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Marathon Outline 4/4/2012 1:10:00 PM The Persian King wanted revenge on Athens and control of the Mediterranean sea Because they burned one of his prize cities For control of the Mediterranean Sea “Control of the Mediterranean Sea was extremely important and was the reason for many wars in the times before and after the Persian Wars.” Right before the battle of Marathon happened When the Athenians heard that the Persians were coming, they quickly mobilized all their troops, about 10,000 hoplites and about the same amount of freemen who couldn’t afford hoplite armor and a similar number of slaves, and marched to the plain/beach of Marathon, where they were joined by the 1,000 hoplites and their entourage (about 3,000 men altogether including the hoplites) of the small city-state of Platea. o The Athenian’s exiled tyrant, Hippias, had run to Persia for revenge against Athens (He hoped to regain his kingdom). Darius agreed to set him back up as tyrant of Athens once he conquered it. (Darius didn’t care what regime was set up in conquered land, as long as they obeyed him) In return, Hippias told When the Athenians and Plateans got to Marathon, they noticed the Persian camp on the beach and saw with their own eyes the size and magnificence of the Persian army. It was about 1,00,000 strong, with about 60,000 actual soldiers. The rest were mariners or camp followers. o The Athenian’s exiled tyrant, Hippias, had run to Persia for revenge against Athens (He hoped to regain his kingdom). Darius agreed to set him back up as tyrant of Athens once he conquered it. (Darius didn’t care what regime was set up in conquered land, as long as they obeyed him) In return, Hippias told Darius the perfect place for the Persian tactics, especially the cavalry. The plain/beach of Marathon. 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. The Greeks were in a very strong position if the Persians attacked, but the Perisans, knowing this, did not attack, and since they had a supply problem, the Persian commander, Datis, loaded all of his cavalry and some of infantry onto his ships and left his most trusted general, Artiphernes, with a holding force of about ???10,000 men??? Then Datis sailed around to attack an undefended Athens. Sparta, the most militarily powerful city-state in Greece. 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. o Why 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. “Herodutus’s Histories” provide most of our information o “Herodotus was called the “Father of Lies” as often as he is called the “Father of History”” 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.” Plutarch also wrote ??????in the years after the battle and may even have met some veterans?????? 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.” “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.” The battle happened After facing each other in a nervous standoff for a couple of days, the ten Athenian generals (not a very good choice, having ten generals) and the polemarch, Camillimachus (who was the real hero at Marathon, even though he was killed in the fighting) voted whether to wait for the promised Spartan reinforcements of to fight now. It was five to five when Miltiades (who was for fighting) talked to Camillimachus and Camillimachus voted for fighting. So the Athenians went into battle against the Persians, and Miltiades was given command of the army. In order not to be outflanked (surrounded) by the much vaster Persian army, Miltiades thinned out the phalanxes (Greek battle formation) in the center, so that it was four men deep instead of the customary 8. On his flanks, however, he kept the 8 strong regular phalanx. He then marched toward the Persians. o The Persian’s battle tactics were to have 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-tohand, they 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. o The Greek’s battle tactics were quite different. They were trained for phalanx-to-phalanx combat, where most of both side’s spears would shatter on first contact. The Greeks countered the Persian tactics by, as soon as they got within arrow range, (about 200 yards away from the Persians) breaking into a run. The archers opened fire, 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. Surely the Greeks would be exhausted before they even got close enough to fight. o 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. When the Greeks reached the Per Effect Democracy was given a chance to evolve “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.” His run to Athens was most likely a myth