"The Battle Itself"

Tuesday, October 12, 2010 
Bunn ICC Auditorium at Georgetown University
Speaker: PETER KRENTZ

7:00 PM EST/ 4:00 PM PST (90 minute lecture and Q&A)

Peter Krentz  is W.R. Grey Professor of Classics and History, Davidson College, where he has taught Greek and Roman history since 1979. His book, The Battle of Marathon, was published in July 2010 by Yale University Press ( ISBN: 97803001208

Location:

- Georgetown University (for anyone who can attend in person)
- Teleconference/webinar from anywhere in the world

Free registration: http://marathon2500-2.eventbrite.com

Marathon2500 

People around the world will get a chance to participate in the celebration of the battle of Marathon, thanks to a cultural campaign initiated by the Reading Odyssey, a New York not-for-profit. The Reading Odyssey and Marathon2500 chairman Paul Cartledge of New York University and of Cambridge University will recruit the world’s best Hellenic scholars and sports historians to deliver eight lectures on the cultural, intellectual and athletic legacy of the Battle of Marathon. The talks will be given before live audiences, webcast online and archived for viewing or listening on demand. Lectures will begin in September 2010 and run through June 2011. To multiply their impact, the Reading Odyssey will work with thousands of universities, colleges, high schools, museums and sports organizations to create satellite listening centers.

Whole lecture series - free registration/information:  
http://marathon2500-fullseries.eventbrite.com

Herodotus free phone/web-based reading groups: 
http://herodotus2010-readinggroups.eventbrite.com

Individual lectures (from fall of 2010 - spring 2011):

Paul Cartledge, Cambridge/NYU, Tue Sep 28 @6pm ET, "The Context and Meaning of the Battle"
http://marathon2500-1.eventbrite.com   

Peter Krentz, Davidson College, Tue Oct 12 @ 7pm ET, "The Battle Itself"
http://marathon2500-2.eventbrite.com

Victor Davis Hanson, Hoover Institution, Wed Nov 10 @ 1pm ET, "Life of a Soldier—Greek and Persian"
http://marathon2500-3.eventbrite.com   

Thomas Harrison, University of Liverpool, Tue Jan 18 @ 1pm ET, "The Persian Perspective"
http://marathon2500-4.eventbrite.com

Dean Karnazes, world-renowned ultramarathoner, Wed Feb 9 @ 1pm ET “The Battle and Modern Sports”
http://marathon2500-5.eventbrite.com

Thomas Scanlon, UC Riverside, Tue Apr 5 @ 1pm ET “Sports in the Ancient World”
http://marathon2500-6.eventbrite.com   

Robert Strassler, Independent Scholar, Tue May 10 @ 1pm ET “Herodotus and the Invention of History”, 
http://marathon2500-7.eventbrite.com

John Marincola, Florida State University, Wed Jun 8 @ 4pm ET “Epilogue: What happened after the Battle"
http://marathon2500-8.eventbrite.com 

Peter Krentz Biography

How did the city-state of Athens defeat the invaders from Persia, the first world empire, on the plain of Marathon in 490 BCE? Clever scholars skeptical of our earliest surviving source, Herodotus, have produced one ingenious theory after another. In this stimulating lecture (and in his forthcoming book), bound to provoke controversy, Peter Krentz argues that Herodotus was right after all.

Beginning his analysis with the Athenians’ first formal contact with the Persians in 507 BCE, Krentz weaves together ancient evidence with travelers’ descriptions, archaeological discoveries, geological surveys, and the experiences of modern reenactors and soldiers to tell his story.

Krentz argues that before Marathon the Athenian army fought in a much less organized way than the standard view of the hoplite phalanx suggests: as an irregularly armed mob rather than a disciplined formation of identically equipped infantry. At Marathon the Athenians equipped all their fighters, including archers and horsemen, as hoplites for the first time. Because their equipment weighed only half as much as is usually thought, the Athenians and their Plataean allies could charge almost a mile at a run, as Herodotus says they did. Krentz improves on this account in Herodotus by showing why the Athenians wanted to do such a risky thing.

Peter Krentz is W.R. Grey Professor of Classics and History, Davidson College, where he has taught Greek and Roman history since 1979.