Download The Persian King wanted revenge on Athens

Marathon Outline
4/12/2012 11:30:00 AM
There were many events that led up to the Battle of Marathon.
 There were many events that led up to the Battle of Marathon. For
one, Darius, the Persian King, wanted revenge on Athens because
the Athenians had burned one of his prize cities to help the Ionian
Greeks in their revolt against him. Ionia was at that time under
Persian control and the revolt failed.
 Darius also wanted control of the Mediterranean sea. Conquering
Greece would be very helpful in expanding his empire. “Control of
the Mediterranean Sea was extremely important and was the
reason for many wars in the times before and after the Persian
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Wars,” says Patty Schell Kuhlman, an amateur classicist who
studied Ancient Greek and Roman civilization, including, history,
languages and literature in the original languages.
The Persians sent envoys to the Greek city-states demanding “earth
and water” (meaning that the Greeks were to give up the rights to
all their land and the products of it). Most of the other Greek citystates caved in, knowing what the Persians had done to the Ionian
Greeks; the Ionian Greek’s cities were completely destroyed by the
Persians after they revolted. The Athenians and Spartans, however,
refused. The Athenians threw the envoys into a ravine used for
executing criminals, and the Spartans threw the second pair down a
well and told them to help themselves to all the earth and water
they wanted. Because the Athenians had angered him more than
the Spartans, decided to attack them first. But before the Persians
attempted to attack Athens, they also trashed Eretria, a city that
had helped burn Sardis (one of Darius’ prize cities, as mentioned
above) with Athens. The Eretrians put up a strong fight, but were
beaten in the end.
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When the Athenians heard that the Persians were coming, they
quickly mobilized all their troops to meet the Persians in battle.
Their force amounted to about had 10,000 hoplites and about the
same number of freemen who couldn’t afford hoplite armor. They
also had a similar number of slaves.
The Athenian’s exiled tyrant, Hippias, had run to Persia for revenge
against Athens because he hoped to regain his kingdom. Darius
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agreed to set him back up as ruler of Athens once he conquered it.
Darius didn’t care what regime was set up in the conquered land, as
long as the people obeyed him. In return, Hippias told Darius the
perfect place for a Persian attack, the plain/beach of Marathon.
So the Athenians marched to Marathon, where they were joined by
the 1,000 hoplites and their entourage from the small city-state of
Platea. The Plateans amounted to about 3,000 men altogether
including their hoplites.
When the Athenians and Plateans set up camp at Marathon, they
noticed the Persian camp on the beach and saw with their own eyes
the size and magnificence of the Persian army. The camp was about
100,000 men strong, with about 60,000 actual soldiers. The rest
were mariners or camp followers.
Sparta was the most militarily powerful city-state in Greece. The
Athenians sent a runner, named Pheidippides to ask for help.
Pheidippides ran the 150 to 160 miles between Athens and Sparta
in two days. When he reached Sparta, he delivered his message.
Said Pheidippides to the Spartans, "Men of Sparta, the Athenians
ask you to help them, and not to stand by while the most ancient
city of Greece is crushed and subdued by a foreign invader; for
even now Eretria has been enslaved, and Greece is the weaker by
the loss of one fine city." The Spartans said they would be glad to
help, but they were having a religious festival and could not march
until the full moon, which was about one week away. Why did the
Greeks use runners? The Greeks generally used runners to deliver
messages instead of horsemen due to the mountainous terrain of
Greece. There were many kinds of runners, including Pheidippides,
who was a day runner, someone who could run all day long without
stopping.
The Battle of Marathon began.
 The Greeks were in a very strong position if the Persians attacked.
The Perisans, knowing this, did not attack, and the two armies
stared each other down. After facing each the Perisans in a nervous
standoff for a couple of days, the ten Athenian generals and the
polemarch, Camillimachus voted not to wait for the promised
Spartan reinforcements, but to fight immediately. It was a tough
vote, though. It was five to five when Miltiades (who was for
fighting) talked to Camillimachus and Camillimachus broke the tie
and voted to fight. So, the Athenians went into battle against the
Persians, and Miltiades was given command of the army.
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The Greek’s battle tactics were quite different from the Persians.
The Greeks were trained for phalanx-to-phalanx combat, where
most of both side’s spears would shatter on first contact. The
Persian’s battle tactics involved having the Persian archers pour
thousands of arrows into the enemy as they advanced, and by the
time the enemy got close enough to fight hand-to-hand. The idea
was that the Greeks would only be a shattered remnant of the force
that had attacked, and then the Persian light skirmisher troops and
cavalry would rush in to finish them off. The cavalry, however, were
on a ship traveling to Athens. While the Athenians debated, the
Persian commander, Datis, had decided to break the deadlock by
loading all of his cavalry and some of his infantry onto his ships and
leaving his most trusted general, Artiphernes, with a holding force
of about 12,000 men. Then Datis sailed around to attack an
undefended Athens.
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The Persian general at Marathon, Artiphernes, put his best troops in
the center of his army. The Persian army did not share a language
though, which made communication hard.
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In order not to be outflanked (surrounded) by the much vaster
Persian army, Miltiades thinned out his phalanxes (Greek battle
formation) in the center, so that it was four men deep instead of
the customary eight. On his flanks, however, he kept the eight
strong regular phalanxes. His troops then marched toward the
Persians. The Greeks countered the Persian tactics by breaking into
a run as soon as they got within arrow range, (about 300 yards
away from the Persians).
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As the Greeks attacked, the Persians sent arrows flying, but due to
the Greeks coming in at a run, most of them mistimed their shots
and most of their arrows flew harmlessly over the Greeks. The
Persians were astounded. The nature of the phalanx stated that it
usually went into battle at a sedate pace. Surely the Greeks would
be exhausted before they even got close enough to fight. However,
the Greeks had trained for this. There was actually an event in the
Olympics called the race in armor. Contestants would put on a suit
of full Greek armor and race each other around a track very fast.
There was a British historian who built himself a suit of hoplite
armor, went to Marathon, and ran the distance the Greeks ran to
prove that it was humanly possible.
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When the Greeks reached the Persian battle line, they massacred
the lightly armed Persian skirmisher troops. The Persian archers still
poured arrows into the Greek troops, but they were now so closely
packed with the Persian troops that the archers were bound to hit
their own soldiers.
In Herodotus’s Histories, Herodotus wrote about that first contact:
“The enemy directly in their path ... realized to their horror that
[the Athenians], far from providing the easy pickings for their
bowmen, as they had first imagined, were not going to be halted ...
The impact was devastating. The Athenians had honed their style of
fighting in combat with other phalanxes, wooden shields smashing
against wooden shields, iron spear tips clattering against
breastplates of bronze ... in those first terrible seconds of collision,
there was nothing but a pulverizing crash of metal into flesh and
bone; then the rolling of the Athenian tide over men wearing, at
most, quilted jerkins for protection, and armed, perhaps, with
nothing more than bows or slings. The hoplites' ash spears, rather
than shivering ... could instead stab and stab again, and those of
the enemy who avoided their fearful jabbing might easily be
crushed to death beneath the sheer weight of the advancing men of
bronze.”
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The strong Greek phalanxes on the wings (each side of the Greek
line) easily beat back the weaker Persian flanks (the fighters on
each side) and finally routed them. However, they had no time to
congratulate themselves. The strong Persian center was pushing
back the much weaker Greek center. “Tactics were not so important
in those days. It was more just the guts to stand… shoulder to
shoulder with your mates… and carry on the fight.”-Steven
Pressfield, author of “The Virtues of War”
Each phalanx moved as one unit and could easily turn and march
without becoming disorganized. Thus, the stronger phalanxes used
this strength to immediately turn around and attack the Persian
center from behind. “And then that whole center of the Persian
army became essentially a killing zone.”-Richard Billows, Ph.D. a
Greek history professor at Columbia University
The Persians were now surrounded and were hurling themselves at
the Greek phalanxes, trying to find a way to break through. But
they couldn’t and finally broke and ran in all directions. The
Persians were unaware of the local terrain and unknown numbers
ran into the swamps surrounding Marathon and drowned.
The Greeks chased the routing Persians to their ships and
succeeded in disabling four of the ships. Most of the Persian ships
got away, though, and sailed for Athens to meet their Commander’s
fleet.
The Greeks collapsed with exhaustion on the beach. They had little
time to rest, though. It had taken them only three hours to defeat
the Persians at Marathon, but that whole time Datis had been
sailing closer toward Athens. Miltiades ordered his troops to Athens,
a forced march of 22 miles (in full armor and summer heat).
They managed to get to Athens before Datis and formed up on the
shore just as the Persian sails appeared over the horizon. When the
Persians saw the Athenians on the beach, they sailed away. “When
they saw those Athenians waiting for them, they just didn’t have
the heart to have another go at these guys who had just inflicted
this disastrous defeat on them.” Richard Billows. Athens was saved!
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Supposedly, the Miltiades sent a runner ahead with news of victory.
According to legend, it was Pheidippides again. When he reached
Athens, a huge crowd was gathered. He shouted, “Rejoice! We
have won.” Then he fell to the ground dead from exhaustion. His
run to Athens was most likely a myth though due to the way that
stories get mangled as they get passed down.
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The aftermath of the Battle of Marathon:
 The Spartans turned up late and missed the battle, but they were
curious to see what a Persian soldier looked like. They marched to
Marathon and inspected the dead. “They say that the Spartans were
sort of like sightseers, toured the battle afterwards and that they
were pretty shaken up to see what great work their rival [Athens]
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had done. I think it really did eat at the Spartans’ guts, that these
foppish Athenians had polished off the Persians.”-Pressfield
The battle of marathon was significant in other reasons, not just
the importance of Athens in Western Civilization. “If the Persians
had won the battle [of Marathon] and had occupied Athens, they
would then have had a basis in mainland Greece for further
campaigns, and that might well have changed the course of
history.”-Hans Van Wees, University College, London
o The battle also had significance in the history of military
strategy. “Marathon was a true battle. A real battle that was
decisive, and that threw back an invading enemy.”-Pressfield
The Western Way of War, supposedly, is 5 principles that first
became obvious at Marathon:
The use of superior technology to compensate for superior
numbers.
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The exaltation of discipline, which turns individuals into organized
units capable of unified action and sustaining horrendous levels of
punishment
An aggressive military tradition that seeks decisive battle.
The ability to change, adapt, and innovate over time as required by
changing circumstances.
The creation of dynamic financial systems able to accommodate the
expense of this type of technologically intensive and highly
destructive warfare.
The battle of marathon was a great victory for Greece. “The fame of
Marathon is in my view, imperishable. It was an extraordinary
victory. But for Marathon, you wouldn’t then have had the ensuing
civilization of the Greeks.”-Paul Cartledge, a professor of Greek
culture at Cambridge University
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“The fact that the Greeks won the Persian Wars was a decisive
turning point in world history. Much of how we think and what kind
of government we have in the Western world (Europe and then the
United States and South America) came to us from the ideas of the
Greeks.” -PK
o Democracy was given a chance to evolve
 The Athenians called democracy democratia. We now
call it democracy.
“Herodutus’s Histories” provide most of our information
o How do we know it happened the way it says in the books?
“We don’t really. There is archaeological evidence of a tomb
at Marathon and of other things the Greeks wrote about. We
only know that Herodotus was serious about trying to
separate myth from what really happened and that he was
writing the story as he had heard it about 50 years after it
had happened. I have read Herodotus and he tries to tell you
who he talked to or how he found out the story he is telling…
So, I tend to feel Herodotus’s story is at least close to what
really happened.” - PK
o “Herodotus is called the “Father of Lies” as often as he is
called the “Father of History”” –Jim Lacey
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This is due to the fact that Herodotus read his stories to
the Athenians for pay, and he was paid depending on
how much he made the Athenians look good, so if
something embarrassing happened to Athens, he would
leave it out of his accounts.
 “Herodotus’ account of the battle is the earliest
one we have and yet present historians will tell
you that his story is probably inexact and already
included the way in which the story had changed
in the fifty years since the battle happened.” -PK
o “It is important to explain how we know about the Battle of
Marathon from Herodotus who was recording what he heard
from others and not what he saw with his own eyes. This
helps us think about history and how stories are passed
along. I would like to read what the Persians wrote about the
battle, but I am not sure anything survives.” - PK
Pheidippides’ run is remembered at every Olympics and when
ordinary people run the marathon.