The Danger Zone (DZ)

The Persian pursuit of the retreating Spartans looked as if it might be very promising. It was the main weight of the Persian army that was brought to bear against the Spartans. It looked likely to break them with their overwhelming missile fire. Well that was until Mardonius made his big mistake. Tag words: Persians; Spartans; Herodotus; The Histories; The Battle of Plataea; Pausanias; Lacedaemon...

From what was happening on the Greek side it was apparent to Mardonius that the legendary Spartans weren’t the fearless battlefield warriors that everyone believed. In the face of the Persians they were quire cowardly – knowing what I’m about to tell you, you are bound to agree. Right? Tag words: Mardonius; Spartans; Persians; Battle of Plataea; JFC Fuller; Decisive Battles of the Western World; H...

One of the important figures in the Persian Army had found himself in a life threatening situation. Cunningly he had cut part of his foot off with a knife. Saved his life, and was now standing beside Mardonius influencing the course of the battle for the Persians. What was his name? Tag words: Persians; Mardonius; Boetians; Athenians; Spartans; Lacedaemonians; Masistius; JFC Fuller; Decisive Battl...

True or false: the ancients had some knowledge of treating pleurisy and collapsed lungs using syringes and bladders? Tag words: Pleurisy; collapsed lungs; breastplates; Roman commander Lucullus; Victor Davis Hanson; The Western Way of War; Alexander the Great; Spartans; dog tags; hoplites; Herodotus; antibiotics; James Jones; The Thin Red Line; Battle of Cannae; hemorrhaging; edema;

The ground ran red with blood. At the Battle of Pydna, in 168 BC, how much blood was spilled on  the battlefield?  15,000 litres? 30,000 litres? 45,000 litres? Tag words: Battle of Pydna; Leo Tolstoy; War and Peace; Napoleon; Xerxes; Ten Thousand; Theban Sacred Band; Battle of Leuktra; Thermopylae; Plataea;

One great general was reported as coming off the field of battle "covered with the blood" of his enemies, "carried away by the pleasure"…. ; the commander had nearly become "blood drunk" from the killing Who was the general? Tag words: Phalanx; panic flight; Socrates; Clive James; Keith Douglas; Anthony Kellett; Combat Motivation: The Behaviour of Soldiers in Battle; ...

A truly fearsome and courageous Greek hoplite and also one of the greatest philosopher’s of all time, was described in a song as  a lovely little thinker, but a bugger when he’s pissed?  Who was he? Tag words: Greek hoplite; phalanx; Anthony Kellett; Combat Motivation: The Behaviour of Soldiers in Battle; Victor Davis Hanson; The Western Way of War; Xenophon; pike; Alexander the Great; Imperial Ro...

Which ancient battle, between Greek hoplites, was won by wrestling, and which city-state was it that won because of their wrestling skill? Tag words: Greek hoplites; phalanx; Victor Davis Hanson; The Western Way of War; sowing disorder; Spartans; Thucydides; Diodorus; Battle of Mantineia; Battle of Plataea; Thermopylae; Plutarch; Battle of Leuktra; Xenophon;

What caused the sudden collapse of the attack by the French armoured knights, on foot, at Agincourt? Tag words: French knights; Battle of Agincourt; John Keegan; The Face of Battle; killing zone; wall of dead;

At the Battle of Agincourt, the French knights were reluctant to fight the English longbowmen. Were the longbowmen such amazing soldiers? For a modern reader the reason, when I tell you later in this programme, might be hard to understand? Tag words: Battle of Agincourt ;  English  longbowmen; Battle of Plataea; Greeks, Persians; John Keegan; The Face of Battle; Richard Cohen; Making History; Sand...

Only 15% of American soldiers in World War II, when being attacked by Japanese troops in a suicidal banzai charge, actually fired their weapons at the enemy. True or false? Tag words: banzai charge; phalanx; Victor Davis Hanson; The Western Way of War; John Keegan; Greeks; hoplites; SLA Marshall; Men Against Fire; Professor Roger Spiller; Vasily Grossman; A Writer at War; blood up; German Landskne...

As the two heavily armed and armoured phalanxes of Greeks finally collided to begin the decisive struggle to determine the victor, the sound made by that collision wasn’t the sound you would have expected. Very far from it. More of that later in the programme. Tag words: Phalanx; charge; hoplite army; Victor Davis Hanson; The Western Way of War; Plutarch; Corinthian helmet; trot; Spartans; Thebans...

Herodotus tells us that  no Greek could hear even the word Persian without terror . But then Greece found itself in a battle for survival against this power. How was it possible for the Greeks to face and defeat this all powerful empire? Tag words: Persians; hoplites; Herodotus; Histories; Victor Davis Hanson; The Western Way of War; Spartans; skirmishers; cavalry; Greek warfare; phalanx; Thucydid...

Fill in the blank: Had it not been for the SOMETHING I do not think that we should have won the war. I’ll give you the answer later in the programme. Victor Davis Hanson. Les Carylon. William Manchester. Larry Siedentop. John Keegan. Tag words: CS Lewis; chronological snobbery; Greek phalanx; Victor Davis Hanson; The Western Way of War; Les Carylon; The Great War; William Manchester; Goodbye to Da...

Who issued this legendary order:  All privates will retreat, all commanders will cover their withdrawal. Victor Davis Hanson Tag words: Phalanx; Persians; Aemilius Paulus; Battle of Pydna; Victor Davis Hanson; The Western Way of War; Spartans; Battle of Plataea; Thucididyes; History of the Peloponnesian War; hoplites; Aratos; Aristophanies; god Phobos; god Pan; Nelson Mandela; Guderian; Rommel; Is...

True or false? You could grab a Greek’s spear and break its head off with your bare hands. Victor Davis Hanson. Tag words: Victor Davis Hanson; The Western Way of War; hoplite; thrusting spear; Persians; Aeschylus; The Persians; Marathon; Salamis; Plataea; Darius; Battle of Thermopylae Pass; Homer;

The Greek phalanx was normally eight ranks deep. Which rank did the Greeks place their best troops in? This is a trick question. I’ll give you the answer during the programme. Victor Davis Hanson Tag words: Victor Davis Hanson; The Western Way of War; Shield; Helmet; Greaves; Breastplate; phalanx; hoplite; Spartans; Romans; killing zone; Persians; Persian Wars; Corinthian helmet; coif; phalangites...

The men of Patton’s Third Army had a boast andt the Greeks, who had been at Marathon, had theirs too, that they said to their dying day. What was it? Victor Davis Hanson. Tag words: Patton’s Third Army; Battle of Marathon; phalanx; Herodotus; Persian Army; Victor Davis Hanson; The Western Way of War; Aeschylus; Battle of Salamis; greaves; a shield; breastplate; helmet; spear; sword; shield; Sparta...

Just after Mardonius had reached Thebes, where he intended to give battle to the Greeks on ground of his own choosing, he was invited by a wealthy Theban man, together with 50 of his most distinguished nobles, to a sumptuous banquet. 50 of Thebans great nobles also attended this feast. One of the Persian nobles there told the Theban that he was seated next to, a remarkable thing. Tag words: Mardon...

At last it was 1933. Hitler kept saying that he knew his destiny to become the Chancellor of the Third Reich would be achieved that year. If it didn’t then he would probably have ended up dead by his own hand. Hitler isn’t universally loved. Even the man who would become the head of perhaps the most feared state security organisation that has ever existed in this world, the Gestapo, Heinrich Mülle...

Themistocles, the Athenian general had master minded the Greek victory at Salamis. But the war with Persia wasn’t won. Mardonius still occupied northern Greece with a large force of elite Persian troops, including the Immortals. Poised to descend on southern Greece, and Athens, yet again. What did the Athenians do to induce Themistocles to stick around, to work a little more of his magic? You woul...

Gratitude – Let me offer the way the King of the Persians displayed his gratitude to the sea captain who saved his life – I bet you can imagine. On second thoughts … definitely not. What about the Athenians? Themistocles, the man who took the right meaning from the Delphi Oracle’s prophecy, no easy thing, then masterminded the whole Salamis thing getting everybody to do what he wanted even though...

As it became clear that the tide had turned against Xerxes at the Battle of Salamis, he made a statement remarkable for its day, but strangely one that we today, in more enlightened times, are completely comfortable with -  My men have turned into women, my women into men. Just now, you should be asking what the hell he meant by that. Tag words: Xerxes; Battle of Salamis; Artemisia; John Marincola...

The brother of which famous author had his hand cut off by a Persian wielding an axe? And what was his hand doing anywhere near someone who might want to do such a heinous thing? This part goes rapidly downhill from there. Tag words: Battle of Salamis; Xerxes; Aeschylus; The Persians; Michael Stephenson; Alan H Sommerstein; Cynegeirus; Herodotus; Histories; Darius; Sardis; Psytaleia; Richard Cohen...

Where does Salamis rate, since the beginning of this history to modern times, in the number of dead in that battle to naval battles like Trafalgar, Jutland and Midway? The answer will surprise you. Tag words: Battle of Salamis; Aeschylus; The Persians; Herodotus; Histories; Victor Davis Hanson; Carnage and Culture; Artemesium; Michael Stephenson; Battleground; Xerxes; Richard Nelson; Warfleets of...