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The Pros And Cons Of The Battle Of Marathon

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There have been countless battles and wars in the ancient world that have astonished historians. Thousands of bloody, inhuman battles that were fought by opposing sides. None of which have astonished historians like the battle of Marathon between the Greeks and Persians. “The battle of Marathon is one of history's most famous military engagements”(Stern, 11) according to William Stearns based off of Herodotus account. The war between the Persians and the Greeks was an extremely unique war for its time period. No military force had ever been brought together larger than what the Persians brought together. No military had ever trained and valued war as much as the Greeks had. Two runaway trains were headed right towards one another. One of the …show more content…

The Greeks were fighting on their own land. Fighting for their home. This made the war mean a tremendous amount more to the Greeks than it did to the Persians. Many of the Persian soldiers had been forced to fight at Marathons while the Greeks were ready to die to defend their homeland. On the other hand, One of the major disadvantages for the Greeks during the Battle of Marathon was that the Spartans were not around to fight the battle. The most well trained military in the ancient world wasn’t able to arrive at Marathon fast enough to help fight during this battle. Unlike Athens which was a mere 28 miles North of Marathon, Sparta was over 200 miles away from Marathon(Fosten, 24). This called for at least a 3 day journey to Marathon from Sparta. Also, the Spartans were engaged in a festival when the battle had broken out. They promised to send help after their festival, the “Carnie” ended. This festival was extremely important to the Spartans. The Spartans thought that if they left it early, the gods would in turn punish them on the battlefield. This meant that the Spartans would have no factor in the Battle of Marathon(Stern,

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