The Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World
The Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World: from Marathon to Waterloo is a book written by Sir Edward Shepherd Creasy and published in 1851. This book tells the story of the fifteen military engagements which, according to the author, had a significant impact on world history. Chapters Each chapter of the book describes a different battle. The fifteen chapters are: The Battle of Marathon, 490 BC Excerpt: "Two thousand three hundred and forty years ago, a council of Athenian Officers was summoned on the slope of one of the mountains that look over the plain of Marathon, on the eastern coast of Attica. The immediate subject of their meeting was to consider whether they should give battle to an enemy that lay encamped on the shore beneath them; but on the result of their deliberations depended, not merely the fate of two armies, but the whole future progress of human civilization." Defeat of the Athenians at Syracuse, 413 BC Known as the Battle of Syracuse. Excerpt: "Few cities have undergone more memorable sieges during ancient and medieval times than has the city of Syracuse." The Battle of Gaugamela, 331 BC Also called the Battle of Arbela. Excerpt: "the ancient Persian empire, which once subjugated all the nations of the earth, was defeated when Alexander had won his victory at Arbela." The Battle of the Metaurus, 207 BC Excerpt: "That battle was the determining crisis of the contest, not merely between Rome and Carthage, but between the two great families of the world..." Victory of Arminius over the Roman Legions under Varus, AD 9 Known as the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest. Excerpt: "that victory secured at once and forever the independence of the Teutonic race." The Battle of Châlons, AD 451 Also called the Battle of the Catalaunian Fields or the Battle of the Catalun. Excerpt: "The victory which the Roman general, Aëtius, with his Gothic allies, had then gained over the Huns, was the last victory of imperial Rome." The Battle of Tours, AD 732 Also called the Battle of Poitiers. Excerpt: "the great victory won by Charles Martel ... gave a decisive check to the career of Arab conquest in Western Europe." The Battle of Hastings, AD 1066 Excerpt: "no one who appreciates the influence of England and her empire upon the destinies of the world will ever rank that victory as one of secondary importance." Joan of Arc's Victory over the English at Orléans, AD 1429 Known as the Siege of Orléans. Excerpt: "the struggle by which the unconscious heroine of France, in the beginning of the fifteenth century, rescued her country from becoming a second Ireland under the yoke of the triumphant English." Defeat of the Spanish Armada, AD 1588 Excerpt: "The England of our own days is so strong, and the Spain of our own days is so feeble, that it is not easy, without some reflection and care, to comprehend the full extent of the peril which England then ran from the power and