+LHudson TV And? These are re-enactors, they are not meant to kill each other, and no these people were not meant to fight like in the movie 300, theya actually fight in formations, which is realistic, this is the kind of phalanx in a smaller scale that would have been deployed into battle back in the day, their op for might have been a bunch of stone throwing monkeys but once again this is NOT meant to be a real battle of thousands of soldiers (believe it or not that's way too expensive) the only real difference is that hoplites back in the day would have had way more discipline but ONCE AGAIN, they are re-enactors, not professional soldiers.
+Blake.... I Like Hedgehogs.... I'm not sure what those eyes are, could be eagle's - the bird of Zeus but regardless - there really should be little owls on at least a few of the shields. If I was an Athenian, I'd paint the symbol of our eponymous goddess and the city itself on my aspis.
+Jay D'eath The groups came from around the world at two months notice, had one afternoons practice, with sharp ended spars and butt spikes it was safer not to be in close formation, The group that was to form the bulk of the Persian army pulled out on the eve of the battle when the other groups were already in transit. It was then impossible to find replacements
What a sight a true phalanx in ancient times must have been! Great renditions from these reenactors. You can see the diversity and locality of ancient Greek soldiers. I wonder however if their dress was as short as many are wearing it in this reenactement. If I was a soldier back then, I'd want to have protection and warmth extending to my knees.
They did in fact have short dress, the reasons were because it’s hot in Greece and the shield covered down to their knees and they already had greaves covering their shins
This was the first time these reenacters had come together, they come from U.K. Canada, Australia, U.S.A. France Spain, Greece, Italy, and had approx. 30 mins practice. If they had run from the start as was pondered the battle would have been over very quickly with only a very short show for the public. Help in depolyment ....well I am sure that has happened in many a battle
Widespread lack of shinguards is alarming. Not only were they essential in battle - but they come in very handy during re-enactments and sparring to prevent injuries. The shields and general outfits look beautiful though :D
Probably one of the best recreations of a Greek phalanx I've yet seen! although I'm not sure the 4thC BC Thracian (bearded type) helmet would have been seen on the Battlefield at that time, made famous by the Macedonian army under King Phillip and later Alexander the great. Great vid thanks 👍❤️
It was a neat little demonstration If you consider that ordinary citizens don't get to see something like this too often, if at all. If you want it to seem more realistic, look up a picture of modern-day marathon ( or just picture it in your mind), then imagine somewhere around 10,000 Athenians holding off more than a hundred thousand Persian infantry and Immortals. Imagine the lake of blood on the ground, the terrifying howl of angry Greeks, the sound of spears crashing against bronze shields, and the completely unnatural smack of iron entering human flesh and bone. The horror of battle, REAL battle, is a ghostly concept that humans can never comprehend or recreate unless we experience it ourselves, and since ancient battles are ,well, ancient and cannot be experienced or recreated (especially with the number of actors it would take to do so), of course this reenactment is going to seem ridiculous. Sorry to preach, but take it as a preview of the real thing is my point.
I think it was between 20 to 30 thousand Persians, including cavalry- which was rendered useless by the terrain and Miltiades' deployment. .. (not 100-thousand. Don't take herodotus as factual/accurate). The Greek "pursuit" after the main battle would have more likely been a March in formation, an hour or two after the Persian retreat.
Historians debate the exact Persian number, and yes I exaggerated the number. Realistically your probably right of the fact that the greeks were outnumbered 2 to 1. I probably got lost in the descriptive writing. My mistake
By the way: your right about Herodotus. He did tend to exaggerate. I remember the story with the greek trying to hold a ship with his bare hands..only to have them chopped off
+Robert Staples I've read that the Greeks actually outnumbered the Persians at Marathon, and were mainly using bows. However their arrows couldn't penetrate Greek armor very well, so they were mostly killed retreating since their infantry was so lightly armed.
Drkon6 I don't believe that to be true. What's your source? All accounts I've ever seen support that the Athenians were outnumbered and Miltiades used the terrain and deployment to gain the advantage. As for the bows, The Persian Army standard deployment would've had their archers fire followed by their standard infantry + cavalry combo (Which they couldn't do because there was no room for the cavalry to attack the flanks).
+joaco the argentinian you are right they came from all over the world, UK, USA, France, Spain, Australia,Canada, Italy. It was all arranged in two months and one days training together on site
its so poor in quality because in Greece we can't have pride in our culture. Recent governments have made it very hard to learn unbiased history in the country and it is considered a sign of neo nazism to claim such things. A recent reinactment (summer 2016) was heavily critisized for being too backwards thinging and something unspeakable for a 21st century "progressive" country. And people wonder why the nation is full of shit
Contrary to what people would imagine, ancient Greek re-enactment is almost non-existing, medieval Greek (so-called Byzantine) re-enactment is in the sphere of Sci-Fi. Historical Greek re-enactment is at the level of 1-2% of the Roman re-enactment. For Roman historical representations you have 10s of 1000s of re-enactors, a whole market, they can set up whole camps with tents, ustensils and most often with high high historical accurace as much as it is possible. For ancient Greek re-enactment, and in spite of Greek hoplites actually being more popular than Roman legionaires among the general public including literature and films, there is no such market, a mere handful of re-enactors worldwide - probably you are watching here 90% of the world's hoplite re-enactors, LOL!
It seems unfair the Persian in this reenactment are too few, imean it would looks like more "Marathon" if they was much more and run charge at the greek and making chaos. Anyway thanks for the video! It's Always nice to see reenactments. :)
Max The Gaming Man That's true' But is still too few Persians in this war' but of course' this is just reenactment not exactly history lesson. Atleast it's nice they show up the both sides of them in this battle :)
I read that there was supposed to be a large group from bulgaria that would be the persians in the recreation of the battle. But something happened to do with travel and they couldnt make it. when life gives you lemons i guess
+Blueguy85 Your comments are very true , it was left to the group from England with a few from the USA and Canada, It was only a few from England that had brought along their Persian Kit, The Bus transporting the Bulgarians broke don on the way
The guy at 1:17 feels suicidal coming like this to a battle where the enemy has arrows... This is the Athenian battle of Marathon not the 300 movie version of the Spartan battle in Thermopyles
People need to chill. Real hoplites would be required to train regularly per their city state's laws and would have yearly military exercises to maintain operational discipline. An actual phalanx was incredibly difficult to maintain and required skilled officers and experienced soldiers. These guys are re-enactors doing this on their own time out of a passion for history. Unless these guys all work as riot cops, I somehow doubt they would be able to bring the same level of cohesion and organization that an actual hoplite phalanx would have been able to bring
You are correct. The weekend was organised over a couple of months, and involving Reenactors from around the world. The first time these groups got together was the day before the reenactment. We all had slightly different ways of doing things and therefore it was good that we got that far in the time we had. It was a great weekend and we now have lifelong friends worldwide.
at 5:13 i saw a pretty accurate armor...the Black-Yellow Hoplite woth the Yellow Pegasos. If i remember well this is from "logades" company the Athenian Elite army corp. But his helmet has many accesories as decoration , fact that ancients Corinthians did...do we have any info for this guy?
So where’s the phalanx formation at ? And why are there clothing completely different colours ? The armour’s yes they painted and designed them differently but in a battle it would have got confusing.
that has many historical inaccuracies but since every one of you build your armor according to your will and not to this Re-enactment the only thing i got to say is well done. We need more of these ceremonies to honor those who died for Democracy and to inspire the young to follow them steps. Ανδρών Επιφανών Πάσα Γη Τάφος
Dear uploader,do you allow me to download the video and cut a few seconds out of it for a Historical Reenactment Compilation video Im, making? I will give you full credit in the description of the video.
It is a little silly, but the men who died at the real battle of Marathon would be pleased, i think, to know some still try to honour their sacrifice and remember them and what they did, even across the vast expanse of time that separates us. Plus its fun to dress up to.
