Richard A. Billows - Marathon: How One Battle Changed Western Civiliza

The Battle of Marathon in 490 B.C.E. is not only the most decisive event in the struggle between the Greeks and the Persians-showing the Greeks the seemingly invincible Persians could indeed be defeated but, arguably a defining event for Western civilization. John Stuart Mill famously proposed "the Battle of Marathon, even as an event in British history, is more important than the Battle of Hastings." Richard A. Billows starts by providing a rich and detailed overview of the Greek world at the time leading up to Marathon, including an examination of the Greek concept of "bestness" and a look at a prosperous, democratic Athens under Kleisthenes, which could, for the first time, deploy a citizen army in full panoply, to devasting effect against the lightly outfitted Persian infantry, despite its greater numbers. Key players include the Athenian general Miltiades, who, from the point of view of military history, was the first to utilize a totally outfitted hoplite phalanx to its fullest and develop the groundbreaking battle tactics in advance of the contest that provided the fulcrum for the Greeks' victory over King Darius's Persian army. The legend of the Greek messenger Philippides running twenty-six miles from Marathon to Athens with the news of the Greek victory is the inspiration for our modern-day marathon race, introduced at the Athens Olympic Games of 1896. Billows suggests, however, that the sources present it differently; with two runs-the messenger running 280 miles round-trip to Sparta to ask for aid, and the entire Greek army in full panoply, after fierce and exhausting fighting, marching at a rapid speed back to Athens in the event they were needed to defend its port. In this riveting work, Richard A. Billows fully creates the atmosphere of the times, engrossingly captures the drama of the day of battle, and convincingly demonstrates that the flowering of classical Greek culture-and the extraordinary influence it has had on Western culture-would almost certainly not have occurred had not the Athenians, against the odds, defeated the Persians at Marathon.