. Great captains : a course of six lectures showing the influence on the art of war of the campaigns of Alexander, Hannibal, Cæsar, Gustavus Adolphus, Frederick, and Napoleon. no mean engineering feat to-day. Shortly after came the Persian invasion of Greece andthe battle of Marathon (490 ). Here occurred one ofthe early tactical variations from the parallel order. Miltiadeshad but eleven thousand men ; the Persians had ten times asmany. They lay on the sea-shore in front of their fleet. Toreach and lean his flanks on two brooks running to thesea, Miltiades made his centre thin, his wings
. Great captains : a course of six lectures showing the influence on the art of war of the campaigns of Alexander, Hannibal, Cæsar, Gustavus Adolphus, Frederick, and Napoleon. no mean engineering feat to-day. Shortly after came the Persian invasion of Greece andthe battle of Marathon (490 ). Here occurred one ofthe early tactical variations from the parallel order. Miltiadeshad but eleven thousand men ; the Persians had ten times asmany. They lay on the sea-shore in front of their fleet. Toreach and lean his flanks on two brooks running to thesea, Miltiades made his centre thin, his wings strong, andadvanced sharply on the enemy. As was inevitable,the deep Persian line easily broke through his Miltiades had either anticipated and prepared hisarmy for this, or else seized the occasion by a very strokeof genius. There was no symptom of Persian troops followed hard after the defeated caused each wing to wheel inwards, and fell upon 6 GREAT CAPTAINS. both flanks of the Persian advance, absolutely overwhelm-ing it, and throwing it back upon the main line in suchconfusion as to lead to complete victory. «;i4-«. /fCr Battu or You must note that demoralization always plays animmense part in battle. The Old Dessauer capped allbattle-tactics with his : Wenn Du gehst nicht zuriick, sogeht der Feind zuriick I (If you dont fall back, why,the enemy will fall back.) Whenever a tactical ma-noeuvre unnerves the enemy, it at once transforms hisarmy into a mob. The reason why Picketts charge didnot succeed was that there was no element of demoraliza-tion in the Union ranks. Had there been, Gettysburgmight have become a rebel victory. The Peloponnesian War shows instances of far-seeingstrategy, such as the seizure of Pylos ( 425), whence ALEXANDER. 7 the threat of incursions on Spartas rear obliged her torelax her hold on the throat of Athens. Brasidas was thegeneral who, at this time, came nearest to showing themoral and intell
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