Posted in The Battlefront

Last trivia's question: The battle of Marathon took place on september 17th, What other battle took place on this date?

Answer to trivia: 1862, The battle of Antietam, American civil war. This union victory was fought in Maryland, one of the largest Battles in the war, and the bloodiest day in the war.

Part II- the Deployment

Now who were these Athenians to stand up to Persia? That was what angered Darius, and that was the audacity of Greece. That was the type of people they were. Later on, when it was Darius’ son, Xerxes, who was attacking, he threatened the defending Spartans saying that when the bows of Persia were so many that they would block out the sun when they fired. The Spartans weren’t afraid, though. They taunted back”That is good, for we shall fight in the shade!”  The Greeks were audacious, yes, maybe even arrogant, but they were not intimidated into submission, which scared Darius the most. The Persians usually requested ‘earth and water’ to represent submission. As of late, the Greeks had been answering this by beheading the rider and sending him back. Greece was determined not to give up.

            This didn’t mean the Greeks would win. On the contrary, they had a large disadvantage. Greece had no bowmen or cavalry, two areas where Persia was strong. They sent for aid from neighboring city states, but only 100 Plaeteans arrived Also, while the normal Greek front was 8 men deep, Persia’s was 30. With the Greek front 8,000 men long, their normal formation would only be 1250 meters. Very small compared to the 48,000 men of Persia covering 1,600 meters. The only thing that could save them was a good general.

            The Athenians were peculiar when it came to there command. They had this system that was ‘general for a day’ It probably wasn’t called that, but general for a day it was. 10 appointed generals would take turns every day being the army’s commander. This really made no sense, as no one could carry on a whole campaign. There, at the plain of Marathon, That all changed.

            One of the generals, called Militades, convinced his fellow generals that he should command the battle. THis was a revolutionary change, that brought many other revolutionary changes to the whole Athenian army. The formost being deployment. As custom of military Tactics was at the time, you put your strongest troops in the center. After all, If your center breaks, You are doomed. Militides changed that. He decided to  ut his best troops n the flanks while the weaker troops would face the Persian elite- The Imortals.

          While this was a great risk for Militades, It would pay of if his plan was executed correctly. While he waited for the Persians, he formed the rest of his plan. Meanwhile, he sent a courier to the Spartans, a courier to the Plaeteans and a courier, whose name was Philipedesa, to Athens. We will see the importance of the other two later, but now for the Plaeteans.

        The Plaeteans accepted the invatation to defend Greece, But no word came from Sparta. MIlitedes put the Plaeteans in the center reserve. Why does this matter? Well as we will learn later, mercinaries arn't to be trusted. They won't nescesarilly turn on you, but they won't fight as hard. From Washington defeating the hessian mercenaries to the betrayal of Numidian mecanarys in Egypt, History shows they aren't quite as good. We will see how this plays out in more than one way. Thus they are the weaker troops that militedes would put in the center.

         Now to the matter of size- Militedes had to match the whole line of Persians, which far extended his. To solve this, he took another risk, and extended his line by thinning it out. He streangtened the flanks, but spread out the center.

         With the Plateans in the center and the Phalanx elite on the flanks, all was ready. They faced the massive Persian army. Elite calvary on the far flanks, then mercenaries and the elite Imortals in the center, with the deadly archers in rear.  Militades took the customary right flank to go into battle.

Stay tuned for the next part in the series- As they met on the field

Trivia: What famous Athenian died for "A hill of beans"? 

BONUS trivia: what is the title of this article quoted from? ( It's my favorite movie & book)