Posted in The Battlefront

We’ve used DWHA! (Diana Waring -History Alive!) for all of our ancient history this year, and the second week of each unit, we write or present a report. I thought the battle of Marathon was fascinating when we studied the Persian-Greek wars. I just did a pretty neat report on the battle of Marathon, and I thought I’d share it. I’ve divided it in several parts with trivia in between. So here goes-

            Part one- If you’ve ever lit a firecracker, you know what a pack these small capsules can pack a punch. One small little firecracker will spew sparks everywhere. In the year 490, B.C., as Emperor Darius of Persia was conquering the last known corners of the world, the small city states of Greece blew up in his face in a battle that would shatter sparks through history forever.

            This all started when the Babylonian empire fell and was picked up by the Median/Persian conquerors. Media slowly died out and the reigns were left to Persia. Then comes along Darius, who decides to conquer the world. He has all of Mesopotamia, and extends to Europe, planning to quickly stamp out the rabble of unorganized city states. He is infuriated, however, to find that the Greeks (Then known as Hellenes) were more impudent than he thought. The Ionians revolted along with others who posed a threat to Darius’ ever growing empire. Then Darius decides that was enough- he would send a full fledged invasion into the city states of Greece. He landed an invasion force to March on Athens. Somehow the Athenians got wind of it, and they met on the Plain of Marathon. “Stay Tuned” for the next part in a series-  Marathon

Trivia: The battle of Marathon was fought on September 17th. What other famous battle was fought on this date?