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MARATHON, NE Attica, Greece.

A coastal plain inhabited from very earliest times down to the end of antiquity. Home of the Marathonian Tetrapolis (Philochorus FGH 328 F 94, 109), it is best known as the site of the famous battle of 490 B.C. (Hdt. 6.102-16), though Peisistratos also landed there ca. 545 (Hdt. 1.62). Pausanias described the area in the 2d c. A.D.

The remains date from the following periods: Neolithic (cave of Pan, Nea Makri), Early Helladic (Tsepi), Middle Helladic (Vrana), Late Helladic (tholos tomb), archaic and Classical down to Roman (Plasi) at the presumed site of the ancient deme. Many of the landmarks of the great battle have been securely located, the most conspicuous of which is the soros, the tomb of the Athenians; also, the Herakleion, the trophy, the tomb of the Plataians in Vrana (?), the charadra, the great marsh, the Makaria spring. The estate of Herodes Atticus, or better of Regilla, has also been found.


BIBLIOGRAPHY

B. Stais in AthMitt 18 (1895) 46-63 (soros); J. G. Frazer, Paus. Des. Gr. (1898) II 431-35; E. Stikas in Praktika (1954) 114-22; (1958) 15-17; A. Orlandos in Ergon (1958) 15-22 (cave of Pan) & 23-27; id. in Hesperia 35 (1966) 93-106M (trophy); E. Vanderpool in AJA 70 (1966) 319-23 (Herakleion); N.G.L. Hammond in JHS 88 (1968) 13-57, with references (battle); W. K. Pritchett, Studies in Ancient Greek Topography (1969) II 1-11, with references (deme); S. Marinatos in AAA 3 (1970) 14-20 & 153-66; id. in Praktika (1970) 5-28, with references (Vrana & Tsepi)MPI; id. in AAA 4 (1971) 99-101; id. in Ergon (1971) 5-11.

W. F. WYATT JR.

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