The Battle of Marathon was a stroke of Greek military genius and saved Western Culture as we know it. The Battle of Marathon was a conflict on the Aegean Peninsula during the Classical Greek Period between the Greek force - comprised mostly of Athenians among others - and the Persian military. The Greek force used a new infantry strategy devised by their commanders, Callimachus and Miltiades, and used the terrain to their advantage to decisively win the military battle. Greek culture would have been amalgamated with the Middle-Eastern and Mediterranean culture of the Persians had the Greek army fallen. Greek culture is very important to our current Western Culture; our American lives would be different had the Greeks lost this battle back in …show more content…
The dispatch sent to conquer Athens included 12,000-15,000 infantry and 1000 cavalry with about 5,000 more troops sailing nearby, and the Greek army had about 10,000 Athenians and about 1,000 Plataeans. The Athenians were the second most militarily powerful city state after the belligerent Sparta. At the time of the battle at Marathon however, the Spartans were unable to aid due to a religious ceremony forbidding warfare. The Persians landed and made camp on the beach of the Bay of Marathon while the Greeks were encamped at the top of the large hill overlooking the bay. In summary, the Persians had the advantage of numbers and unanswered cavalry, but the Greeks had the positional advantage. This led to an awkward standoff. “The Greeks unwilling to abandon the safety of their position and the Persians unwilling to attack it” (Davis …show more content…
Pan questioned him why the Athenians neglected him in their sacrifices and promised to aid them soon if the reformed their worship. Pan is known to have inspired a mindless, frenzied fear in his opponents, called panic. The panic and routing in the Persian ranks was necessary to the victory of the Athenians. Pan held up his end of the bargain. After the battle the Persians sailed to Athens in an attempt to capture the city and punish the Athenians for leaving it without a garrison. In another stroke of military genius, the Athenian troops foresaw the Persians plan and marched the marched 26.2 miles back to their city in two days. This example of nationalistic pride shows the Athenians determination. After arriving at Athens and finding the army that had just defeated them, the remainder of the Persian military sailed home, ending the first Persian campaign in
Sparta was not going to let itself being conquered or their freedom being taken away. Some battles that Spartans were known for were Thermopylae and Plataea in the 5th century BC. The battle of Thermopylae was the first battle between the Persians and the Greeks; the Persian army was vast compared to the small Greek and Spartan armies. Persian King Xerxes had already the Thessalains in the Persian side but the rest of the Greek city-states banded together and put Sparta in charge of the Greek army. The Greeks had to defend a narrow pass that could lead the Persians into Greece from the North, this pass was called Thermopylae.
Ten years after the defeat at Marathon, Darius’ son, Xerxes, launched a second invasion of Greece. The invasion had about 200,000 soldiers. The relatively small Greek force led by the Spartan king. ★★Leonidas numbers only 7,000 soldiers including 300 Spartans. ★
General Mardonius annexed Macedonia and two years later, Datis and Artaphernes were sent out on a naval expedition to conquer the Aegean islands. After finishing this campaign, they were supposed to bring back Hippias, the former tyrant of Athens, who would set up a pro-Persian regime. The campaign started without serious problems and soon, the islands of the Aegean Sea were subdued. To celebrate this success, the Persians sacrificed at Delos, maybe because they identified the god Apollo with their own Ahuramazda.
This is because Athens were better at commanding a successful naval battle, in a way the Spartans never could. Without Themistocles persuasion in his speech, echoing the words of Miltiades from the Battle of Marathon, ‘This is your chance to save Greece’, they would not have been able to afford the ‘heavy ships’ that worked as battering rams against the Persians lighter ships. Therefore, the Spartans do not deserve as much credit as the Athenians as the Athenians could still have won the battle of Salamis without Spartan aid. However, Herodotus claims that in Themistocles speech ot the allies, he states, ‘their land forces will keep pace with the fleet’. This acknowledges the fact that Themistocles, and in turn Athens, knew that this would not be the end of the battle.
Although Pericles’ words strived to inspire and encourage the Athenian people to fight valiantly against Sparta and its allies, they are not enough to embolden the Athenian people onto victory in the Peloponnesian War. His words do motivate Athenians to make tremendous effort in extending their power and defeating Sparta and its allies, but in the end, may have lead to Athenians’ demise. Fostering pride and determination throughout the war, Athens makes several attempts to expand its naval power, but fails in its plan to overtake Syracuse on the coast of Sicily, weakening its efforts against Sparta and its allied city-states. Finally, in the naval battle at Aegospotami, the Spartans have a decisive victory over Athens, and the Athenians eventually surrender, ending the Peloponnesian War.
After reading the epic poem, “The Odyssey” by Homer, I noticed that Odysseus displays the elements of an ancient Greek hero. It is very common to see that ancient Greek culture strongly value a variety of attributes or forces. Three important traits that the Greek merit are: competition, retribution, and courage. Competition is a highly perceived trait in Greek culture. Penelope created a task that no man besides Odysseus can accomplish.
If the Spartans would have continued to fear the large, highly trained Persian army, they would have been demolished, and not even have stood a chance at defending
As we had read in the assignment titled ‘Boundless World History’, “Democracy in Athens was overthrown in 411 BCE because of its poor handling of the Peloponnesian War.” Athens and Sparta had engaged in the Peloponnesian War that was between 404 and 431 BCE. In ancient Greece, Athens and Sparta were two of the most important city-states. According to most historians, the Peloponnesian War battle, which was supposed to have almost consumed the entire Greek world, was the most important battle of its time. Since Sparta won and Athens ultimately lost the Peloponnesian War, it can be stated that Athens was unable to accomplish the Peloponnesian War successfully.
Since Athens navy was getting all the recognition for the win, Athens got lots of money from other greek city-states to protect them. This sparked a flare in other city-states like sparta. That all created the Peloponnesian war and Athens downfall. It 's hard to believe, but winning the persian war really made one of greece’s biggest city-states have a giant downfall. Everything good that greece did turned out bad in the
In Isocrates Address to Philip of Macedonia, he found “that on no other condition could Athens remain at peace, unless the greatest states of Hellas should resolve to put an end to their mutual quarrels and carry the war beyond our borders into Asia...to wrest from the barbarians the advantages which they now think it proper to get for themselves at the expense of the Hellenes” (Isocrates). The barbaric, omnipresent influence of the Persians, which Isocrates and the rest of the Greek world felt was truly responsible for their misfortunes was quickly recognized by Philip as an fruitful opportunity for magnifying his power and authority over Greek affairs. The motivation to punish the Persians for the glory of Greece was not the ultimate goal of Philip as stated by the historian Polybius who perceived that Philip “reckoned on the cowardice and indolence of the Persians…further fixing his eyes on the splendor of the great prizes which the war promised… seizing on the pretext that it was his urgent duty to take vengeance on the Persians for the injurious treatment of the Greeks” (qtd. in Fredericksmeyers). The Persian characterization was powerful in conjuring intense emotions among both Macedonians and Greeks, creating an avenue for
Two important individuals that had a large impact on the results of the Persian War, were Leonidas and Themistocles. Leonidas was an important individual in the battle of Thermopylae, as his decision to stay behind delayed the Persian army. Themistocles played a crucial role in the naval battles of Artemisium and Salamis, as his stratagems helped defeat the Persian navy. The outcomes of these battles, which were determined by the leaders preparation and strategic decisions, had both short term and long term effects. Better lead in needed Leonidas determined the outcome of the battle of Thermopylae with his decision to stay behind while the others retreated, by doing this he saved many lives.
Ancient Sparta has often been referred to as one of the most dominant military forces in history. During Sparta’s time of dominance, Spartan forces employed tactics of intimidation and sovereignty. Spartan soldiers dedicated their lives to training and preparing for battle, enabling them to create a fierce, dominant military. Sparta used their military for both protection and conquering, maintaining a stable economy and civilization. The Spartan military was able to dominate for so long because of superior military tactics, extensive training and discipline and advanced weaponry and armor, and intimidation and help from the gods.
The Persians have a vastly bigger army than the Greeks do. According to Herodotus’ estimation, there were three hundred thousand Greeks fighting the 5,283,220 soldiers brought by Xerxes. (7.184&186) An army of that size can seize almost any land they want.
Throughout history, there has been many battles in which two large and powerful empires fought to maintain land, fought over religion, or to gain an abundance of resources. These empires, the Greek and the Persian, were hostile towards each other at the time. Although these empires were quite similar, they were near direct opposites at the time.
Webb’s “Depth of Knowledge” Levels Homework #18: DOK Level 1 – Question: Who were the Spartans? The Spartans were basically the soldiers of the Ancient Greek city-state, Sparta. The Spartans devoted all their time to the military, partaking in military training, hunting and war battles. They lived a frugal lifestyle and without any luxuries. They were taught to be brave and courageous at a very young age, soon evolving into soldiers for the military.