by Mimi Lu

Created on: November 26, 2007

The Battle of Marathon of 490BC represented the first significant engagement between the two formidable ancient powers: Greece and Persia. Upon initial consideration, many historians concede that the conflict does lack the romantic grandeur and epic proportions of the legendary Trojan War or even the tragic heroism of the Spartan sacrifice at Thermopylae. However, as stated by Edward Creasy, it "secured for mankind the intellectual treasures of Athens, the growth of free institutions, and the liberal enlightenment of the Western world." Therefore, due to the extraordinary implications of the battle, it is even more crucial to understand how the contributory factors the geographical features of the battleground, the tactics, the weaponry, the mindset and composition of the rival armies - culminated in such a milestone victory for Greek and world history.

Essentially, Persia's selection of the area of Attica to deploy their troops proved to be a fundamental miscalculation, and Miltiades, the Greek general, exploited this lapse in Persian judgment with an efficient counter-strategy. However, Herodotus defends that Marathon was "most suitable for the landing of cavalry," for certainly, the crescent-shaped plain was fortified from both north and south by torrential lagoons. On the other hand, the Persians had also inadvertently positioned themselves in a very restrictive area, especially in view of the fact that the reputable twenty thousand soldiers, as well as cavalry, far exceeded the capacity of the small gulf. This immediate drawback was exacerbated by Miltiades's manipulation of the topographical features to benefit the Athenians he aligned his troops across the Valley of Vrana, which effectively "pinned the Persians against the shore." Furthermore, the Athenian camp was ensconced between steep, rocky hillocks and this immobilised the Persian cavalry in one boldly calculated maneuver. Hence, it is with great justification that Rabbitt claims the Athenians achieved "victory without a fight," because Miltiades engineered and successfully executed a strategy that maximised their topographical advantage over the Persian army.

Miltiades's audacious digression from standardised Greek strategies was another important factor that contributed to the Greek victory. According to Xenophon's Cyropaedia, it is known that the Persian force was uniformly arranged and thirty-men-deep, and Miltiades's counterstrategy involved arranging a phalanx with a deliberately weak centre

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