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The battle of Marathon was won by the city-state of Athens, not the Greeks.

The Persians had arranged for the party of the ousted tyrant of Athens to open the gates of the city. They kept the Athenian army lurking in the hills for 10 days around the plain of Marathon to avoid the Persian cavalry. When the cavalry was loaded onto ships to be taken around the Sunion peninsula to land and gallop up to the gates which would be opened by pro-Persian traitors, the Athenians dashed down to the plain and defeaed the inferior Persian infantry, now without the decisive cavalry support of which the Athenians had been fearful.

After this victory, the Athenian army ran back over the hills the 26 miles (origin of today's marathon run!) to Athens in time to form up in front of the city as the Persian cavalry landed. The Persians went home.

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Q: Why did the Greeks win the battle of Marathon?
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