After the junction of the column from Plataea, the Athenians
commanders must have had under them about eleven thousand fully-
armed and disciplined infantry, and probably a larger number of
irregular light-armed troops; as, besides the poorer citizens who
went to the field armed with javelins, cutlasses, and targets,
each regular heavy-armed soldier was attended in the camp by one
or more slaves, who were armed like the inferior freemen. [At
the battle of Plataea, eleven years after Marathon, each of the
eight thousand Athenian regular infantry who served there, was
attended by a light-armed slave. (Herod. lib. viii. c. 28,29.)]
Cavalry or archers the Athenians (on this occasion) had none:
and the use in the field of military engines was not at that
period introduced into ancient warfare.

Contrasted with their own scanty forces, the Greek commanders saw
stretched before them, along the shores of the winding bay, the
tents and shipping of the varied nations that marched to do the
bidding of the King of the Eastern world. The difficulty of
finding transports and of securing provisions would form the only
limit to the numbers of a Persian army. Nor is there any reason
to suppose the estimate of Justin exaggerated, who rates at a
hundred thousand the force which on this occasion had sailed,
under the satraps Datis and Artaphernes, from the Cilician
shores, against the devoted coasts of Euboea and Attica. And
after largely deducting from this total, so as to allow for mere
mariners and camp followers, there must still have remained
fearful odds against the national levies of the Athenians. Nor
could Greek generals then feel that confidence in the superior
quality of their troops which ever since the battle of Marathon