Posted on 03/12/2007 2:54:43 PM PDT by freedom44
Ah! Someone who knows history.
And Cyber Ant, I was too tired to continue last night, but eventually the muzzies did conquer Greece, but under Suliman The Magnificent in the 16th century AD, about 2000 years after Thermopylae and the Muslim yoke was not cast off until the Greek Revolution in the early 19th century.
"You are right, this battle took place more than one thousand years before Muhammad was born. However, if Greece had been part of the Persian Empire, it might have fallen to the Arabs when they conquered the Persians in the middle of the seventh century."
If, if, if.............????
And if the Greeks had fallen to the Persians, then who knows what would have taken place 400 years later when the Roman Empire arose, and who knows how the meeting of those two empires might have changed all the social, political and religious forces that later convulsed together at the eastern edge of the Mediterranean Sea at the beginning of the common era? No one knows what might have been, including whether or not there would have been Christianity or Islam in what we now call 600 A.D.
Change a single major event and you have to assume the possibility that the major events that followed it may not have occurred either.
Zoroastrianism was established as the state religion of Persia in c.226 BC.
Thermopylae happened 480 BC.
Thanks for your genius analysis.
I recall reading that in the military council on the eve of the last day of battle (before the Greek forces were completely entrapped) the Spartans announced that it is a strict law of Spartan warfare that they never abandon a post without orders to do so and since they had no orders from Sparta, they were obliged to stay.
Now, we may agree there is a strange mixture of the noble with the insane in this scenario. Certainly, our sense of humanitarianism, even in warfare, would never allow us to have standing orders which were in effect to commit suicide.
A curious parallel comes to mind: Bastogne, Battle of the Bulge, Christmas 1944. The Germans delivered the ultimatum in similar terms to that of Xerxes. Of course, we know McAuliffe's famous reply: "Nuts"! Were the Americans being Spartan, or did they trust that help was on the way and they had to hold out? I think it was a bit of both. They knew it might be suicide, but it was not sure. They likewise knew the critical strategic importance of holding Bastogne against the odds and that there were enourmous American and allied forces within striking distance. The question was, would they make it in time? Damn, I'm so proud of those men. Where have they gone?
This was Greece's Alamo, the loss against overwhelming forces that convinced the Greeks they could fight and eventually defeat the Persians, which they did.
Hot dog!
Hot dog!
You want that on a pun?
Well .. at least somebody got it!!
I really was looking at the bigger picture .. which nobody else but you seemed able to see!
Thanks.
If nobody's trying to grab my guns, I'm with you, eh?
;>)
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Note: this topic is from 2007. |
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