Date: 16 Jun 2026
Topic: History
Codebreakers are a fun way to build numeracy skills.
The Battle of Marathon was fought in 490 BCE, nearly two thousand five hundred years ago. The Persian Empire (one of the largest empires the world had ever seen), which covers the region that is nowadays Iran, was encroaching on Greek territories, and the Greeks were defending themselves in a place called Marathon.
According to legend, a Greek messenger named Pheidippides ran the 40-kilometer distance from Marathon to Athens after the battle to announce the victory. Upon his arrival, he shouted out the victory and then collapsed and died from exhaustion.
Many years later, the first modern Olympic Games were held in Athens in 1896. The organizers wanted an event that celebrated ancient Greek history, and so they created a long-distance race roughly following the legendary route from Marathon to Athens, which was roughly 40 kilometers in length.
Historians actually debate the truth of this tale, with another version saying that Pheidippides actually ran from Athens to Sparta before the battle to request military aid. This trip is nearly six times as long (240km) and is also commemorated in the modern age as one of the world's most demanding ultramarathons, called the Spartathlon.