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Published online 19 July 2004 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news040719-1
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Battle of Marathon date revised
Victory messenger may have run in fatal August heat.
Astronomical detective work has revealed that the commonly accepted date of the Battle of Marathon may be wrong.
The 490 BC battle, in which the Athenian army defeated an invading band of Persians at the seaside plain of Marathon, was the first time that the Greeks had bested the Persians on land.
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