5:30 a.m. A little early, but the coffee is ready. Yesterday afternoon I was able to find an hour to conduct a self-test of what I think I have learned so far about ancient Greece. I was also able to find two web sites that gave details of the Battle of Marathon. I will use my allotted hour today to make some notes on this. This repetition is critical to the learning process. Simply moving through the material may get me to the finish line more quickly, but I will arrive naked (an ancient Greek tradition). In this case, not a tradition to be emulated.

How does one test themselves? A few possibilities come to mind, but I opt for trying to see how many names I can recall from memory for (1) people, (2) places, and (3) events. I then skimmed through the book Ancient Greece and made a note of items that I had missed. In the following lists, the bold items refer to items that I missed. This list then becomes a review list for the future as well.

People/Gods Places Events Euripides Knossos Bronze Age [3000 - 1200] Aristophanes Thrace Iron Age [1200 - ?] Sophocles Rhodes Minoan civilization [2200 - 1400] Thales Ionia Mycenaen civilization [1400 - 1000] Anaximander Ithica Trojan War [1200] Pythagorus Corinth Battle of Marathon Draco Sparta Dark Age [1200 - 750] Solon Athens Archaic Age [ 750 - 500] Minos Marathon Iliad, Odyssey [750] Socrates Thermopylae city-state Plato Salamis oligarchy, tyranny, democracy Aristotle Troy widespread settlement Sappho Macedonia hoplites Pisistratus Mycenae slavery/helots Hippias   Messenian Wars [730-710; 640-630] Cleisthenes   alphabet [700] Odysseus     Agamemnon     Achilles     Menelaus     Clytemnestra     Orestes     Kronos     Zeus     Athena     Poseidon     Hades     Dionysus     Gaia

What next? The book Ancient Greece has 5 more sections:

Persian Wars (Athens)

Rise of Athens

Peloponnesean Wars

Alexander

Hellenistic Age

A search of the web yields two particularly informative sites about the Battle of Marathon:

The Battle of Marathon by Major General Dimitris Gedeon

The Battle of Marathon by Edward Shepherd Creasy

In this battle it is estimated that about 10,000 Greeks fought about 50,000 Persians. Approximately 6,400 Persians died with the Greek losses being 192. In addition to tactics (strong attacks on both sides and then a pincer action) plus armaments (phalanx with strong shields, long spears and body armor) versus light armor and shields, light swords and archery (ineffective at close range). The Persian forces were under the orders of the king Darius.
 

Dale Burnett dale.burnett@uleth.ca
First Created  March 9, 2000
Last Revised   March 9, 2000
Copyright Dale Burnett 2000 all rights reserved