[Leica] [IMG] Saving the Western World - Nathan

[John Nebel]

Nathan,

Quite interesting high school which you attended, I think most adults 
today would have a tough time with Herodotos, or parts thereof.

John

On 5/20/15 11:44 PM, Nathan Wajsman wrote:
> Fascinating. We learned this history in high school in Denmark but I had forgotten most of it.
>
> Cheers,
> Nathan
>
> Nathan Wajsman
>
> Alicante, Spain
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> YNWA
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>> On 20 May 2015, at 22:11, John Nebel <john.nebel at csdco.com> wrote:
>>
>> <http://photos.csd.net/athens_s_gi.html>
>>
>> Tetradrachm 483-480 BC
>> O: Athena wearing a crested Corinthian helmet
>> R: Owl, olive branch left, ΑΘΕ right, Α off the flan
>>
>> By 483 BC, the Athenians had discovered a new, large silver deposit in their Laurion mines.   One foresighted Athenian, Themistokles, persuaded the Athenian assembly that the newly mined silver should be used to pay for expansion of their navy. He knew the Persians were planning an invasion, although he used a local adversary, the Aeginetans as a more immediate and publicly acceptable reason for the naval expansion. As a result of Themistocles's persuasion, the Athenian navy was increased by 200 ships, triremes, three banks of oars, each ship to be manned by a crew of 200.
>>
>> In 480 BC, under the command of Xerxes, the Great King, an immense Persian army and navy invaded the fiercely independent collection of city-states comprising the Greek world. Cities surrendered, often without a fight, but a few stood fast, allied with the Spartans and Athenians.  A crack contingent of Spartans had been destroyed at Thermopylai and the Persians prepared to invade Athens although the Greek tenacity at Thermopylai had surprised Xerxes. The Athenians panicked, and again Themistokles intervened.  He convinced his fellow Athenians that a Pythian oracle advising them to seek refuge within wooden walls must be interpreted that the Athenians should take refuge in their triremes, ships of wood, which most indeed did.
>>
>> Herodotus 7.143-4
>>
>> "But a wall made of wood does farsighted Zeus to Tritogenes (Athena) grant
>> Alone and unravaged, to help you and your children.
>> Do not await peacefully the horse and the foot,
>> The army gigantic that comes from the mainland;
>> Withdraw, turn your backs, though someday you still will meet face to face"
>>
>> Athens was abandoned by its citizens, transported to safety in her ships, soon afterwards invaded and sacked by the Persians.
>>
>> The Persian navy pursued the Athenian and allied cities' ships, thinking them cornered, and Themistokles intervened yet again, persuading again with trickery, this time that the allied navy must fight the Persians rather than run, ultimately resulting in a decisive Greek naval victory at Salamis. The Persian defeat was viewed personally by Xerxes, watching from a throne on a nearby hilltop. Xerxes fully expected to be entertained by viewing a slaughter of the Greeks, thereby bloodily demonstrating his absolute power. Instead, Xerxes fearing for his life after the naval defeat, fled to Asia leaving behind only part of his army, the remaining men commanded by Mardonius, who, the next spring was killed with much of the remaining Persian force at the decisive infantry battle of Plataia.
>>
>> The allied navy and its victory at Salamis was the turning point, the Persian invasion had been stopped, the west had been saved from Persian domination. The coin shown is part of the emergency coinage of the Laurion silver used to pay for constructing and manning the Athenians' ships.
>>
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