More on Greece

Today we continued to view "The Greeks: Crucible of Civilization" in class. Mr. Schick said that he would not be in class tomorrow because he would be going on the senior retreat. So he appointed me and a couple other people to help set up the movie and DVD player while he was out. He was really appreciative that we were willing to help out. In the movie today, we learned that in 490 B.C, a man named Pheidippides had ran 140 miles in just 2 days to inform Sparta about the invasion by the Persians. This story was what inspired the Marathon, the 26.2 mile race. Apparently after running non-stop all the way to Sparta, the Spartans had told him that they were busy celebrating a holiday at the moment, and that they would not be able to help defend Athens from the Persians. Meanwhile back at Athens, the Greeks had miraculously won the battle against the Persians, even though the odds were against them and they were outnumbered 2-1. They ended up slaughtering 6,000 Persians in one day.
Themistocles had been a warrior in Athens, and he rose in power when democracy was established. He is credited with the idea of building an Athenian Navy, and developing the Trireme.
Using the large deposit of silver they had discovered, they were able to afford building 200 of these massive ships. These ships had helped win another battle for Athens when Persia had invaded again.

This ^ is a Trireme.