This is a summary of personal notes culminating in a proposal sent to History Channel in view of including this decisive battle and the preceding one at Marathon, as well as the battle of Pydna, in a series of documentaries filmed by them.
The first two decisive battles put an end to the Persian attempts to conquer Greece thus saving the West from the foreseeable Asiatic expansion. Alas the third battle marked the end of the long lasting Macedonian ‘empire’ after the defeat of the last Macedonian King Perseus by the Roman general Aemilius Paulus on June 22, 168 BCE…The Greek Association of Traditional Equitation [GATE] has honored the memory of the battle of Pydna by organizing a historical ride from the Petra Pass to Pydna years ago. Presently, GATE wishes to honor the 2500-year anniversary of the battle of Marathon by proposing a longer historical ride ‘Aiges-Plataies-Marathon’ in September 2010. Our reason for including Plataies is to honor the effort of Alexander I the ‘Philhellene’, who galloped from Aiges to Plataies in order to inform the ‘other Hellenes’ [hence his nickname] that the army of Mardonios was marching from Thessaly to the south.
We do hope that there will be enough sponsors, governmental and private, to offer help in this important historical ride. In times of desperate situations, the Greeks have always proven that they respect history, have learned from it, and are proud of it.
Theodore G. Antikas,
FEI Veterinarian