Somehow, I still don't feel comfortable with it. The past progressive expresses an ongoing action in the past. "Have continued" doesn't express that the action had stopped by the time the people of Athens arrived. It seems to imply that the fight continued after the people's arrival.
Not picking at your suggestion, just saying it still doesn't seem to express the same thing to me.
Maybe "had fought" could express the same past action though without exactly the same sense?
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