In the year 490 B.C.E., The Battle of Marathon was an important war between the greek city-states and the persian empire that has affected the future of western civilization. The war was caused due to the Greek cities of Ionian revolting against the persian, assisting the revolt was its neighbor, athens. This made king darius target athens in seek of revenge and control over all of the greek city-states. The result of the battle of marathon had unforeseen effects on greece, the greeks ‘ Golden Age’, centred in athens brought new forms of art, the foundation of philosophy and future philosophy, and the birth of democracy. It is hard to show how this particular event change the course of western civilization in one day but, if greeks wouldn’t have won, the western civilization may have not been what it is today.Long before the battle of the marathon, the Persian empire grew rapidly and started conquering many parts of Europe. As they gain ground and are unable to control their land, conquered states start to rebel due to lack of leadership. One of the rebelling region was Ionia in the year 499-493 BC. What truly sparked the battle of marathon was not due to the people of Ionian rebelling against the Persian, but was due to Athens assisting the Ionian. Although Athens helped out the people of Ionian, the Persian empire with its massive army soon put down the rebellion. However this angried King Darius and now in seek of revenge towards Athens and wanting all of Greece. In 490 B.C.E. Darius advanced towards Greek and on his way he captured Eretria and with his confidence he advanced towards Athens. The Persian army sailed to Attica under the advice of Hippias (overthrown tyrant of Athens ) sailed to the marathon bay 26 km north of Athens. When Athens received news about King Darius coming to invade, they sent a runner to Sparta seeking for help but, they knew that help couldn’t reach them in time. They made a fateful decision and decided to engage the Persian army in battle instead of defending the city. This was due to a few reasons, they were highly outnumbered and could not stand ground against the Persian army. Also for the past years during the Ionian Revolt, they have been defending the city instead of fighting in open ground, for that reasons Persians would not think that the Greeks would come and attack them straight on