class notes 3/21

Today in class we mainly talked about the Persian wars. We looked at a map and how small Greece was compared to the Persian empire. The Persians have a huge army and almost unlimited resources. This war should not take long. The Greek army have iron weapons that were meant ordinary citizens could afford to arm themselves. Foot soldiers also known as hoplites were trained to fight starting at an early age. They were armed with spears, swords and shields. They often fought in phalanx formation. They were considered to have the “home field” advantage. They were very motivated to preserve the democracy. They want to keep it. On the other hand, the Persian army had first archers which did damage from the distance. Then they had cavalry who would disrupt the communication between the generals and the soldiers. They had huge numbers and were far from home. This could kind of be counted as a disadvantage. They had a professional army which included soldiers/ their soldiers were lightly armed with infantry with bows, swords etc.