fandomhigh | Battles That Changed History, Second Period, Friday 1/8

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Battles That Changed History, Second Period, Friday 1/8

"Good morning," Steve said to his class as soon as the clock struck ten. He began handing around copies of the syllabus as he spoke. "Nuts and bolts first. I'm Steve Rogers, and this is Battles that Changed History. If you're in the wrong class, you can leave now. This class will be focusing on Earth's Western civilizations; if that does not cover you, we won't be touching on your history, so I don't want to hear anything about my leaving some major battle that happened in another galaxy out. We're going to be trying to get through enough this semester without broadening our scope. Now, as you can see, the front part of the class is going to be a little heavy, but once we get out of the classical period, it'll lighten up a little. And last, but certainly not least, if you'd like to be a TA, please see me after class.

"So, first things first, I'm going to make you do what everyone's made you do this week and introduce yourselves. Name, grade, why you're in this class. We'll start with you," he said, picking a student at random.

Once everyone had introduced themselves, Steve clapped his hands to get their attention, then turned to the board and rolled up the projector screen covering it to reveal a meticulously drawn diagram of the Battle of Marathon before passing out a fairly comprehensive handout. "490 BC. Twenty-five hundred years ago. Marathon, Greece. Persia had pretty much taken over whatever it wanted to up until that point, and now it wanted Greece. Marathon was a good place for a battle; flat, plus you could land ships. The combatants, according to Herodotus: nine or ten thousand Athenians, with a thousand Plataeans, against the Persian invasion force, anywhere between twenty thousand to one hundred thousand infantry, because good luck getting an accurate count of those kind of numbers when they're not standing still, plus a thousand cavalry, plus six hundred ships. The Greeks won, via the use of phalanx-style fighting--" Steve paused to write 'phalanx' on the board. "The phalanx was one of the most important innovations of ancient warfare, by the way, but more on it later--and a double envelopment strategy, as shown here." He pointed to the diagram. "They routed the flanks, then swept into the center. Final casualties were given as one hundred ninety-two Athenians and eleven Plataeans, and sixty-four hundred Persians. Plus seven Persian ships were captured.

"Legend has it that immediately following the battle, an Athenian messenger headed back to Athens, twenty-six miles away, to let them know of the victory. It was the first time the Persian army had ever been defeated, after all. It was important. This man had just fought a battle, and he ran full-out all the way. He reached the agora, the central marketplace of the city, said one word, 'Nike,' or 'victory,' and died of exhaustion. In modern times we commemorate his feat with the race known as the marathon, and Nike is a type of shoe. And now you know.

"So, how did this battle change history? It showed the Greeks that the Persians could be defeated, for one thing, and eventually they did win the First Greco-Persian War and drive the Persians off, gaining time to regroup. It also cemented Athens' status as supreme among the Greek city-states, and strengthened Athens' fledgling democracy, the first in the world. And democracy would, eventually, become very important indeed. What I want to hear from you is how it could have gone differently, and what you think that might have meant in the long run, given what you know thus far."