2,500 Years of the Battle of Marathon

A composite image of a shield and a runner or warrior, symbolising the struggle for freedom and the lofty ideals the Battle of Marathon represents. The bird depicted on the shield stands for the birth of Western civilisation as we know it today. Encircling the inner field, the commemorative inscription "ΜΑΡΑΘΩΝΑΣ/2500 ΧΡΟΝΙΑ/490 Π.Χ./2010 Μ.Χ." and the issuing state "ΕΛΛΗΝΙΚΗ ΔΗΜΟΚΡΑΤΙΑ" are engraved in Greek.

In September 490 BC, on the beach at Marathon, some 40 kilometers northeast of Athens, an Athenian-Plataean army clashed with the invading Persian force. Despite being significantly outnumbered, the Greeks under the general Miltiades defeated the Persians in a decisive attack. The significance of this defeat for the Achaemenid Empire lay less in the immediate military losses than in the strategic message it sent: Greece was not to be taken without a fight. For Athens, Marathon reinforced its self-image as a defender of political freedom — a narrative running through the entire classical era and one that underpinned the development of Athenian democracy in spirit.

The long-term impact of the Persian Wars on Greek, and thus on European, intellectual history can hardly be overstated. Decades of confrontation with the Persian Empire fostered an awareness of a shared Hellenic identity and helped bring about the cultural flowering regarded as the foundation of Western philosophy, architecture, and political theory. Marathon stands as the first tangible date in this development. Greece's 2010 2-euro commemorative coin marked the 2500th anniversary of the battle, situating it within precisely this civilizational context.