Alexander : a history of the origin and growth of the art of war from ...

VII.MILTIADES. — MARATHON. B. C. 490.During the Persian invasion of Greece, at the battle of Marathon, occurredone of the early tactical variations from the parallel order. Miltiades had buteleven thousand men ; the Persians had ten times as many. They lay on theseashore in front of their fleet. To reach and lean his flanks on two brooksrunning' to the sea, Miltiades made his centre thin, his wings strong, and advancedsharply on the enemy. With his wings he scattered the Persian arrayas was inevitable, the deep Persian line easily broke through his weakenedcentre. But Miltiades had either anticipated and prepared his army for this,or else seized the occasion by a very stroke of genius. There Avas no symptomof demoralization. The Persian troops followed hard after the defeated centre.Miltiades caused each wing to wheel inwards, and fell upon both flanks of thePersian advance, absolutely overwhelming it, and throwing it back upon themain line in such confusion as to lead to complete victory.Not many years after his Scythian expedition Darius, sonof Hystaspes, invaded Greece, and his army was defeatedat Marathon. On this occasion we find one of the first andmost marked illustrations in a pitched battle of what to-daywe call grand tactics. From now on we shall see sometliingakin to an advance in the art of handling troops. Battletactics would naturally come into existence before strategy.The latter, as a science, was not yet dreamed of. Many greatcaptains had to show the world what strategy was beforemaxims could be guessed.At Marathon Miltiades acted on a sensible and definitetactical plan of battle. He was one of the ten strategoi, andhis turn had come to take sole command. But the others wereequally divided in opinion as to the advisability of fighting.Miltiades pleaded with the polemarch Callimachus to give theits