Ancient army numbers

[Sean Manning]

I seem to recall the Persians Did attempt to do just that..they were stopped.

No. Centuries after the battle, there were speculations that the Persians had been boarding the ships at the time of the battle (I think this is in the Suidas and Cornelius Nepos; its definitely in some 20th century historians). After the battle the Persians sailed to Athens, but the army at Marathon came back in time to stop them. All that Herodotus book 7 tells us is that the Athenians attacked with a line deep on the wings and thin on the center that was about as long as the Persian lines, that they encircled the Persian center after defeating the wings, and that the Persians escaped by sea losing seven ships and 6400 men.