Soros

There are two tumuli at Marathon, Greece. One, the Soros, is a burial mound that houses the ashes of 192 Athenians who fell during the Battle of Marathon in 490 BC. The other houses the inhumed bodies of the Plataeans who fell in the same battle. The burial mound dominates the plain of Marathon, together with the tumulus of the Plataeans and a victory column erected by the Athenians to commemorate their victory over Darius' Persian expedition. The tumulus is encompassed in a park today.

The battle took place on September 12, or possibly August 12, 490 BCE. Athens and its ally Plataea, some 11,000 hoplites in total, attacked a Persian expeditionary force of some 25,000 infantry and 1,000 cavalry, with 100,000 armed sailors as reserves. The Athenians attacked down a hillside onto the coastal plain and, using the momentum of their tightly packed, heavily armoured formation, routed the less disciplined Persian flanks. Herodotus claims the Greeks counted 6,400 dead Persians, and states that the Athenians lost 192 men and the Plataeans 11.

Both tumuli are fairly standard, with hemispherical shapes, and the dead were interred in the hole left by the excavation of the dirt piled on top. They are unusual because such monumental burial had been out of style in central Greece since the seventh century. The Athenians normally buried their war dead in the Kerameikos cemetery, with a stele or marker vase. Some scholars have suggested that raising the tumuli was a deliberate attempt to evoke Homer, given the similarities with the burial practices of the mythical heroes in the Iliad.

The Athenian Tumulus stands around 40 feet (12 m) tall and was excavated in 1884 by Dimitrios Philios and again in 1890 and 1891 by Valerios Stais. The Plataean Tumulus is smaller, at around 10 feet (3.0 m), and was identified and excavated in 1970 by Prof. Marinatos, then the Greek Inspector General of Antiquities. A large layer of ash and charred bone was found in the Athenian Tumulus, while multiple bodies were found inhumed in the Plataean Tumulus.

The victory column has since collapsed and been replaced by a modern replica that matches the original in height and general mass.

The Battle of Marathon took place on September 12, or possibly August 12, 490 BCE at the plain of Marathon. Athens and its ally Plataea, some 11,000 hoplites in total, attacked a Persian expeditionary force of some 25,000 infantry and 1,000 cavalry, with 100,000 armed sailors acting as reserves. The Athenian forces attacked down a hillside onto the coastal plain, and using the momentum of their tightly packed, heavily armored formation routed the less disciplined Persian flanks, which were unused to fighting heavily armored troops. The subsequent rout left the Persian center exposed and as a result the Persians suffered high casualties as their command structure fell into disarray and as soldiers scrambled onto their ships. Herodotus claims that the Greeks counted 6,400 dead Persians on the field, but could make no account for those who fled into the swamps off to the north of the battlefield. Herodotus states that the Athenians lost 192 men in the battle and the Plataeans lost 11.