e of warfare. Such soldiers
as the Greeks, too, were admirably adapted to execute such designs,
and the immense and heterogeneous mass of Asiatic nations which
covered the plain before them was exactly the body for such an
experiment to be made upon. Glorying in their numbers and confident of
victory, they were slowly advancing, without the least idea that the
little band before them could possibly do them any serious harm. They
had actually brought with them, in the train of the army, some blocks
of marble, with which they were going to erect a monument of their
victory, on the field of battle, as soon as the conflict was over!

At length the Greeks began to put themselves in motion. As they
advanced, they accelerated their march more and more, until just
before reaching the Persian lines, when they began to run. The
astonishment of the Persians at this unexpected and daring onset soon
gave place, first to the excitement of personal conflict, and then to
universal terror and dismay; for the headlong impetuosity of the
Greeks bore down all opposition, and the desperate swordsmen cut their
way through the vast masses of the enemy with a fierce and desperate
fury that nothing could withstand. Something like a contest continued
for some hours; but, at the end of that time, the Persians were flying
in all directions, every one endeavoring, by the track which he found
most practicable for himself, to make his way to the ships on the
shore. Vast multitudes were killed in this headlong flight; others
became entangled in the morasses and fens, and others still strayed
away, and sought, in their terror, a hopeless refuge in the defiles of
the mountains. Those who escaped crowded in confusion on board their
ships, and pushed off from the shore, leaving the whole plain covered
with their dead and dying companions.

The Greeks captured an immense amount of stores and baggage, which
were of great cost and value. They took possession, too, of the marble
blocks which the Persians had brought to immortalize their victory,
and built with them a monument, instead, to commemorate their defeat.
They counted the dead. Six thousand Persians, and only two hundred
Greeks, were found. The bodies of the Greeks were collected together,
and buried on the field, and an immense mound was raised over the
grave. This mound has continued to stand at Marathon to the present
day.

The battle of Marathon was one of those great events in the history of