Joe Giorello - Great Battles for Boys: Ancients to Middle Ages

Great Battles for Boys

By Joe Giorello

In ancient times, warfare was a way of life.

Men went into battle to settle almost every kind of conflictfrom land and religion to politics and culture. Warfare was so important that most ancient political leaders were also military commanders, such as Julius Caesar.

The twelve battles in this book begin in the ancient world, which is the beginning of Western civilization, and move into the Middle Ages. You will learn about great empires that rose and fell, powerful kings that lived and died, and how the world we know today began developingat the tip of a spear.

480 BC

Ancient Greek pottery showing Greek soldiers

Youve probably heard the term last stand. For instance, people will say, They made a brave last stand.

Last stand is a military phrase. It describes soldiers in a defensive position who realize they cant win the battle, but instead of surrendering, they choose to keep fightingto their death. The battle is their last stand.

History overflows with many amazing last-stand battles. One of the first last stands took place more than 2,000 years ago at the Battle of Thermopylae. (By the way, Thermopylae is pronounced thur-mah-pill-eye. In Greek, it means Gates of Fire.)

During ancient times, the Persian Empire ruled more than half of the known world. Look at the map. The Persians controlled all the territory inside that dark line. Now look toward the south (bottom of the map) and find an area marked Persia. That was the empires home base.

Now look over to the maps west side (left). Find Macedon and Ionia, which are outside that darkest line. These places, along with some outlying islands, were controlled by Ancient Greece. But the Persians wanted that territory, too, so they launched two military invasions.

The first Persian invasion, in 490 BC, failed.

But ten years later, in 480 BC, Persian King Xerxes launched the second invasion. Xerxes was determined to succeed. He amassed an army of mensome historians estimate Xerxes may have had one million men! Among his forces were 10,000 Immortals, an elite heavy infantry force used for frontal assaults and anchoring defensive lines.

Xerxes also gathered together a navy of 1,200 ships. The ships were called triremes and were powered by huge sails and three levels of oarsmen (tri meaning three). Onboard the ship, a drummer pounded out a steady beat to keep the rowers synchronized. The rowing was backbreaking work because the triremes were so large. Consider this: an average modern automobile weighs about two tons. An average ancient trireme weighed about forty tons.

Trireme

While these triremes sailed for Greece, Xerxes marched his massive army across the Persian Empire and into northern Greece. He crushed all opponents. His next plan was to turn his forces south and conquer Athens, a powerful Greek city-state. Back then, there was only one route into Athens from northern Greecethrough Thermopylae, the Gates of Fire.

Look at the next map. It shows Xerxes invasion routes by land and sea into Greece. Over to the west (left) side, find Thessaly. Just below that is Thermopylae, a steep mountain pass.

Map courtesy of Bibi Saint-Pol

This mountain pass was even more treacherous for Xerxes because Spartan warriors were on the other side, waiting for the Persians.

If the Immortals were the Persians elite fighting force, the Spartans were the Greeks ultra-elite force. As boys, Spartans were taken from their families and forced to live in military barracks. They spent the rest of their lives learning how to fight and win battles. The Spartans lived for war.

Spartan King Leonidas was encamped at Thermopylae with 300 Spartan soldiers and 5,000 regular Greek soldiers. The Spartans were recognizable by their distinctive uniforms. They wore red cloaks, bronze helmets, bronze breastplates, and bronze greaves to protect their lower legs. Spartans also carried an innovative shield called a hoplon. It was larger than most shields and curved outward. The hoplon allowed the Spartan warriors to line up in formation and push back against enemy lines while protecting their own men on either side. Other Spartan weapons included a six- to eight-foot thrusting spear that had an iron shaft at one end and a bronze butt-spike at the other, and a two-foot-long double-edged sword whose blade widened toward the tip.

Spartan Warrior

King Leonidas chose to meet Xerxes invasion at Thermopylae for strategic reasons. The Persian forces greatly outnumbered the Greeksby as much as fifty to one. But Thermopylaes narrow mountain path would only allow so many men through at one time. Leonidas men probably wouldnt have to fight all the Persians at once.

Xerxes didnt want to face the Spartans this soon. He planned to conquer Athens, then force those Greeks to fight on his side. Xerxes waited several days at Thermopylae, hoping the Spartans would leave. But the Spartans stayed, and Xerxes realized he had no choice but to fight them if he wanted to reach Athens.

First, Xerxes ordered his archers to fire a barrage of arrows at Leonidas forces. But the Spartans deflected that volley with their hoplon shields.

Next, Xerxes sent in his infantry. These Persian soldiers had won many of their battles by smashing into their enemy and creating panic in the lines. But Leonidas men didnt break, in part because the Spartans used a phalanx formation. The phalanx was four men deep and eight men acrossa literal human wall!

At first, the massive numbers of Persian soldiers were winning against Leonidas forces, but then the bronze wall of Spartans dug in and pushed back. Using their long spears to draw blood, the Spartans penetrated deep into the ranks of the Persians. Then the swords came out. Slashing and stabbing, the Spartans left the Persians to die on the battlefield. More and more blood spilled as the Spartan machine moved forward, stepping over the dead and wounded.

Realizing this was no regular enemy, the Persians retreated.

In ancient times, warfare was brutal and intense. But the close clashes didnt usually last longprobably less than one minute each. During this one attack, however, the Greeks killed more than 1,000 Persians.