05-26-2005, 10:16 PM
There's been a series of programmes on British TV about how famous people's fortunes have "dis appeared" after their deaths. Each programme is entitled something like "Whatever happened to Marc Bolan's Millions?" We could ask the same about Xerxes!
It seems to me we may be moving towards a consensus. In my mind, the campaign goes like this:-
490: Xerxes invades Greece with awesome force of 500, 000.
Greeks make him fight "The Mother ****er of all Battles" at Thermopylae. Persians won; Greeks, nil.
Xerxes' slightly-depleted, but somewhat chastened, Awesome Force wrecks the bits of Greece which it has cleared of the enemy.
Meanwhile, his navy, said to outnumber the enemy's by 3 to 1 (though modern scholars dispute this, as well, suggesting about 1.5 to 1) and known to have more skilful crews, gets its stern kicked most woughly at Salamis. Xerxes' forces are still strong, but the campaigning season is drawing to a close and he can't afford to be away from the centre of his empire for long, so he departs for the fleshpots of Babylon (or Persepolis), leaving his General to occupy the territory cleared of resistance and to complete the conquest in the following year.
Important Question: How many men and ships does he take with him? Probably enough to reduce Mardonius' logistical problem to manageable proportions. That is, manageable with a strong Emperor secure at the heart of his Empire and still effectively in control of the Mediteranean.
491: Mardonius conducts a textbook campaign, outmanouevring his foes at every turn right up to the final day at Plataea, when he is unfortunate enough to lose both his most able commander and his life. His troops, without their general, his second in command or their Emperor, suffer a collapse of morale which leads to large numbers of them being slaughtered on the battlefield and a remnant facing the awful task of extricating itself from hostile territory where a resurgent and vengeful populace can harry it at will. Herodotos suggests 20,000 escaped Plataea as an organised group. Given the Greeks' total control of the land and of the sea, in home waters, it is not difficult to make the Persian retreat a nightmare.
It seems to me we may be moving towards a consensus. In my mind, the campaign goes like this:-
490: Xerxes invades Greece with awesome force of 500, 000.
Greeks make him fight "The Mother ****er of all Battles" at Thermopylae. Persians won; Greeks, nil.
Xerxes' slightly-depleted, but somewhat chastened, Awesome Force wrecks the bits of Greece which it has cleared of the enemy.
Meanwhile, his navy, said to outnumber the enemy's by 3 to 1 (though modern scholars dispute this, as well, suggesting about 1.5 to 1) and known to have more skilful crews, gets its stern kicked most woughly at Salamis. Xerxes' forces are still strong, but the campaigning season is drawing to a close and he can't afford to be away from the centre of his empire for long, so he departs for the fleshpots of Babylon (or Persepolis), leaving his General to occupy the territory cleared of resistance and to complete the conquest in the following year.
Important Question: How many men and ships does he take with him? Probably enough to reduce Mardonius' logistical problem to manageable proportions. That is, manageable with a strong Emperor secure at the heart of his Empire and still effectively in control of the Mediteranean.
491: Mardonius conducts a textbook campaign, outmanouevring his foes at every turn right up to the final day at Plataea, when he is unfortunate enough to lose both his most able commander and his life. His troops, without their general, his second in command or their Emperor, suffer a collapse of morale which leads to large numbers of them being slaughtered on the battlefield and a remnant facing the awful task of extricating itself from hostile territory where a resurgent and vengeful populace can harry it at will. Herodotos suggests 20,000 escaped Plataea as an organised group. Given the Greeks' total control of the land and of the sea, in home waters, it is not difficult to make the Persian retreat a nightmare.
