D yu knw what thse tw little letters vs. mean between Greece and Persia in the namef this stry？
Perhaps yu have seen them usedn ftball tickets when there was t be a match between tw teams as， fr example， Harvard vs. Yale.
They stand fr versus， which means against.
Well， there was t be a great match between Greece and Persia， but it wasn"t a game； it was a fight fr life and death， a fight between little Greece and great big Persia.
Cyrus， the great Persian king， had cnquered Babyln andther cuntries， as well， and he had keptn cnquering until Persia ruled mstf the wrld， all except Greece and Italy.
Abut the year 500 B.C. the new rulerf this vast Persian Empire was a man named Darius. Darius lked at the map， as yu might d， and saw that hewned and ruledver a large partf it. What a pity， thught he， that there shuld be a little cuntry like Greece that did nt belng t him！
Darius said t himself， "I must have this piecef land called Greece t cmplete my empire." Besides， the Greeks had given him sme truble. They had helped smef his subjects t rebel against him. Darius said， "I must punish these Greeks fr what they have dne and then just add their cuntry t mine."He called his sn-in-law and tld him t gver t Greece and cnquer it.
His sn-in-law did as he was tld and startedut with a fleet and an army t d the punishing. But befre his fleet culd reach Greece it was destryed by a strm， and he had t g back hme withut having dne anything.
Darius was very angry at this， mad with his sn-in-law and mad with the gds wh he thught had wrecked his ships， and he made up his mind that he himself wuld g and d the punishing and cnquering the next time.
First， hwever， he sent his messengers t all the Greek cities andrdered eachf them t send him sme earth and sme water as a sign that they wuld give him their land and becme his subjects peaceably withut a fight.
Many Greek cities were s frightened by the threatf Darius and by his mighty pwer that they gave in atnce and sent earth and water as they weretld t d.
But little Athens and little Sparta bth htly refused t d s， in spitef the fact that they werenly tw small cities against the vast empiref Darius.
Athens tk Darius"s messenger and threw him int a well， saying， "There is earth and water fr yu； help yurself"； and Sparta did likewise. Then these tw cities jined their frces and calledn all their neighbrs t jin with them t fight fr their native land against Darius and Persia.
Darius made ready t cnquer Athens and then Sparta.
Inrder t reach Athens his army had t be carried acrss the sea in bats.f curse， in thse days there were n steambats. Steambats were invented nearly tw thusand years later.
Thenly way t make a bat g was with sailsr withars. T make a large bat mve withars， it was necessary t have a great many rwers-three rwsne abve thethern each sidef the bat.
Such a bat was called a trireme， which means three rwsfars. It tk abut 600f these bats t carry Darius"s armyver t Greece. Eachf these 600 bats carried， besides the rwersr crew， abut 200 sldiers. Yu can see fr yurself hw many sldiers Darius had in this army， if there were 600 shipladsf them and 200 sldiersn each ship. Yes， that is an example inmultiplicatin-120，000 sldiers-that"s right.
The Persians sailed acrss the sea； and this time thereA trireme（一艘三列桨战船）was n strm， and they reached the shref Greece safely. They landedn a spt called the plainf Marathn， which wasnly abut twenty-six miles away frm Athens. Yu will see presently why I have tld yu just the numberf miles-twenty-six.
When the Athenians heard that the Persians were cming， they wanted t get Sparta t help in a hurry， as she had prmised t d.
Nw， there were n telegraphsr telephnesr railrads，f curse， in thse days. There was n way in which they culd send a message t Sparta except t have it carried by hand.
They calledn a famus runner named Pheidippides t carry the message. Pheidippides startedut and ran the whle way frm Athens t Sparta， abutne hundred and fifty miles， t carry the message. He ran night and day， hardly stpping at all t restr t eat， andn the secnd day he was in Sparta.
The Spartans， hwever， sent back wrd that they culdn"t start just then； the mn wasn"t full， and it was bad luck t start when the mn wasn"t full， as nwadays sme superstitius peple think it bad luck t startn a tripn Friday. They said they wuld cme after a while， when the mn was full.
The Athenians culdn"t wait fr the mn. They knew the Persians wuld be in Athens befre then， and they didn"t want them t get as far as that.
S all the fighting men in Athens left their city and went frth t meet thePersiansn the plainf Marathn-twenty-six miles away.
The Athenians were led by a man named Miltiades， and there werenly ten thusand sldiers. Besides these， there werene thusand mre frm a little nearby twn， which was friendly with Athens and wished t stand by her-eleven thusand in all. If yu figure itut， yu will see that there were perhaps ten times as many Persians as there were Greeks， ten Persian sldiers tne Greek sldier.
The Greeks， hwever， were trained athletes， as we knw， and their whle mannerf life made them physically fit. The Persians were n match fr them. In spitef the small numberf Greeks， the large numberf Persians were beaten， and beaten badly.f curse the Greeks were far better sldiers than the Persians， fr all their training made them s， but mre than all this， they were fighting fr themselves t save their hmes and their families.
Perhaps yu have heard the fablef the hund wh was chasing a hare. The hare escaped. The hund was made funf fr nt catching the little hare. T which the hund replied， "I wasnly running fr my supper； the hare was running fr his life."The Persian sldiers were nt fighting fr their hmesr families， which were away back acrss the sea； and it made little difference t them wh wn， anyway， fr mst were merely hirelingsr slaves； they were fighting fr a king because herdered them t.
The first marathn race（首届马拉松比赛）Naturally the Greeks wereverjyed at this victry.
Pheidippides， the famus runner， wh was nw at Marathn， startedff atnce t carry the jyful news back t Athens， twenty-six miles away. He ran the whle distance withut stpping fr breath. He had nt had time t rest up frm his lng run t Sparta， which he had takennly a few days befre， and s fast did he run this lng distance that as sn as he had reached Athens and gasped the news t the Athenians in the market-place he drpped dwn dead！
In hnrf this famus run， they have nwadays in the newlympic Games， what is called a Marathn race， in which the athletes run this same distance： twenty- six miles. This battlef Marathn tk place in 490 B.C. and isnef the mst famus battles in all histry， fr the great Persian army was beaten byne little city and its neighbr， and the Persians had t g back t their hmes in disgrace.
A little handfulf peple， wh gverned themselves， had defeated a great king with a large armyfnly hired sldiersr slaves.
But this was nt the last the Greeks were t seef the Persians.
【中文阅读】
你们知道这个故事的标题中那个放在"希腊"和"波斯"之间的"对"字表示 什么意思吗？
可能你在足球比赛的门票上见过吧？当两支球队比赛的时候，会用这个词，比 如说：哈佛 vs. 耶鲁。
"对"是"对抗"的简称，也就是"与……竞争"或"较量"的意思。
从前，希腊和波斯之间有一场重要的比赛，但不是赛场上的比赛，而是生与死 的较量，是弱小的希腊王国和强大的波斯帝国之间的一场战争。
伟大的波斯国王居鲁士，征服了巴比伦和其他一些国家后，继续向外征战，直 到波斯统治了世界上大部分地方，除了希腊和意大利。
在公元前 500 年左右，这个庞大波斯帝国的新任国王是个名叫大流士的人。一 天，大流士看着地图，就像你看地图一样，看他所拥有的疆域--地图上好大一片 都在他的统治之下，当他看到像希腊这么小的国家居然还不属于他，他觉得这是多 么令人遗憾啊。
大流士自言自语道："我必须拥有这块叫希腊的土地，使我的帝国更完整。"除了 这个原因之外，希腊人还总给他制造麻烦。他们帮助他的一些属国反叛他。大流士 说："我必须要惩罚希腊人，让他们为自己的所作所为付出代价，然后把他们的国家 纳入我波斯帝国的版图。"他把他的女婿招来，命令他远征希腊。 他的女婿奉命行事，带着一支舰队和一支军队出发去讨伐希腊。但是，他的舰队还没到达希腊，就被一场暴风雨摧毁了，他不得不无功而返。 大流士对此非常恼怒，对女婿大发脾气，也发泄了对诸神的不满，认为是他们毁掉了他的战舰，他下定决心准备下一次亲自率军讨伐并征服希腊。 不过，他先派了信使去希腊所有的城邦，命令各个城邦向他献上一点泥土和水，以此表明他们愿意把土地献给他，成为他的臣民，而不必大动干戈了。很多希腊城邦 都畏惧大流士的威胁和他的强权，所以，他们立即就按照他要求的那样献上泥土和水。
但是小小的雅典和斯巴达却非常反感，拒绝这么做，虽然它们只是两个很小的 城邦，而对抗的却是大流士庞大的帝国。
雅典抓住了大流士的信使，把他扔到了井里，说："那儿有给你的土和水，你自 己请便吧。"斯巴达也同样这么做了。于是，这两个城邦把他们的军队联合在一起， 并号召他们的邻邦也加入进来，为保卫自己的国土抵抗大流士和波斯。
大流士已经做好了相继征服雅典和斯巴达的准备。 要到达雅典，他的军队必须先乘船穿过大海。当然，那时候还没有蒸汽机动轮船，这种轮船差不多两千年以后才发明的。 当时，唯有帆和桨才能推动船前行。为了用桨推动一艘大船前行，必须有很多的桨手--船的每边从高到低各有三排桨。 这种船叫"三列桨战船"，就是说船上要装有三排桨。要载着大流士的军队越过大海来到希腊，需要大约六百艘这样的大型战船。六百艘战船的每一艘上除了桨手 和船员，还有大约两百名士兵。你们可以自己算算大流士的军队有多少士兵，如果 有六百艘装载士兵的战船，每艘战船上有两百名士兵。是啊，这就是一道乘法计算 题--一共有十二万个士兵--没错。
波斯人乘船穿过大海，这次没有遇到暴风雨，他们安全地到达希腊海岸。他们 在一个叫马拉松平原的地方登陆，离雅典只有大约 26 英里。马上你就明白，我为什 么告诉你们这个具体的英里数--26。
雅典人听说波斯人快要兵临城下，他们急需斯巴达人前来支援，对此斯巴达人有过承诺。
当然，那时候可没有电报、电话或铁路这些东西，所以，除了派人去斯巴达送 信，也没有别的办法了。
他们请求一个有名的长跑好手斐里庇得斯去送信。斐里庇得斯带着信立即动身， 从雅典一直跑到斯巴达，全程大约 150 英里。他不分昼夜地奔跑，几乎没有停下来 休息或吃东西，第二天，他就到了斯巴达。
然而，斯巴达人却回信说，他们此时还不能出发，因为月亮不够圆；如果不是 满月的时候就出发，会交噩运，就像如今有些迷信的人认为周五出门旅行会不吉利 一样。斯巴达人说等几天月亮圆了，他们就会来。
但是雅典人不可能等到月圆之时了。他们知道波斯人在月圆之前就会到达雅典， 而他们可不想波斯军队进展到那一步。
因此，雅典所有的战士离开他们的城市，前往 26 英里以外的马拉松平原迎战波 斯军队。
雅典人由一个名叫米太亚德的人做统帅，而他们仅有一万名士兵，除此以外， 还有来自附近一个小城邦的一千名士兵，这个小城邦和雅典很友好，愿意支持它对 抗波斯，这样一共有一万一千名战士。如果你算一算，就会知道波斯士兵大约是希 腊士兵的十倍，也就是说，十个波斯士兵对一个希腊士兵。
不过，我们知道，希腊人都是训练有素的运动员，他们整个的生活方式就是让 他们身强力壮。这一点波斯人可不是他们的对手。尽管希腊士兵的人数很少，人数 众多的波斯人却被打败了，而且是败得一塌糊涂。当然，希腊人相比波斯人来说， 是更优秀的士兵，因为他们长期的训练使他们英勇善战。但是除此以外，他们是为 自己而战，是为捍卫自己的家园和家庭而战。
或许，你听说过那个猎犬追赶野兔的寓言。野兔逃脱了。猎犬因为没有捉到那 只小小的野兔而受到取笑。对此，猎犬回答道："我只是为吃一顿晚餐而奔跑，野兔 却是为了保命而奔跑啊。"波斯的战士们不是为他们远在大海那边的家园和家人而战；不管怎样，对他们 而言谁赢了战争都没有什么关系，因为他们大部分人只是雇佣兵或奴隶；他们为国 王而战只是因为他命令他们这样做罢了。
希腊人当然为这次的胜利欣喜欲狂。 斐里庇得斯，那位著名的长跑运动员，当时就在马拉松平原，他立即出发要把令人喜悦的捷报带回 26 英里以外的雅典去。他没有停下来歇一口气就跑完了这 26 英里。仅仅几天前他长途奔跑去斯巴达，返回后还没有时间得到充分休息，而这次 这么长的距离他又跑得那么快，所以他刚跑到雅典，气喘吁吁地把消息告诉了正在 集市上的雅典人，就倒地身亡了。
为了纪念这次著名的长跑，现代奥林匹克运动会上有一个项目就叫马拉松赛跑， 在这个比赛中，运动员要跑同样的距离--26 英里。这场马拉松战役发生在公元前 490 年，也是世界历史上最著名的战役之一，因为强大的波斯军队被一个小小的城邦 和它的邻邦打败了，波斯人只得灰溜溜地回到自己的国家。
一个自治国家的极少数人打败了一个庞大帝国的国王率领的军队--一支全部 由雇佣兵和奴隶组成的军队。
但是，这并不是希腊人最后一次迎战波斯人。
公元前 490 年