Friday

                    Musings and History

Quote of the day:

“Enjoy when you can and endure when you must.”

                                  Johann Von Goethe

A while back I sent y’all a vignette about the Battle of Thermopylae in eastern Greece. In spite of the heroics by the Spartans, the Persians did eventually prevail and went through Greece burning, raping and pillaging. They did not prevail in the long run and here is why. It was because of two battles. One by sea and another was a land battle…here they are:

                                 Salamis

After the defeat of the Greeks at Thermopylae, the Persian army marched almost unopposed and began the razing of many of the city-states in Greece including Athens. Earlier the Athenians began evacuating to the Salamis peninsula across the Sardonic Gulf from Athens. Following the Persian army was the Persian navy of about 750 ships. The only way for the Athenians not to be captured or cut off was to prevent the Persians from blockading Salamis. The Greeks assembled about 378 triremes (warships) to combat the 750 ships in the Persian fleet. The Persians were lured into a small estuary in a light wind with the Athenians slowly retreating. The Persians did not learn a damned thing at Marathon. The Greeks do not withdraw unless they have a mission in mind, especially if Spartans are involved. After a while the wind began to freshen and blew the Persian ships right at the Greeks. The Greeks were not interested in fighting ship-to-ship as the Persians; they use their larger and slower ships as nothing more than platforms for their infantry and catapults of “Greek fire”. Greek fire is mentioned in many manuscripts throughout the ancient world. No one knows exactly what it was but Herodotus tells us that is was probably a mixture of tar and naphtha, poured into a clay jar and set afire then launched toward the enemy by catapults. The burning tar sticks to nearly everything it touches and since all the ships were made of wood, the fire was deadly. If that didn’t work, they would throw grappling hooks to the enemy ships and send the wild-eyed Spartan hoplites aboard the enemy ships to take care of business with spear and sword. The Greeks knew that the winds would increase and from what direction and set up for the Persian to be blown right into their laps. The retreat was just a delaying tactic waiting on the winds to come, and come they did. The Persians finally figured out what the Greeks were up to and tried to retreat but the prevailing wind prevented it. Before the battle was joined, King Xerxes set a chair out on a bluff overlooking the battle site and watched as over 200 of his ships were destroyed or sunk. After this, Xerxes boarded one of his ships and sailed his young ass back to Persia. It is thought by many historians that this was the most important military victories in history because it prevented a Persian presence in Europe. The next major battle was a land battle, see below.

                                  Plataea

After Salamis Persian King Xerxes returned to Persia and left his military commander Mardonius in command of a reinforced army of 300,000 to oversee their captured lands. Mardonius met with the Athenian leaders and offered them autonomous government and Persian aid in rebuilding Athens that had been partially destroyed. The Athenians refused and the destruction of Athens was completed. Athens sent emissaries to Sparta and told them what had happened and warned them against the possibility of Athens and the Persians making peace and what a threat that would be for Sparta remembering the Peloponnesian wars between Athens and Sparta. The Spartans were reluctant at first but saw the light eventually and realized the possible threat. The Spartans and the Athenians got together once again and summoned help from the other city-states in kicking these illegal aliens out of southern Greece. They eventually gathered a force of 110,000 to combat the 300,000 Persians. The difference here was that 38,700 of the Greek army were Spartan hoplites or Greek professional soldiers, recognized as the meanest and most capable warriors on the planet and this was the largest group of them ever assembled. The combined armies were commanded by the veteran Pausanias. After hearing about the consolidation of the Greeks, and especially the hoplites, Mardonius completed the razing of Athens and covered the rubble with earth, and then withdrew to the Asopus River where he fortified his position. The Athenians sent 8,000 and joined with a Spartan force along with many smaller city-states and established a base in hilly terrain where Persian cavalry would be ineffective. Mardonius sent a cavalry unit anyway under the command of Masistius to see if a cavalry attack was possible. He found out that the hilly terrain did indeed neutralize the cavalry. Masistius was killed early on and the rest of the cavalry retreated. Finally the two armies spread out and lined up for a massed attack. Pausanias put the Spartans of the left flank and the Athenians on the right flank with the other city-states in the middle. The Persians used heavy wooden shields while the Greeks used heavy bronze ones. At the onset of the battle the Persians unleash a maelstrom of arrows which made the Greeks cover up and they kept this up for an extended period. Eventually the center of the Greek lines got fed up and attacked which forced the Spartans and the Athenians to attack also and they succeeded in an envelopment. Once the combined forces of the Spartans and Athenians met in the middle it was all over for the Persians. The slaughter was total. Out of the original 300,000, there were a group of 40,000 Persians refused to join in the battle because they did not like Mardonius’ tactics. That left 260,000 Persians actively engaged. From this number, only 43,000 Persians survived to head home. The number of casualties for the Greeks was 1,340. That’s right folks, there were over 220,000 Persian corpses left on the field. The surviving Persians were not out of the woods yet. They were picked off a few at a time all the way back to the Hellespont and on into Asia Minor. That was the end of the illegal aliens in southern Greece.

Quotable quotes:

“Behind every successful man there are a lot of unsuccessful years.”

                                               Bill Brown

“Behind every man is a woman, with absolutely nothing to wear”

                                         James Stewart

“I am not a vegetarian but I eat animals that are.”

                                       Groucho Marx

When asked how many husbands she has had, Zsa Zsa Gabor said “You mean other than my own?”

“I have been accused of vulgarity. I say bullshit to that.”

                             Mel Brooks

“A study shows that men are hit by lightning four times as many times as women and it is usually after saying “I’ll call you.”

                                         Jay Leno

Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow