Tom Holland

And

There's an even more alarming question.

What about all that cavalry that had embarked and sailed off?

And then even as they're kind of, you know, worrying about these questions, something very, very alarming happens, which is that up on the heights of Mount Pentelecon, the mountain that stands between Marathon and Athens.

There's a flashing from a mirror or a shield.

And it's clearly a prearranged signal that is being delivered from someone in Athens, a traitor in Athens, signaling out to the Persian admirals.

And nobody knows who it is.

Nobody will ever know who it is.

But it is evident that there is potential treachery afoot.

And so the Athenian generals say, well, we cannot pause here.

We can't rest on our laurels.

We've got to get moving.

And it's by now 10 o'clock in the morning.

The Athenians are obviously exhausted.

They're sweat soaked.

They're

wounded, covered in blood, but all of them are thinking about their families and homes back in Athens.

And so they decide we are going to have to march as fast as we can from Marathon and get back to Athens.

And there is, of course, a famous story that I'm sure most people will have heard that they send Pheidippides, the runner ahead of them, to run the 26 miles back to Athens.

And he gets there in record time and he proclaims, rejoice, we have won.