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Such was the fury of the Persians.
Such was the vengeance they exacted on traitors, oath-breakers, and temple-burners.
And though the Athenians had sent only twenty ships to aid the Ionians,
they too would face the Great King’s wrath.
Panic spread throughout Athens.
At this time, the city was far from the grand metropolis it would later become —
it had no navy, no empire, no Parthenon. Even its democracy was barely two decades old.
Yet now, like a storm-tossed fishing boat facing a towering wave,
little Athens was on the brink of being engulfed.
Like good democrats, the Athenians elected their generals, ten each year —
and it was these men who now debated what to do.
Among these generals was Aristides — "Aristides the Just," they called him.
As upright a man as you’ll ever meet, his commitment to his city faultless.
And then there was Themistocles, his lifelong rival.
Themistocles was an outsider, from an obscure family;
he was a radical, audacious in thinking;
and he was a schemer, who never put justice ahead of expediency.
But in this desperate hour, these ambitious men agreed
that the bold Miltiades should take supreme command.
Miltiades ordered the Athenians to muster at the plain of Marathon, there to await the Persians.
There was little time left to prepare:
across the Euboean Gulf, the Athenians watched the Persians burn Eretria —
and knew they were next.