Ancient Wars

Shipbuilding is an imprecise science. There are certain ratios which work, and that is about all. The determinants of width (beam) are the purpose(s) for which the ship is intended. A warship neded a narrow beam for speed and manoeuvrability. A cargo ship or troop/horse transport obviously has to have a broad beam to fit in the intended cargo. Then the speed required comes into play - having got the width, streamlining requires a certain length to width. Then there is draught - does it have to be shallow draught to negotiate shallow waters, and even be drawn up on the beach, or is it to operate in deeper waters and anchor off the beach/bank. However the deeper the keel, the generally more stable the ship, and the more sail it can carry. Ancient warships were impelled by both oars and sail. Oars were used in action for manoeuvrability, and sails (supplemented by oars) for transit. To keep the vessel narrow and speedy, triremes had the oarsmen staggered over the side in outriggers. They were also flat bottomed to allow them to be drawn up on the beach overnight and defended from attack if a naval engagement was refused. There was also the matter of overland mobility. In the days before the Corinth Canal, both cargo and war ships were portered between the Aegean Sea and Corinth Canal/Adriatic Sea on rollers across the isthmus. Similarly the Vikings portered their ships across the low hills between the Baltic riverheads into the Black and Caspian Sea rivers, and so were able to go as far afield as Baghdad and Constantinople. The first rulers of a partly-unified Russia were Vikings.

No. He was probably only 17 at the time of Marathon in 490 BCE, and young men were not accepted for military service until 18. He is recorded as fighting at Salamis during the second Persian invasion in 480 BCE.

In the Middle Ages, the Crusaders used three principal methods of fighting. The first and most prominent was the charge by horse-borne knights, whether individually or in formation. As common was the direct advance by foot-soldiers bearing bladed weapons or blunt weapons (such as clubs). Increasingly common as years passed was the use of bowed weapons, with the European crossbow coming to be especially feared by their Arabic opponents in the Middle East.

The plan to hold the pass to provoke a sea battle in the nearby strait to destroy the Persian navy failed as the Greeks lost the sea battle.

As this failed, the Greek holding force dispersed back to their cities.

Leonidas and his Spartan 2,400 heavy and light infantry continued to hold the pass to let them escape. They were slaughtered.

Salamis There were two sea battles in 480 BCE - Artemesium opposite Thermopylai (the pass was held to force the sea battle in the hope of breaking Persian sea superiority). This battle was indecisive, and the Greek fleet retired to the island of Salamis and a decisive battle in the strait between the island and Athens achieved success, denying Xerxes of his essential sea resupply, and his ability to threaten the cities of southern Greece. There were two land battles the following year 479 BCE - Plataia where the Greeks defeated the Persians and the Greeks who sided with them, and Mykale in Asia Minor - the latter was intended to be a naval battle against the residue of the Persian fleet, but the Persians refused engagement, drawing their ships up on the beach and fortifying them. The Greek sailors and soldiers disembarked and attacked in a land battle which they won, and burned the fleet.

Was there a 'battle of Skirmish'.

Salamis was a strait near Athens where a Greek fleet defeated a Persian fleet in 480 BCE. This the turning point in the Persian invasion of peninsular Greece.

Troy was located in what is now present day Turkey on the Dardanelles Strait.

the location was the mainland Greece, Asia minor, Sicily.

By the majority vote of several hundred jurymen in a trial. He was charged with introducing strange gods and corrupting youth (meaning leading younger Athenians astray by teaching them to think for themselves). The strange gods bit doesn't gel, and presumably was added as impiety carried the death sentence.

Convicted, he chose suicide by drinking the poison hemlock over having his throat cutby the public executioner and thrown in a waste pit.

The Trireme was a warship powered by three tiers of oars with a ramming projection in the bow.

. . . a Phalanx .

Just Persians. Imperial bodyguard, specially equipped, trained and paid shock troops.

Standing on the mound surrounding the camp, behind the pallisade, or in the watchtowers built around the perimeter of the camp. Sleeping on sentry duty carried automatic death penalty.

Damoclēs, a courtier of Dionysius I, tyrant of Syracuse in the fourth century BC. When he praised to excess the happiness of a tyrant, Dionysius invited him to experience it for himself. He placed Damocles at a banquet where presently the latter observed a naked sword hanging over his head by a single hair, symbolizing the precarious nature of such happiness.

around 25, at birth

This of course was not when adults usually died, but rather an average which is misleading. With a very high infant and child mortality rate before vaccinations were invented, the average was low, but the life span of those who got through their youth ran on much much higher.

This is a description which can be described as propaganda.

An examination of all the armies of the ancient world would attact the description 'brutal and cruel'.

Similarly an examination of al the armies of the mediaeval world would attact the description 'brutal and cruel'.

Similarly an examination of al the armies of the modern world would attact the description 'brutal and cruel' is you wanted to denigrate any of them to suit a particular agenda.

War is 'brutal and cruel'.

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Marathon was just the fight by the city-state of Athens to repel a Persian punitive expedition sent in response to Athens' meddling in supporting rebellions by Greek cities within the Persian empire. The intent of Persia was to instal an Athenian ex-tyrant Hippias to keep Athens under control. There was no plan to do anything to Greece, which comprised hundreds of independent city-states.

Failure at Marathon led the Persians to think that the only way to keep things quiet was to bring the city-states in mainland Greece within their empire and establish an ethnic frontier, so they invaded peninsula Greece ten years later. If this had succeded, we should remember that even under Persian rule, the Greek cities in Asia Minor prospered and maintained their identity, their cultural and scientific advances outpointing that of mainland Greece. They survived there until 1923 CE when evacuated at the end of the Turkis-Greek war which continued on after World War 1.

And of course there were the western Greeks of Italy, Sicily and the islands who would not have been under Persian rule.

It is interesting to note that more recenty mainland Greece spent hundreds of years under Ottoman Turk rule until it fought for and regained independence in 1832 CE. We just can't know for sure, but the Greeks were cultural survivors who would almost certainly have made a comeback against the Persians, just as they did 2,000 years later against the Turks.

The Athenian army and its Plataean allies were waiting in the hills around the Plain of Marathon, where the Persian cavalry could not get at them, for reinforcements from Sparta.

After ten days, they saw the Persian cavalry being loaded on ships. They seized the opportunity and ran down and defeated the inferior Persian infantry now unprotected by its cavalry.

Then they realised where the Persian cavalry was going - around to land at unprotacted athens, to gallop up to the city, where traitors would open the gates for them.

The Athenian infantry ran back the 26 miles to Athens and formed up in front of the city just as the Persian cavalry was disembarking. Frustrated, the Persian cavalry went home.

This run is today commemorated in Marathon runs by athletes. However today's spoilt runners don't first have to fight a battle, and carry with them armour and weapons, and run in sandals. And they have exotic diets, rather than living on a basic diet of bread. Who gets your vote for the real tough guys?

yes the Romans defeated the last of the major greek city-states in 146 BC.

The plague that ravaged Athens killed many of it's citizens that were needed to fight the war against Sparta but Athen's lost it's leading citizen Pericles and his wisdom/guidance that was essential to the pursuit of the war .

Athens sent troops to help Sparta put down a revolt by their serfs. The Athenians started to show signs of favouring the serfs, so the Spartans sent them home, with lasting resentment on both sides.

The Golden Age of Athens occurred after the Persian defeat at Salamis .