AWA210 - The Roman version of Marathon

Ancient Warfare Podcast

The History Network

Society & Culture, Greece, Warfare, Ancient, Rome, History, Military

4.4 • 631 Ratings

🗓️ 29 July 2022

⏱️ 11 minutes

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Summary

A few months ago, in response to episode AW137, where the team discussed the Greco-Persian war, Maxnet got in touch via Facebook to ask which source was Murray quoting with respect to the Battle of Marathon. Murray explains the sources.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi everyone and welcome to another episode of ancient warfare answers with me,
0:09.0	Murray Dam. It's ancient warfare answers with Murray. Today I've got a question, which came through
0:15.0	anonymously and pulled us up on something I'm, yes, I think it might have been me.
0:22.0	In your video on the Greco-Perspersian wars I heard one of you told a version of the battle of marathon that I've never
0:27.0	heard about but it never heard about it before but I didn't catch the name of the historian you
0:31.6	were quoting from so what was his name I think you said he was a roman so that made me get
0:36.1	very guilty and I couldn't track down exactly what I'd said.
0:39.1	So I have deemed to answer this question, assuming that I was the one who was guilty.
0:44.8	If it was not me, then I'm taking the blame for someone else.
0:48.3	And of course, I will attempt to answer that question, which is, I think it's either Plutarch or it's probably Cornelius Nepos.
0:58.4	Now, Cornelius Nepos is writing in the first century AD.
1:02.3	He writes A Life of Miltiades, who of course is the Athenian general who's given credit for winning the Battle of Marathon in the ancient Greek sources very soon
1:13.3	after the battle. I think that's a fascinating aspect in itself because he's one of 10 generals,
1:20.4	but his son, Kaimon, is the leading general in the generation after Marathon. And lo and behold,
1:27.2	when Herodotus tells us the story of the Battle of Marathon,
1:29.8	it's Militaries to whom all credit is given, which is a little bit.
1:33.7	Anyway, in the life of Miltides, Cornelius Nepos talks about the idea that the Greeks were in a part of the plane of marathon where there were trees.
1:50.8	And depending on how you translate the passage,
1:53.2	it could be that the trees were cut down to defend the flank of the Athenians so that they couldn't be outflanked by the Persian
2:05.7	cavalry. And if that's the case, then you've got a really interesting version of the battle
2:13.5	that we don't get in any other source. So, for instance, the LERB translation has,
2:19.1	the army was drawn up at the foot of the mountain and a part of the plane that was not wholly open
	...

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