DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1031#0067
CHAP. VI.]
MAHSHES.
45
In this level solitary place the eye is naturally
arrested by one object, which raises itself above the
surface of the plain more conspicuously than any
thing else. That object is the Tumulus which covers
the ashes of those Athenians who fell in the battle
of Marathon. It produces a sensation of awe to-
find oneself alone with such an object as this. It
was a wise design which buried these Athenians
together under such a tomb in the place on which
they fell.
The plain is hemmed in near the sea by a marsh1
on each side. It was fortunate for Athens that
the battle was not fought in the summer, but in the
autumn; particularly if that autumn was a rainy
one. Pressed in on both sides by these morasses,
which then would have been inundated, the Per-
sian force had not free scope to bring its vast
numbers to bear. Here they were embarrassed by
their own power: hence it was, that at these morasses
the greatest slaughter of the Persians took place2.
Hence too these marshes themselves were honoured
1 Callimach. ap. Suid. v. Wlapafliov. Callimachus called it ivvo-riov
MapaQtSva. .. TovTetrri Stvypov]. . . Schol. Plat. p. 140. MapaOwv ..
Tj°aX^s ^fftTTaffTos, exwv ei/ kavTtv irrjXoirs, Tevdyri, \ipvas. (Some
of these scholia evince a personal acquaintance with Attic topography:
see p. 105. on Sid p.£aov Teixos.) Herod, vi. 102. seems to speak in
rather too unqualified terms, when he calls Marathon iwrniSeurraTov
X<op<ov TJjs ArTucfe ewinrevtrai. It is singular that he does not men-
tion the marshes of Marathon.
2 Pausan. I. 32. 7. Xl/ivy kXmSiis . .. tois fiapftdpois tov tpovov toit
voXi/if eirl toutw trvfifiiivai Ae'yot/trt.
MAHSHES.
45
In this level solitary place the eye is naturally
arrested by one object, which raises itself above the
surface of the plain more conspicuously than any
thing else. That object is the Tumulus which covers
the ashes of those Athenians who fell in the battle
of Marathon. It produces a sensation of awe to-
find oneself alone with such an object as this. It
was a wise design which buried these Athenians
together under such a tomb in the place on which
they fell.
The plain is hemmed in near the sea by a marsh1
on each side. It was fortunate for Athens that
the battle was not fought in the summer, but in the
autumn; particularly if that autumn was a rainy
one. Pressed in on both sides by these morasses,
which then would have been inundated, the Per-
sian force had not free scope to bring its vast
numbers to bear. Here they were embarrassed by
their own power: hence it was, that at these morasses
the greatest slaughter of the Persians took place2.
Hence too these marshes themselves were honoured
1 Callimach. ap. Suid. v. Wlapafliov. Callimachus called it ivvo-riov
MapaQtSva. .. TovTetrri Stvypov]. . . Schol. Plat. p. 140. MapaOwv ..
Tj°aX^s ^fftTTaffTos, exwv ei/ kavTtv irrjXoirs, Tevdyri, \ipvas. (Some
of these scholia evince a personal acquaintance with Attic topography:
see p. 105. on Sid p.£aov Teixos.) Herod, vi. 102. seems to speak in
rather too unqualified terms, when he calls Marathon iwrniSeurraTov
X<op<ov TJjs ArTucfe ewinrevtrai. It is singular that he does not men-
tion the marshes of Marathon.
2 Pausan. I. 32. 7. Xl/ivy kXmSiis . .. tois fiapftdpois tov tpovov toit
voXi/if eirl toutw trvfifiiivai Ae'yot/trt.