Analysis: Battle At Marathon

The first battle of the Persian War, the Battle of Marathon, took place in 490 BC. King Darius sent troops to Greece which stopped at each Greek island along the way demanding "earth and water," which both literally and symbolically represented submission to the Persian empire. The Battle of Marathon exemplifies the heroic action of the Greeks. The Athenians, led by one of their ten generals, Miltiades, unflinchingly faced the Persians, an army over twice the size of theirs, and triumphed. The Athenians won the Battle of Marathon because they employed superior military strategy. There are some discrepancies, however, between different literary sources about how the Greeks fought the Battle of Marathon. For instance, Herodotus claims that the ten Athenian generals could not decide whether to go into battle. He writes that Miltiades talked the other generals into fighting. Herodotus writes that they waited for days for Miltiades to lead the army, and then they went into battle (Hdt. 6.110-111.2). According to Nancy Demand, however, Herodotus, unaware of the right of the polemarch to make all final decisions, wrote that Miltiades decided when to lead the men into battle, because the longer they delayed the battle, the better chance the Athenians had that the Spartans would make it in time to help. Regardless of any conflict between sources, the heroism of the Athenians cannot be denied. Marathon represents "the victory of a small contingent of men fighting

The victory that sealed the deal for the Greeks was the Battle of Plataea. It took place the following spring after the Persian general Mardonius wintered in Thessaly with the Persian army. Hoplites from Athens and Pelopennesia combined to make the largest army in Greek history. A Spartan king, Pausanias, who routed the Persian army and killed their general, led them.

Sparta was also a contributor to the defeat of the Persians. They were renowned for their great military strength and discipline on land. This gave fear to everyone who was facing the Spartans. In the battle at Marathon, the Persians had to attack soon, knowing that if they didn?t, the superior Spartan warriors would arrive. This fear forced the Persians to hurry their operations, which was why the cavalry was sent off by ships to attack Athens and allowed the Athenians to win at Marathon. The battle at Thermopylae was also another contribution to the war. The Spartans, along with the other Greeks were able to hold off the Persians, but when the enemy found a secret passage around the mountain, many of the Greeks retreated, except for the

The reasons for the Greek victory against the Persians in 490 to 480/479 BC was a mixture of exceptional leadership, skilful tactics and strategy, superior weapons and soldiers, and Greek unity. Strong leadership was the most important aspect of the Greek defence, as without the intelligence and bravery of the leaders, the Greeks would have been easily defeated. As a result of the excellent leadership; Greek tactics, strategy, and unity were greatly strengthened. Combined with their better weapons and soldiers, the Greeks held the advantage and seized opportunities at the perfect moment. Also, with each

The Persian Wars were a series of conflicts fought between the Greek states and the Persian Empire from 500-449 BC. It started in 500 BC, when a few Greek city-states on the coast of Asia Minor, who were under the control of the Persian Empire, revolted against the despotic rule of the Persian king Darius. Athens and Eretria in Euboea gave aid to these Greek cities but not enough, and they were subdued by the Persians. The Persians became determined to conquer Hellas and make Athens and Eretria pay for helping the Ionian cities. In 492 BC, the first Persian invasion had its fleet crippled by a storm before it could do any damage. King Darius sent another Persian expedition in 490 which destroyed

The Persian Wars were a series of destructive and malevolent battles which occurred in the time frame of 490B.C and 480 – 479B.C. The Greek victory over the Persians in the Persian Wars cannot be attributed to only one factor, more it was a commixture of factors. Such factors include unity, leadership, strategy, tactics and the pre-eminence of the Greek soldier. Each contributing factor was to play a distinctive and pivotal role in the various battles to come, which ultimately would lead to the subsequent demise of the Persians.

The Persians wanted to conquer the Greeks after the Greeks were allies to Aristogoras. Darius, the king of Persia, started to send agents to determine any potential allies in the Greek city-states. They found Argos and supplied the with men and money to get the job done. They failed as Spartans sliced and diced every soldier, as shown in the movie “300.” Spartans always came out on top due to their aggressive and “perfect” military. Athens had their entire fleet destroyed and were controlled by Sparta from there on

The colonies had the same form of government and religious traditions as the original metropolis. However, there were no political ties between the metropolis and the apoikia, resulting in political independence. In the 8th century B.C., when colonization first occurred, the locations of the colonies reflected the trading outposts on the coast of the land; the colonies were in those locations in order to secure and control the trade routes. Consequently, the Greeks frequently came into contact with other groups of people who would pass through these trades post, connecting them with other resources. As the Greeks expanded from the western direction, another power was expanding to the same place from the eastern direction. The Greek colonies located in Asia Minor were overtaken by the Persian Empire under the rule of King Darius. In the early 5th century B.C., the Ionian Greeks intended to revolt against the unwanted Persian rule. As they revolt against the Persians, they get help from Athens, “Once persuaded to accede to Aristagoras’ appeal, the Athenians passed a decree for the dispatch of twenty ships to Ionia…These ships were the beginning of evils for Greeks and barbarians” (Herodotus, 5.97). Because Athens helps her former colonies revolt against the tyrants appointed by Persia, Persia seeks revenge against Athens. The rapid colonization of the areas outside of mainland Greece, particularly to Asia Minor, created an inevitable conflict between the Greeks and the

In 646 BC the Persian armies, led by Cyrus, conquered the Greek city-state of Ionia, in Asia Minor. Despite the mildness of Persian rule, the Ionians did not like their conquerors. The Persians seemed barbaric to the cultured Ionians. The main objection to

The Persian Wars had started making an appearance in 492-449 BCE When king Xerxes wanted more ruling areas. To do this the Persians needed to conquer the Greek states, their first target was Mainland Greece which affected Athens severely. To defend against the Persians, Athens called upon Sparta to help team against the Persian invaders. Instead of Sparta arriving to help fight alongside Athens, they had been celebrating a religious festival. Although Sparta didn’t arrive Athens did win a decisive battle, losing only 192 men to Persia’s 6,400.

The Persian Wars (499-479 BC) put the Greeks in the difficult position of having to defend their country against a vast empire with an army that greatly outnumbered

In 480 BC, when the Persian horde, estimated by some historians to range from 300,000 to 1.7 million soldiers, landed on the shores of Thermopylae, the Persian King Xerxes sent emissaries to the leaders of the Greek city-states demanding their surrender and patronage to the Persian Empire (Frye, 2006). Despite the massive threat that was encamped on the shores off the Gulf of Maliakos in small town known as Trachis, the Greeks refused. Sparta, known for their superior military might, were chosen by the Greek leaders to lead a coalition of Greek warriors to defend their homeland from the invading Persian army (Frye, 2006).

The First Persian War took place at the Battle of the Marathon near Athens and it was known as one of the infamous battle between the Athenians and the Persians. In 501 B.C.E., a Greek tyrant named Aristogorus provoked the Persian rulers by instigating an uprising in Miletus and Ionia to revolt against the Persian Empire. In order to ward off the Persian Empire’s wrath, Aristogorus reached out to his compatriots on the mainland in Greece of Athens and Sparta. “Sparta refused, but Athens sent twenty ships-enough just to anger the Persians, but not to save Miletus.” Nevertheless, the Athenians conquered the Persian’s capital of Lydian in Sardis in order to steal the golds, but they accidentally ended up burning down the richest capital of Sardis.

The battle of Thermopylae was the Greek’s first stand against the massive army of King Xerxes, and was the most influential battle of the entire war. Up to this point, the Persian army was seen as too massive and powerful to be stopped. The once warring city-states of Greece knew they couldn’t stand against the Persians alone, and knew in order to defend their homeland they would have to unite. A unity of command was agreed upon; King Leonidas of Sparta was chosen to lead the Greek forces. He was chosen to lead because of the unsurpassed warring abilities the Spartans were so well known for made him perfect for the objective of stopping the Persians.

“THIS IS SPARTA” a famous quote from the movie 300 (2006) about the ferocious battles of the Greco Persian wars across the western Mediterranean. Persia was the dominant empire of this time because of conquering and expanding borders. They had the largest army of the time with around 700,000-800,000 soldiers. Sparta on the other hand was a smaller still powerful city state with highly trained Military personnel. I think there are many minor differences that alter and change the way you see the battle.