David Butterfield
speaker
739 appearances
1 recordings
1 series
first heard May 2026
last heard 20 May
David Butterfield’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
Trend
recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 1 in all, peaking in May 2026 with 1.
Appearances
TRIGGERnometry · How Civilisations Die - Ancient Greece Expert David Butterfield · 20 May 2026
podcast
Persia at the time had Northern Greece, had Western Turkey, Asia Minor, had North Africa, and almost had surrounded mainland Greece.
And both the navy and the army headed down towards Athens.
And on paper, on papyrus, it was beyond doubt that this was going to be not just the temporary, but the permanent crushing of Greece.
Sparta down in the Peloponnese got wind of this and wanted to help, but factually they arrived too late.
And so in 490 at the Battle of Marathon, it's just the Athenians in their full armor as hoplites with a band from the town of Plataea.
And incredibly, that force was able to defend and defeat
huge part of the Greek army.
The figures we're given... The Persian army.
Sorry, the Persian army, of course.
The figures we're given are astounding.
Six to seven thousand Persians killed, 192 Greeks
And it was so shocking to the Persian force that they effectively left to lick their wounds.
Meanwhile, Egypt revolts against Persia.
Darius dies and it falls to his son Xerxes to approach unfinished business.
And that's where exactly right, Francis, we get to 480 and the attack is renewed.
In 480, it's primarily a sea battle at Salamis.
But the context of that is, again, stunning.
J.S.
Mill, by the way, the great 19th century philosopher and statesman, he says the Battle of Marathon and the Persian Wars in general are, even in British history, a more important moment than the Battle of Hastings.
The reason being, it is not hard to see at all that if the Persians do have victory in 490 or 480, Greece is over.
Showing 381–400 of 739 · page 20 of 37
← Previous
Next →