Greek World 500-440 BC (1 Viewer)

[-may-cat-]

Interesting point. Have you studied the Themistokles Decree? If it is to be accepted then we must assume that the Greeks were evacuated during the battles of Thermopylae and Artemisium and that these battles were in fact just stalling attempts. Regardless of whether the battle of Artemisium took place or not i don't think that a couple of extra days would have been enough time for the Persians to reach Athens and massacre the people before they were evacuated. It would be interesting to look at the speeds at which the Persian land and naval forces could travel.

 

[1981Grant]

If I did 'A' I would have said:

A successful war campaign relies on the balance of strategy, tactics and logistics; strategy being defined as the pre-battle decisions, tactics being defined as the options made during battle and logistics as the quartermastering and supply of the campaign. Then I would have said something like: Themistocles distinctive foresight demonstrated his capability as a general as he employed a forward defence strategy... blah blah blah... then I would say he forced logistical errors which were devastating to the campaign of Xerxes and would end in ultimate defeat at Salamis.

 

[Dinamo]

No , the 10 000 Greek soldiers were not on there way to Athens. The civilians of Athens are the ones that evacuated-not soldiers.
What i meant was that the quote from Herodotus ended with something like "land forces would not have been able to win"--something to do with land forces anyway ii cant remember.
What i argued was that ultimately, the navy nullified the strength of the Persian army (cavalry and archers) and in turn protected the relatively small Greek army-hence the Athenian navy was important in terms of providing a basis to fight on land battles at Plataea and Mycalae, and in turn achieve Greek victory.

 

[MightyPanther5]

Would anybody be as kind to email their notes to me It would help very much