Battle of Marathon: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 02:43, 14 July 2005

Revision as of 02:52, 14 July 2005

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On the ninth day it became known to the Athenians that Eretria had fallen by treachery. This meant that Artaphernes was now free to move, and might attack Athens. On [[September 21]], the Athenian army went out to face the Persians. This was probably a combined decision by the generals, although Herodotus reports that they were rotating days of command and that Miltiades was in charge at this point, since he had a large part in persuading the others to do so. According to Herodotus, five [[strategos|Strategoi]] voted for the move and five voted against it, with Callimachus, the Polemarch, casting the deciding vote in favor of attack.

[[Image:Battle of Marathon Initial Situation.png|thumb|450px|center|The initial positions of the troops before the clash. The Greeks (blue) have pulled up their wings to bolster the corners of their significantly smaller centre in a ] shape. The Persian fleet (red) waits some way off to the east. This great distance to the ships played a crucial role in the later stages of the battle.]]

Since the bulk of Persian infantry were [[archer]]s, the Greek plan was to advance in formation until they reached the limit of the archer's effectiveness, the "beaten zone," or roughly 200 yards, then advance in double time to close ranks quickly and bring their heavy infantry into play. This meant that they would almost certainly end up fighting in disordered ranks, but this was preferable to giving the Persian archers more time. The Greek center was reduced to possibly four ranks, from the normal eight, in order to extend the line and prevent the Persian line from overlapping the Greeks. The wings maintained their eight ranks.

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The Greek heavy infantryman, or [[hoplite]], was much more heavily armored than the Persian troops and the pike the Greeks carried gave them greater range than the short spears and swords of the Persian foot soldier. The Persian advantage came from the [[bow (weapon)|bow]] that most of them carried (the advantage was partially cancelled by the superiority of Greek armor and numbers).

[[Image:Battle of Marathon Greek Double Envelopment.png|thumb|450px|center|The Greek wings (blue) envelop the Persian wings (red) while their strategically-thinned centre filled the gap made between them.]]

As the Greeks advanced, their wings drew ahead of the center, which was under heavy fire from the archers. As they closed some Persians broke through the resulting gaps and drove the center back in rout. The Greek retreat in the center, besides pulling the Persians in, also brought the Greek wings inwards, shortening the Greek line. The inadvertent result was a [[pincer movement|double envelopment]], and the battle ended when the whole Persian army, crowded into confusion, broke back in [[panic]] towards their ships and were pursued by the Greeks.

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==External links==

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<div style="float: left;">[[Image:Open book 01.png|50px|none|Academic Publishing Wiki]]</div>

<div style="margin-left: 60px;">The [[wikicities:c:academia:Main Page|Academic Publishing Wiki]] has a journal article about this subject:

<div style="margin-left: 10px;">'''[[wikicities:c:academia:Journal of History and Classics:The struggle for Greece: Marathon and Artemision|The struggle for Greece: Marathon and Artemision]]'''</div>

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*[http://dsc.discovery.com/news/briefs/20040719/marathon.html Discovery article about Marathon date controversy and Pheidippides' death]

*[http://www.livius.org/man-md/marathon/marathon.html General article]