Two thousand three hundred and forty years ago, a council of
Athenian officers was summoned on the slope of one of the
mountains that look over the plain of Marathon, on the eastern
coast of Attica. The immediate subject of their meeting was to
consider whether they should give battle to an enemy that lay
encamped on the shore beneath them; but on the result of their
deliberations depended not merely the fate of two armies, but the
whole future progress of human civilization.

There were eleven members of that council of war. Ten were the
generals, who were then annually elected at Athens, one for each
of the local tribes into which the Athenians were divided. Each
general led the men of his own tribe, and each was invested with
equal military authority. One also of the Archons was associated
with them in the joint command of the collective force. This
magistrate was termed the Polemarch or War-Ruler: he had the
privilege of leading the right wing of the army in battle, and of
taking part in all councils of war. A noble Athenian, named
Callimachus, was the War-Ruler of this year; and as such, stood
listening to the earnest discussion of the ten generals. They
had, indeed, deep matter for anxiety, though little aware how
momentous to mankind were the votes they were about to give, or
how the generations to come would read with interest that record
of their debate. They saw before them the invading forces of a
mighty empire, which had in the last fifty years shattered and
enslaved nearly all the kingdoms and principalities of the then
known world. They knew that all the resources of their own
country were comprised in the little army entrusted to their
guidance. They saw before them a chosen host of the Great King
sent to wreak his special wrath on that country, and on the other