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Have any of you ever read Xenophon? Quite fascinating in his description of warfare at the time. One thing that struck me was the similarities between the persians and Austrian Habsburgs. The dissatisfied and dissimilar ethnic groups lead to the Persian's subsidence as a major power, Salamis and even clearly. Thermopylye and Marathon. Will post more further in the book.
Have any of you ever read Xenophon? Quite fascinating in his description of warfare at the time. One thing that struck me was the similarities between the persians and Austrian Habsburgs. The dissatisfied and dissimilar ethnic groups lead to the Persian's subsidence as a major power, Salamis and even clearly. Thermopylye and Marathon. Will post more further in the book.
You just lost me here. How do the Austrians enter this comparison?
Both had dissimilar ethnic groups within their empire. In the Austrian Habsburg's case, nationalism among them led to the empire's collapse after WWI. For the Persians, a lack of “persian” troops cost them victory in Greece in 490 BC
For the Persians, a lack of "persian" troops cost them victory in Greece in 490 BC
I don't agree. The Persians got a lot of help from dissident Greek tyrants. They lost because the Greeks had a superior navy and superior battle formation in the phalanx. Another reason could be because Darius was cocky and didn't think he needed to use his full force. He probably thought taking Athens was going to be as easy as taking the Greek islands. Marathon must have been a surprise to him. Another thing Darius probably didn't expect to happen was most of Greece finally waking up to the threat and uniting against Persia after the battle of Marathon. After enslaving Eretria, Greek public opinion went against him and he could no longer play one faction against the other.
