The Stele of the Marathonomachoi (or ‘Stele of Loukou’)

The ‘stele of the Marathonomachoi’ was found in 1999 in Herodes Atticus’ villa at Eua-Loukou, in the eastern Peloponnese. Dated on palaeographical grounds to the time of the Persian wars and attributed to the tomb of the Marathonomachoi on the battlefield, it has been alternatively dated shortly after 490, or during the ’70s. Developing some arguments which I have already discussed in previous articles, I here explore the possibility that the stele was originally inscribed with the casualty list of the Erechtheid tribe, while the epigram was added some time after 480-479. The stele would therefore represent two different phases of the historical memory of the Marathon battle.