Χαιρετώ,

In SPACE.com it was published few months back (20 July 2004) an extraordinary new about the ‘true’ date of Marathon battle. A group of astronomers basing calculations on Sparta’s religious lunar calendar discover that the well-known battle of the Greek-Persian War in Marathon (490 B.C.) occurred in August and not in 12 of September as it was first articulated in nineteenth century classics.

According to Herodotus and Plutarchus, after the Greek army won the Persian invaders at Marathon the long-distance runner Pheidippides sprinted the 46 kilometres back to Athens to declare the triumph over an attack from the sea. He then collapsed and died.

Donald Olson and colleague Marilynn Olson at Texas State University at San Marcos stated that the high temperature during August was deadly for the Athenian runner. The Marathon rout all the way down to Athens during August has a temperature of 38 Celsius. However, that it is not an acceptable excuse. We can understand that the standards of ancient athletes were superior in strength from the contemporary athletes. It is clear why. And that is because of their different way of training and living conditions.

Although, the new discovery and explanation of an earlier occurrence of the battle can be better supported by the use of the Spartan religious lunar calendar. Researchers now believe that that September 12 date initially stated by the German scholar August Boeckh in 19^th century was merely based on the Athenian lunar calendar, which overlooks the importance of the Sparta’s reality.

Olson presented the argument that at the time of the Marathon battle an earlier recorded run by Pheidippides was fatal for the dependence of the battle’s true date. When Athens send off the messenger to Sparta (241 kilometres) to ask for assistance in the defence of Greece, the Spartans promised help, despite the fact that their army could not march until the next full moon six days later because of a religious festival.

Boeckh, thus, supposed that the festival was the Karneia in the Spartan month of Karneios, when warfare was forbidden for a week. He jumped then to the Athenian calendar using earlier links between the two cities’ calendars and resolute the September date.

Nevertheless the analysis, Oslon stated, should have been conducted entirely in Spartan religious lunar calendar, which, regardless the similarities to the moon-based Athenian system, began later in the year at the first new moon after the fall equinox. There were also 10 new moons instead of the typical nine separating the fall equinox of 491 B.C. and the summer solstice of 490 B.C., which caused the Spartan calendar to run a month ahead of Athens and directed researchers to believe that the Greek-Persian battle finally occurred in August.

Yours,

Nikolaos Cleomenes