A Persian historical simulation

Por: André Geraque Kiffer

The Battle of Marathon was the first time a phalanx had confronted more lightly armed troops, revealing its effectiveness. The phalanx as a formation was still vulnerable to cavalry (a cause of great caution by the Greek forces at the Battle of Plataea), but used under appropriate circumstances, proved to be a potentially devastating tactic and technique. Understanding as one of the decisive factors in the battle is the clash between the possibilities of hoplite infantry tending to frontal shock and cavalry tending to flanking movement, in the simulation it will be considered what would have happened if the Persian command had preserved a larger force from its mounted elite, securing the initiative and strike first on the battlefield. In the simulation will be considered the historical operational strategy of Datis, which is to get an involvement on Athens, but preserving a tactical force in Marathon able to maintain the initiative, obtaining a tactical victory. This would be obtained either by the destruction of the Greek army on the spot, or by its retraction under pressure from the Persian cavalry to the enclosed gates of the city-state.