The Battle of Marathon: Free Audiobook and Listening Guide

The Battle of Marathon, credited to Elizabeth Barrett Browning, is available as a LibriVox volunteer audiobook. This guide identifies the recording, its source summary and its audio tracks.

About the work

The LibriVox catalogue summary, preserved with the recording, reads:

LibriVox recording of The Battle of Marathon by Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Read by Godsend. The Battle of Marathon is a rhymed, dramatic, narrative-poem by Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Written in 1820, it retells powerfully The Battle of Marathon: during which the Athenian state defeated the much larger invading force during the first Persian invasion of Greece. When Darius the Great orders his immense army march west to annex additional territories; no-one in the Persian court predicted that some fractious, independent Greek city-states stood any chance against the Persian super-power. And yet at Marathon in 490BC, Darius' plans received a decisive check in the brilliant Athenian offensive overseen by the aged but hardy Miltiades: who over-ran the Persian army just landed upon their coasts, cutting their opponents down to the last man. But some of the Greeks' enemies are more than mortal: Aphrodite herself swears vengeance upon them for the actions of their forebears in destroying her beloved Troy generations ago. - Can Miltiades continue successfully guiding his fellow Athenians to future greatness; when rival factions lead by Themistocles and Aristides grow only stronger day by day? - Can even Jove himself protect the Athenians he loves from the whimsical - but fatal - wiles of his daughter, the goddess of love? (Summary by Godsend)

Recording facts

• Recording title: The Battle of Marathon
• Author credits: Elizabeth Barrett Browning
• Language: English
• Original MP3 tracks: 4
• Listed recording duration: 1:54:19

Catalogue topics

• poetry
• Browning
• Greece
• epic poetry
• Athens
• Persian invasion

Track guide

1. Book 1 — 28:36
2. Book 2 — 28:33
3. Book 3 — 31:27
4. Book 4 — 26:35

Listen to this recording

Open the complete recording and player on Internet Archive. The player includes the full track list and available download formats.

Source and rights

This is a record from LibriVox's official Internet Archive collection, with a public-domain licence recorded in its metadata. LibriVox's policy includes its catalogue summaries as well as its recordings. Its public-domain assessment follows United States law; copyright status can differ elsewhere. The summary and track facts are reproduced and reformatted from that record. Dates attached to the archive upload are not treated as original book publication dates.