The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1920-05-02

rs Great Battles.
Marathon TO Waterloo.
Does Fighting Change His
tory2
II So, These Fights Did II.
By Arthur BRISBANE
Copyright. ists.b

statesmen are builders. Generals
and conquerors are destroyers.
They are honored. Monuments
tell how great they were. Build
ers often are forgotten.
But war and destruction are
often helpful. Tearing down, they
make room for new, better build
ing.
Read Creasy's Decisive Battles
fof the World" a book that seeks,
among millions Of fights that
have disgraced human beings,
those particular fights that have
done most to decide the worlds
history.
Greasy selected fifteen battles,
beginning with Marathon, two
thousand three hundred and
forty years ago, ending with
Waterloo, one hundred and five
years ago. In the latest edition
OF The Fifteen Decisive Battles"
other battles have been added,
bringing the narrative up to the
battle Of the Marne. How many
z chapters will be added in the
I decisive battles" book that will
be published toward the end Of
the century?
Will book published here-
! after have chapter on The
Battle Of San Francisco" or tell
ing of the decisive meeting be-
tween flying ships Of America
and Asia to settle control Of the
Pacific?
Shall we read also "The Battle
Of Paris" telling how Slavs,
Tartars and Germans rushed
over the thin line Of Western
European civilization and drove
it into the sea?
/. First the battle Of Marathon.
Athenian officers under the War
Ruler Of the year, Callimachus,
were gathered in consultation on
+, slope overlooking the plain of
Marathon. They looked down on
the great army Of Darius, ruler
) Of Persia. Athens was threat
ened by the mighty empire that
had conquered and ens!aved prac-
tically all Of the known world.
The army Of Darius was gi-
gantic. The Athenians had only
10000 men. The courageous
little State Of Plataea added all
it's forces, 1000 doing for
Greece in that emergency what
Belgium recently did for France
and England.
That was q fine group of, men,
Soon to lead the tiny army that
was to destroy the power Of Per-
sia and make it possible for the
civilization of Europe to grow
from a Greek and not Persian
root. Besides Callimachus, there
F., stood on the hillside Miltiades and
Themistocles, who contributed
more than any Greek to his coun-
try's greatness, and whose "grate-
full" country drove him at last to
die among the Persians. There
stood also the famous Aristides,
whom one Greek citizen wanted
banished because he was tired of
hearing him called "the just"
The hero of Marathon is Mil
tiades, who persuaded the Greeks
to attack in spite of inferior num-
bers. You owe it to HIM that you
speak the language you do instead
OF some Asiatic tongue.
Darius, who controlled every
thing in the world except China
and the Greeks that dared defy
him, had sent an unpleasant,
mixed army to seek the vengeance
he planned, when, according to the
Persian custom, ''he called for his
bow, and, having taken it, and
let the arrow fly towards heaven;
and as he shot it into the air, he
said: % Supreme God Grant me
that / may avenge myself on the
Athenians.'
Herodotus says the Persians
thought the Athenians had gone
crazy when they saw them rush
ing at the huge Persian army, the
Greeks having no horses, no men
Win DOWS ana drTOWS IN Cnelr
army, rushing against Darius
"mountaineers from Hyrcania AMI
Afghanistan, wild horsemen from
the steppes of Khorasan, the
black archers Of Ethiopia, swords
men from the banks of the Indus,
the Oxus, the Euphrates, and the
Nile" and other assorted fighters.
The Greeks won with their long
spears. Their great men, includ-
ing Aristides and Themistocles,
led the fighters. The Persians
were driven into the water and
onto their ships. Callimachus
died trying to set fire to the Per-
sian fleet.
If anything changed the history
Of the world permanently that bat
tie did it. II left the Greeks in
peace to develop the character Of
Socrates, the philosophy of Plato,
the science of Aristotle, the artis-
tic glory Of the age of Pericles. It
would have been a pity if King
Darius had come to Athens to fire
his arrow into the air once more
and ask his Persian God to help
hin, cop0rtor oil Woutorr Eprnpo