The ancient Greeks have long been considered the forefathers of modern Western civilization, but the Golden Age of Athens and the spread of Greek influence across much of the known world only occurred due to one of the most crucial battles of antiquity: the Battle of Marathon. The Battle of Marathon proved to be one of the biggest sources of enmity between the Greeks and Persians, and Darius’s son Xerxes would seek to undo the results with his own invasion just years later. As it was, the rivalry between the Greeks and Persians would last for over 150 years and culminated with Alexander the Great’s destruction of the Achaemenid Persian capital city of Persepolis.
Although the Romans gained the upper hand over Carthage in the wake of the First Punic War, the legendary Carthaginian general Hannibal brought the Romans to their knees for over a decade during the Second Punic War. While military historians are still amazed that he was able to maintain his army in Italy near Rome for nearly 15 years, scholars are still puzzled over some of his decisions, including why he never attempted to march on Rome in the first place. Regardless, Hannibal was such a threat that the Romans responded in an unprecedented nature when the Carthaginians resumed the campaigning season in the spring of 216 B.C. by capturing the city of Cannae. Cannae is still considered one of the greatest tactical victories in the history of warfare, and the fact the battle was a complete victory resulting in the wholesale annihilation of the enemy army made it the textbook example for military commanders to try to duplicate. Of course, others usually were unsuccessful. Cannae was the kind of complete victory that every commander from Caesar to Frederick the Great to Napoleon to Robert E. Lee sought, and that few generals save Caesar and Napoleon bagged whole armies is a testament to the near impossibility of achieving a victory like Cannae.
