Western Civilization Saved 2500 years ago

some astronomers recalculated the date for the battle of Marathon and it turns out that the 2500 anniversary was August 10, 2010, not September.


the date was recalculated according to the astonomical cycles,

…the Spartans said they wanted to assist the Athenians, but they were unable to do this immediately, because they did not wish to break the established religious laws. For it was the ninth day of the first decade of the lunar month, and they could not lead out the army on an expedition on the ninth day, they said, when the circle of the Moon was not yet full. And so they waited for the full Moon.

(Herodotus, The Histories, Book 6, Chapter 106)

ah, but the Persians also thought they'd wait, so took their horses away to graze (they had eaten all the local grass) and that gave Athens the advantage.

But there was another miscalculation:

but they also noted folks forgot to figure out that there is no year "zero", so the year 490 BC is actually 2500 years ago.

so why was the Battle so important?



I remember last year they held a lot of ceremonies to commemorate the anniversary.
This website has a bunch of lectures about the event, if you are a history buff.

and this is a lecture about it that is also a bit technical for battle buffs...it's from the excellent series at "The Teaching Company" so watch it now before the Copyright cops find out.