A Bold Re-Appraisal of One of History's Most Famous Battles
by Constantinos Lagos and Fotis Karyanos,
translated by John Carr
Posted on 06/01/2021 9:44:24 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
The Persian plans were intelligently and carefully conceived, as they usually were, but they were foiled by the genius of Miltiades who followed the military maxim pour les vaincre il faut de l'audace, encore de l'audace, toujours de l'audace. The Persians knew that after the withdrawal of the cavalry they were exposed to an Athenian attack, but they must have calculated that if this attack was launched they could embark their infantry and sail off before the Athenians reached the shore. At a normal pace it would take about 15 or 20 minutes for the Athenian hoplite formation to advance the interval of more than a mile that separated the opposing forces. Since the Persians were aligned in front of their ships they could have embarked in this period of time. Even after they were compelled to enter into a fight and lost it, they succeeded in embarking most of their men with the Athenians hard upon them. On each side of a trireme there ran a gangplank placed on top of the outriggers of the oars, a gangplank on which the marines took their stations during naval combat; 50 men on each side could have easily been standing on this gangplank.
It was by the unorthodox maneuver of letting the hoplite formation run towards the enemy that Miltiades foiled the Persians... Those who follow Delbrueck imply that the Greeks, far from being athletes of the body and of the mind, were soft not only in their brains, but also in their muscles.
(Excerpt) Read more at cais-soas.com ...
A Bold Re-Appraisal of One of History's Most Famous Battles
by Constantinos Lagos and Fotis Karyanos,
translated by John Carr
I had no idea Miltiades spoke French.
Thank you.
Great read, great site!
/rimshot
I was just reading the wikiwacky page about Danton, the whole period of the French ‘Revolution’ and the Terror by the Committee of Public Safety [sic] is ‘worth a look’ (as Danton joked to the crowd as he was headed for the guillotine).
My pleasure. I’d known of the author for decades, but A) didn’t realize he’d written this, and B) didn’t realize he’d been dead so long, I forget sometimes how freakin’ old I am.
[snip] 8. The Battle of Plataia
Mardonios marched with the King’s army up to Thessaly and there he went into winter quarters. The following spring he was joined by 40,000 men under Artabazos who had followed the King in his withdrawal with an original force of 60,000. According to Herodotus the forces of Mardonios were 300,000 infantry plus cavalry; of the infantry, 50,000 had been provided by the Greek allies. This means that Mardonios had under his command the normal full strength of the Persian army, even though the cavalry did not by far come up to the table strength of 50,000 horsemen. But Herodotus states that, at the battle of Plataia that closed the campaign of Mardonios, the cavalry was the part of the Persian army that proved the greatest challenge to the Greeks...
The army of Mardonios, however, was still so strong that the Greeks kept avoiding battle until almost twelve months after Salamis, near the close of the military season, when the Persian army began to give signs of disintegration. The disintegration must have been unavoidable once it became clear that another year had passed without conclusive military or political results. Just before the Greek attack Artabazos, with 40,000 men under his command, deserted Mardonios and began to withdraw from Greece. When the Greeks finally attacked at Plataia the battle turned into butchery; Mardonios himself was not able to escape. [/snip]
https://www.cais-soas.com/CAIS/Military/Persian_wars/persian_wars_plataia.htm
[btw, I think Artabazos was the ancestor of that bald guy who runs Amazon]
A Historical and Topographical Approach
by Christos Dionysopoulos
[Paperback edition]
The Athenians charged at the enemy when the Persian horses were in their stables, that is to say, in the afternoon. They chose that time so that they would not have to face the cavalry as well. They were the first to use the tactic of charging at the run in the last 200m before they clashed hand to hand with the enemy to reduce the effectiveness of the Persian archers. The ingenious battle tactics of Miltiades involved strengthening the two wings, in comparison to the weak centre, so that at the right moment they could surround the enemy.
Research, Theories and Controversies Since 1850
by Dennis L. Fink
[Kindle edition]
I was amused to find out that Darius entrusted his western border to the satrap Megabazos. Reminded me that our internet satrap megaBezos got his start out in the west as well.
Hi.
I apologize in advance...
Those who follow Delbrueck imply that the Greeks, far from being athletes of the body and of the mind, were soft not only in their brains, but also in their muscles.
What is the Greek word for “pussies?”
Asking for a Spartan that doesn’t have a smart phone.
5.56mm
Just so everyone understands, the Spartans did have the word, “pussies,” in their vocabulary.
ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒE mother fu@kers...
5.56mm
We have Herodotus for the Greek version of the battle. Robert Graves supplied the Persian version.
Fascinating article. Thanks for the post.
This has been a controversy that raged through Herodotus, Thucydides and Plutarch.
For those interested, I would suggest reading Plutarch’s criticism of Herodotus: “On the malice of Herodotus”. He basically calls Herodotus a “barbarian lover”.
As well as this paper
https://www.academia.edu/6636271/The_Silence_of_Thucydides_The_Battle_of_Marathon_and_Athenian_Pride
Regardless of who’s interpretation of the battle we know this for a fact; the Persians lost.
Thanks for posting.
Your post mentioned “Athenian hoplite formation” so I had to look that up. That led to learning about linothorax armor and a side trip to a graduate student and his professor who actually made some not long ago and tested it. Then I was on to “phalanx” formations and how that originated and how it worked in practice.
That was a nice 30 minutes!
Glad I could help. :^) The ancients really knew how to bust **** up.
I’m watching “The Roman Empire” on Netflix. There are three shows, each about five or six episodes long. I just finished the show about Marcus Aurelius and his son Commodus. The battle scenes against the Germanic tribes and later the gladiator battle scenes in the coliseum are incredible. The hand-to-hand combat is really unnerving.
Commodus was a lunatic and set the empire on the road to final ruin.
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