Story
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We ran. None of the Hellenes had ever before gone into battle that way, not even the Spartans, who of all the Hellenes are the most feared in war, since they alone spend their entire lives training for war, neither working their fields nor in trades, since they have their helots to work the land, and their subject neighbors, the Perioiki, to do the latter. No one will doubt their courage nor their skill--certainly not the Medes and the Persians, against whom they fought to the last man at Thermopylae, three hundred against countless thousands. But even the Spartans settle for advancing into battle at a walk, hard enough work for men in a hoplite's heavy bronze armor, and encumbered with spear and shield. But at Marathon, we ran. It had already been a long, hard day's march from Athens over the hills to Marathon, and another day for my neighbors and me, since I live in Eleusis. We were tired and aching from march, and I admit to sleeping restlessly the night before the battle, as any man does on the night before facing death. But with the dawn we were awake, and drawing up in our order, ten thousand of us, all Athenians save for a thousand brave men who came down from Plateia in Boeotia, who alone of the other Hellenes were there to join us in saving Hellas from the barbarians. The sun was bright on the sea as the triremes of the Medes and Persians advanced toward the shore--not nearly as many, to be sure, as they have this time, but they were more than enoug
. . .
us just pointed something out to me. There is a little glittering spot of color, up on a hillside overlooking the narrows of Salamis. According to Menippus, that is a throne that the Great King has built, so he can watch his triremes battle those of the the Hellenes. In the morning, he'll have a fine view of the spectacle, and the gods alone know how it will come out. Am I afraid? Of course; anyone but a fool would be. But as we row into battle tomorrow, I'll remember that we faced them before at Marathon, at the run.
Bibliography
Hanson, Victor Davis. The Western Way of War: Infantry Battle in Classical Greece. New York: Oxford University Press, 1989.
Herodotus. The Histories. Aubrey de Selincourt, trans. New York: Penguin Books, 1972.
Kitto, H. D. F. The Greeks. Baltimore: Penguin Books, 1951.
I awoke at dawn, or rather, I was awakened by the sounds of the Labyrinth slaves turning out, lighting fires, carrying baskets of food and bundles of wood for the cooking-fire, or bearing clothing down for washing. This is a fact of life in the Labyrinth, the Palace of Knossos, save for those so privileged to have their sleeping quarters in the neighborhood of the Royal Chambers. I am privileged, but
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Approximate Word count = 2614
Approximate Pages = 10 (250 words per page)
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