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That battle of Marathon is quite interesting in several ways. THere was an Olympic runner who was a messenger for the Greek city states.
Before the battle, he was running back and forth between Athens, Sparta, Corinth and other places, carrying messages. Then when the battle between the Greeks and Persians culminated at a place called Marthon, he was sent off running to find the nature of the outcome.
Arriving at Marathon, he was delighted to find his Greeks were victorious, so he turned right around and ran the
25 miles back to Athens with the news.
The story says he announced the victory to the gathered people, then fell down dead. Incidently, that is where we derive our term "Marathon" from.
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