ontrary
to the usual custom, according to which the bones of all who fell
fighting for their country in each year were deposited in a public
sepulchre in the suburb of Athens called the "Ceramicus." But it was
felt that a distinction ought to be made in the funeral honors paid to
the men of Marathon, even as their merit had been distinguished over
that of all other Athenians. A lofty mound was raised on the plain of
Marathon, beneath which the remains of the men of Athens who fell in the
battle were deposited. Ten columns were erected on the spot, one for
each of the Athenian tribes; and on the monumental column of each tribe
were graven the names of those of its members whose glory it was to have
fallen in the great battle of liberation. The antiquarian Pausanias read
those names there six hundred years after the time when they were first
graven.[48] The columns have long perished, but the mound still marks
the spot where the noblest heroes of antiquity repose.

[Footnote 48: Pausanias stales, with implicit belief, that the
battle-field was haunted at night by supernatural beings, and that the
noise of combatants and the snorting of horses were heard to resound on
it. The superstition has survived the change of creeds, and the
shepherds of the neighborhood still believe that spectral warriors
contend on the plain at midnight, and they say that they have heard the
shouts of the combatants and the neighing of the steeds.]

A separate tumulus was raised over the bodies of the slain Plataeans, and
another over the light-armed slaves who had taken part and had fallen in
the battle.[49] There was also a separate funeral monument to the
general to whose genius the victory was mainly due. Miltiades did not
live long after his achievement at Marathon, but he lived long enough to
experience a lamentable reverse of his popularity and success. As soon
as the Persians had quitted the western coasts of the AEgean, he proposed
to an assembly of the Athenian people that they should fit out seventy
galleys, with a proportionate force of soldiers and military stores, and
place it at his disposal; not telling them whither he meant to lead it,
but promising them that if they would equip the force he asked for, and
give him discretionary powers, he would lead it to a land where there
was gold in abundance to be won with ease.

[Footnote 49: It is probable that the Greek light-armed irregulars were
active in the attack on the Persian ship