Daily History Challenge · No. 123 · Thursday 29 October 2026 · Chain

Puzzle No. 123: Chain

The anchor was Battle of Marathon (490 BCE). Every challenger is listed below with its year.

The anchor

September 490 BCEBattle of Marathon

In September 490 BCE an Athenian army, supported by a small Plataean contingent, defeated the first Persian invasion of mainland Greece on the plain of Marathon in north-eastern Attica. King Darius I had despatched the expedition partly to punish Athens and Eretria for their support of the Ionian Revolt. Outnumbered and without Spartan help, which arrived too late, the Greek hoplites, with the general Miltiades the driving force, deliberately strengthened their wings and thinned their centre. When battle was joined the Persian centre broke through, but the Greek wings enveloped and routed the enemy, who fled to their ships. Herodotus reports about 6,400 Persian dead against only 192 Athenians, including the war-archon Callimachus. The victory, won by citizen-soldiers of the new democracy, had effects out of proportion to its scale: it shattered the myth of Persian invincibility, gave Athens enormous prestige and confidence, and bought a decade in which the Greeks prepared for the far larger invasion to come. The legend of a runner carrying news of victory to Athens later inspired the modern marathon race.

Read the full story · See the world in 490 BCE