marathon [L19th] In 490 bc the Athenians won a victory over an invading Persian army at Marathon on the coast of Attica in eastern Greece. The Greek historian Herodotus described how the herald Pheidippides ran the 150 miles from Athens to Sparta to get help before the battle. According to a later tradition a messenger ran from Marathon to Athens, a distance of just over 26 miles (42 kilometres), with news of the victory, but fell dead on arrival. The first modern Olympic games in 1896 instituted the marathon as a long-distance race—fortunately, for competitors, based on the shorter version of the story.