How Did The Battle Of Marathon A Loss Of Western Culture

The Battle of Marathon was a stroke of Greek military genius and saved Western Culture as we know it. The Battle of Marathon was a conflict on the Aegean Peninsula during the Classical Greek Period between the Greek force - comprised mostly of Athenians among others - and the Persian military. The Greek force used a new infantry strategy devised by their commanders, Callimachus and Miltiades, and used the terrain to their advantage to decisively win the military battle. Greek culture would have been amalgamated with the Middle-Eastern and Mediterranean culture of the Persians had the Greek army fallen. Greek culture is very important to our current Western Culture; our American lives would be different had the Greeks lost this battle back in

The dispatch sent to conquer Athens included 12,000-15,000 infantry and 1000 cavalry with about 5,000 more troops sailing nearby, and the Greek army had about 10,000 Athenians and about 1,000 Plataeans. The Athenians were the second most militarily powerful city state after the belligerent Sparta. At the time of the battle at Marathon however, the Spartans were unable to aid due to a religious ceremony forbidding warfare. The Persians landed and made camp on the beach of the Bay of Marathon while the Greeks were encamped at the top of the large hill overlooking the bay. In summary, the Persians had the advantage of numbers and unanswered cavalry, but the Greeks had the positional advantage. This led to an awkward

standoff. “The Greeks unwilling to abandon the safety of their position and the Persians unwilling to attack it” (Davis

Pan questioned him why the Athenians neglected him in their sacrifices and promised to aid them soon if the reformed their worship. Pan is known to have inspired a mindless, frenzied fear in his opponents, called panic. The panic and routing in the Persian ranks was necessary to the victory of the Athenians. Pan held up his end of the bargain.

After the battle the Persians sailed to Athens in an attempt to capture the city and punish the Athenians for leaving it without a garrison. In another stroke of military genius, the Athenian troops foresaw the Persians plan and marched the marched 26.2 miles back to their city in two days. This example of nationalistic pride shows the Athenians determination. After arriving at

Athens and finding the army that had just defeated them, the remainder of the Persian military sailed home, ending the first Persian campaign in