμεν), meaning "We have won!", and immediately collapsed and died from the immense effort.
he Modern Olympic Marathon Race
The Marathon was instituted in the first modern Olympic Games in Athens in 1896.
1896 Distance: The inaugural 1896 race ran the approximate distance from the Marathon battlefield to the Panathenaic Stadium in Athens, which was about 40 kilometers (25 miles), based on the legendary route.
The Standardized Distance: The distance was initially variable across different Games. The exact, fixed distance of 42.195 kilometers (26 miles and 385 yards) was finally established in 1921 by the International Amateur Athletic Federation (now World Athletics). This distance was formalized to match the specific route used in the 1908 London Olympics, which was set to ensure the finish line was directly in front of the Royal Box at White City Stadium.
