Buddha :: essays research papers fc

Buddha With the birth of the Buddha, being chosen as the â€Å"awakened one† at age thirty-five, his journey through life, and even in his death. Buddha has guided many to discovering the truths of life. Siddhartha Gautama became the Buddha at age thirty-five (Graves 1). The Buddha was believed to have been born in 563 B.C. in what now is Nepal but at the time was a part of India (1). The founder of Buddhism was the son of a chief of the hill tribe of the shakyas, who gave up family life, became an ascetic when he was some twenty-nine years old (Bary 3). Legends say that as Queen Maya, Buddha’s mother, reached her father’s house, got out, and Buddha emerged from her right side. Without any help he took seven steps in each direction on the compass. Where he had steeped, lotus flowers sprouted everywhere, though it was not the season. He announced, â€Å"No further births have I to endure, for this is my last body. Now shall I destroy and pluck out by the roots the sorrow that is caused by births and deaths.† Seven days after his birth, his mother passed away (Wangu 19). "One day, the Buddhist tradition holds, Siddhartha realized that his years of penance had only weakened his body." (Wangu 22). His body got so tired he couldn't meditate properly. Scriptures say he went to bathe in the river and the trees bent down to help him. Buddha sat under a tree and would not arise until he found the answer he had looked for (Wangu 23). The Buddha had an act of self-sacrifice. He had discovered the way to end suffering, so he wanted to share his enlighment with others (Wangu 24). The basic condition of life is suffering. Suffering is caused by cravings and desires. There exists nirvana, an end to suffering. The way to get to Nirvana is to follow the "eight fold path." (Graves 2). " The eightfold path is a series of eight stages that leads to the end of desire."(Wangu 26) About 300 million practice Buddhists (Wangu 6). After Buddha had found the answered he was looking for he set off for the towhist Saranth. There he thought people of his teachings. He drew the whole of life, which stand for his teachings (Wangu 24). One day a blacksmith gave Buddha a meal, which caused him to become ill (he was about eighty).

Project Mercury :: essays research papers

Project Mercury   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Project Mercury, the first manned U.S. space project, became an official NASA program on October 7, 1958. The Mercury Program was given two main but broad objectives: 1. to investigate man’s ability to survive and perform in the space environment and 2. to develop basic space technology and hardware for manned space flight programs to come.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  NASA also had to find astronauts to fly the spacecraft. In 1959 NASA asked the U.S. military for a list of their members who met certain qualifications. All applicants were required to have had extensive jet aircraft flight experience and engineering training. The applicants could be no more than five feet eleven inches tall, do to the limited amount of cabin space that the Mercury modules provided. All who met these requirements were also required to undergo numerous intense physical and psychological evaluations. Finally, out of a field of 500 people who met the experience, training, and height requirements, NASA selected seven to become U.S. astronauts. There names, Lieutenant M. Scott Carpenter; Air Force Captains L. Gordon Cooper, Jr., Virgil â€Å" Gus† Grissom, and Donald K. â€Å"Deke† Slayton; Marine Lieutenant Colonel John H. Glenn, Jr.; and Navy Lieutenant commanders Walter M. Schirra, Jr., and Alan B. Shepard, Jr. Of these, all flew in Project Mercury except Deke Slayton who was grounded for medical reasons. He later became an American crewmember of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The Mercury module was a bell shaped craft. Its base measured exactly 74.5 inches wide and it was nine feet tall. For its boosters NASA chose two U.S. military rockets: the Army’s Redstone, which provided 78,000 pounds of thrust, was used for suborbital flights, and the Air Force Atlas, providing 360,000 pounds of thrust, was used for orbital fights. The Mercury craft was fastened to the top of the booster for launch. Upon reaching the limits of Earth’s atmosphere the boosters were released from the module, and fell into uninhabited ocean.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The first Mercury launch was performed on May 5, 1961. The ship, Freedom 7, was the first U.S. craft used for manned space flight. Astronaut Alan Shepard, Jr. remained in suborbital flight for 15 minutes and 22 seconds, with an accumulated distance of 116 miles.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The second and final suborbital mission of the Mercury Project was launched on July 21, 1961. Gus Grissom navigated his ship, Liberty Bell 7, through flight for just 15 seconds longer than the previous mission.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The next Mercury flight was accomplished using an Atlas booster. On February 20,1962 it fired up and launched John Glenn, Jr., inside Friendship 7, into orbit. Glenn orbited Earth three times and when he returned the country

Matilda and How She Belongs Essay

The film Matilda is a clear representation of the concept of belonging, the ideas that are conveyed in the film are relevant to belonging by how they are displayed. The ideas of belonging in Matilda are that Matilda doesn’t belong in her family, Matilda finds a sense of familial belonging with Ms Honey, Matilda finds a sense of familial belonging but with classmates and that the catalyst for belonging is the personality of Ms Trunchbull, it creates a sense of unity for the class – giving them a purpose. These ideas of belonging are described by the use of camera angles, tone, quotes and the use of narration. From the start of the film you come to realise that Matilda doesn’t relate or is able to connect to her family. This relates to belonging that Matilda doesn’t belong to her own family she doesn’t connect, this is demonstrated in the quotes â€Å"Are you in this family? † â€Å"Mmmm†¦ â€Å"Hello? † â€Å"Are you in this family? † â€Å"I’m fed up with all this reading! You’re a Wormwood, you start acting like one! Now sit up and look at the TV† this quote is telling us that she loves reading but her family love watching television so the father questions her daughters belonging in this family. Throughout the movie the use of tone and colour with what Matilda and her family wears indicates the separation between her and her family, an example of this is that Matilda wears articulate clothing like the bow in her hair and the violet dresses but her family wear suits and cocktail dresses like those that wear on the television which are superficial that they idealise so much. So there are clear differences between her and her family. Matilda finds a sense of familial belonging with Ms Honey. When Matilda first enters her classroom she gets a strong sense of belonging with her teacher Ms honey, because she is drawn in by her warm kind hearted nature. Matilda finds a sense of belonging through the shine that Ms honey exudes, she also relates to Ms honey and the Choice of clothing is very similar. Matilda and Ms honey have a relatable childhood with them both having a barbaric narrow minded parent/guardian. The catalyst for belonging is the personality of Ms Trunchbull, she creates a sense of tyranny for the class and the school. Her demeanour and insidious punishments for children makes the average school life a living hell, this hatred and ill-behaviour towards the children gives a unity to over throw her. This is demonstrated through particular scenes. The scene where trunchball holds an assembly for Bruce Bogtroter stealing some of her chocolate cake, so she tries to set an example, but that foolishly backfires when the school unites and cheers on Bruce. This scene and the use of uplifting music, the constant repetition of â€Å"Bruce! and that Trunchball gets no response makes her feel powerless and now the children are all working together and that scares Trunchball. So the children strive to get rid of trunchball and it works there by their common goal brought them together. Matilda is a great example of belonging and not-belonging, its ideas about it and how they are represented make it a good piece for my analysis. So the concept of belonging can be found anywhere from simply being different to your family or to strive to see your principal overthrown, so what go you belong or not belong too.

History of Muslim Essay

Elijah Muhammad was born in Sandersville in Georgia in a family of 13 children. He left home at the age of 16 and went around United States. He settled in Detroit Michigan in 1923 where he worked in an automobile factory. He later became an advocate for independence of black people, spearheaded for black operated institutions and religion. The Muslim community established various centers for worship while Mohammed established a newspaper, THE FINAL CALL OF ISLAM. During 1930s he came into contact with W. D. Fard. ho was a peddler and had already established an Islam temple in Detroit. In this temple much of the features were anti white. Fard proclaimed Islam to the collect religion for the African American thereby denouncing Christianity as religion for the slave masters. The teaching of this group was similar to orthodox Islam which included Sufism. Elijah Poole, together with his parents became very inspired by the master fard teachings which they received. This made them establish their own Muslim schools for their children. Because they felt that education in Michigan was not adequate. Mr Muhammad stance on Islamic education was firm and the religious community continued to resist placing of Muslim children under white Christian teachers In 1934 Michigan state education board disagreed with Muslims right to purse their own education agenda and the Muslim teachers together with temple secretary were jailed on a false charge. W. D. Fard renamed Elijah Poole to Elijah Muhamend. Elijah Mohammed then succeeded Fard of the Nation of Islam [N O I] and became the supreme minister. He settled in Chicago due to hostility he got from other Muslim functions in Detroit. Elijah Muhammad built what became the best and important center for the movement. They owned apartments, houses, grocery stores and restaurants. Many temples were opened in other cities and farms bought to grow ritually pure food for the members. The teaching of the Nation of Islam was that blacks should develop independence in economics, religion and nationhood. They had very strict rules. Where the following was prohibited drinking, smoking, gambling, physical abuse of the black women and inability to protect ones family from attacks by violent white America. Conservative good grooming ,neat clothing were required while some kind of personal behaviors like taking drugs, listening to music, dancing were prohibited. Self improvement was advocated, end of race hatred and separation of nationhood aspects. Elijah Mohamed was a divinely appointed prophet who changed the theological teaching of NOI which had been laid down by master Fard which proclaimed that Allah the Islam God had an earthly incarnation. In 1934 master Fard Mohamed disappeared mysteriously thus leaving behind Elijah Mohamed to lead the group. In 1942 Elijah Mohamed was arrested at Washington DC for conspiracy, sedition, and violation of draft laws, sympathizing with Japan during World War 2 and encouraging members to be against military draft He was then jailed for four years in Milan prison at Michigan. His teaching was seen to be black separist doctrine. This states that blacks were the original people on earth but were tricked out by Caucasian through global white supremacy. He demands freedom, equal justice, and law and constitution that would apply equally to all. Regardless of color, race and class He also stressed on equal membership on persons to members in society and organization of civilized society. Persecution and prosecution of the Muslim groups became life in Monroe, Los angeles, Calif and Michigan. Many followers of nation of Islam were jailed for being conscientious objectors of World War 2 White owned media and white operated publishers begun to circulate anti -nation of Islam propaganda on a massive scale. In 1959 Elijah Mohamed delivered a speech where he was accorded presidential treatment and escort. Later political leaders begun a denouncing and smear campaign against the Nation of Islam leaders and described it as being an anti America theories. Minister Farrakhan defended Elijah Mohammed and nation of Islam against these attacks. After would war two Mr. Muhammad was released from prison and he returned to Chicago which was a central point of Nation of islam. He worked very hard and expanded Islam membership. Among the new converts were Malcolm and his family. He came to influence Malcolm x who was the leader of New York Temple an ex convict. He had came from jail where he was serving a ten year jail term for theft . It is at this time when Nation of Islam teachings are introduced to him by a fellow inmate known as Beines. Malcom marries Betty Shabazz and preaches a doctrine of separation from the whites society. But a pilgrimage from Mecca teaches him that Muslim religion is for all races thus he softens his strict racial stand and breaks his free dogma on Nation of Islam. He later became very popular, speaking on politics gained roots highly on the Nation of Islam. In 1950s Mr. Mohammad promoted Malcolm x to the post of national spokes man and begun to write weekly newspaper column entitled Mr. Mohamed speaks which was A news paper for the blacks. The membership of the Nation of the Islam grew tremendously. Nation of Islam got a big brow when rumors’ went on about Elijah Mohammed had sex with various young Nation of Islam women who were working for him, whom he had gotten children with. The leakage and discovery of this information led to Malcolm being driven out of Nation of Islam. Although this was part of United States politics and counterintelligence plot to destroy the movement. Another reason of the split was a comment by Malcolm on assassination of John F. Kennedy which so Mohammed to suspend him from the society. Shortly Malcolm X founded his own movement on religious and political reasons; which was more Orthodox than Islam. Later he was assassinated on February 1965. The alternative too change the philosophy of the Nation of Islam is the destruction of the organization. This might be accomplished through generating factions among contenders for Elijah Mohammed leadership or through legal handles to probate court on his death. Thus Chicago should organize on how to generate the factionalism to destroy the Nation of Islam by splinting it into several functional groups. The United States government was accused of playing a big role in 1965 assassination against Malcolm and using secret police to meddle about with the affairs of the Nation of Islam and the black America. After the assassination the New York mosque was bombed. Mr, Mohamed sent minster Louis Farrakhan to New York City to take over the mosque there and begin the rebuilding mission. Later the following year he promoted him the post of national representative. During the late 1960s the greatly growing Muslim movement extended itself to more than sixty cities and settlement abroad in Ghana Mexico and Caribbean. A host of African government and Islamic government all over the world received Mr. Elijah Mohamed and donated generously towards his mission and effort. He went on HAJJ visits to Mecca the holy pilgrimage and pillar of Islam on many occasions during his life time. In addition to spread of Islam honorable Elijah Mohammed is credited for his contribution of an economically viable empire and his development programme. Under his leadership the nation of Islam showed signs of progress with the establishment of farms, export and import businesses, aviation, health care, administration offices, shipping on land, sea and air and his plans to start a modern university campus in Chicago. In 1975 he introduced mi minister Louis Farrakhan as his helper when they officiated the opening a multi- million dollar mosque and school. After the death of Elijah Mohamed 1975 Warith Deen Mohamed son to Elijah took over leadership and changed Nation of Islam membership allowing white members. Thus causing a major split in the organization Due to his drift from the black nationalists the splinter group under Warith changed its name to Muslim American Society. The other was lead by Louis Farrakhan who happened to be Elijah’s assistant. Things took another dimension later when Malcolm’s window accused Louis of her husband murder. Many members of the nation were disturbed at the movement’s new moderate direction and withdrew to form more traditionalist splinter groups. The most important of them retained the old names . the Nation of Islam and was led by Louis Farrakhan born Louis Eugene walcort of British west Indian parents of 1934. Farrakhan generary retained Elijah Mohammed ideas and practices including the strict behavior rules. He achieved prominence when he became a major adviser to Jesse Jackson during the latter presidential campaign in 1984 Conclusion Although the nation of Islam does not presently advocate for violence by its members the group preaches hatred of white race and racial separations. The membership of Nation of Islam is organized and poses areal threat. The Nation of Islam is responsible for the largest Black Nationalist newspaper which has been used by black extremists. It appears to be personal fiefdom of Elijah Muhammad . When he dies a power struggle emanates while Nation of Islam changes direction. While change in philosophy is seen and government intervention is seen to act as bureaucratic deletion destroy and reduce the activities of the group.

Human Nature vs Personal Gain Essay

Growing, learning and becoming the best we can be are all positive steps that evolve from life experience. It is human nature that wants to succeed and contribute to society in productive ways. In the play The Crucible, written by Arthur Miller, individuals display an ugly side of human nature and are motivated by less than noble goals. Throughout the story, justice is often replaced by the desire for personal gain. Perhaps the three best reasons are greed, selfishness and betrayal. Greed is a motivating factor among many individuals in the play. At many times, John Proctor talks with Hale about Parris’s need to become rich, by gathering valuable golden candlesticks. He says, â€Å"He preach nothin’ but golden candlesticks, until he had them†¦ I think, sometimes, the man dreams cathedrals, not clapboard meetin’ houses† (Miller 65). Proctor says this to Parries to illustrate Parris’s materialistic nature and thirst for power, land and material p ossessions. Like Reverend Parris, Thomas Putnam is also greedy. Thomas uses his daughter to falsely accuse George Jacob of witchcraft. The accusation leads to the arrest and conviction of George Jacob by Judge Danforth. Giles Corey’s explains to Danforth that Mr. Putnam is dishonest and says â€Å"If Jacobs hangs for a witch he forfeit up his property- that’s law! †¦ This man is killing his neighbors for their land† (Miller 96). Thomas Putnam uses these falsifying witchcraft trails to increase his own wealth by accusing people of dealing in witchcraft, getting them convicted and then taking advantage of the situation by buying up their property. Characters like Parris and Putnam are so obsessed with greed that they do not have a conscience. Just as the evils of greed occupy Parris and Putnam, Abigail Williams is motivated by selfishness. She is vengeful, manipulative and a magnificent liar; for example, she goes into the forest at night and practises witchcraft with the other girls form the village. However, when Abigail is confronted about her disgusting behaviour, she chooses to keep  h er well respected reputation intact. Abigail denies that she was in the forest dancing that night, threatens the girls and says, â€Å"Now look you. All of you. We danced†¦ Let either of you breathe a word†¦ I will come to you in the black of some terrible night and I will bring a pointy reckoning that will shudder you† (Miller 20). She does this to also avoid being arrested. Not only does Abigail lie about witchcraft, she also stuffs the needle in the doll that Mary Warren made for Elizabeth. Cheever explains, â€Å"The girl, the Williams girl, Abigail Williams, sir. She sat to dinner in Reverend Parris’s house tonight†¦ she falls to the floor†¦ he goes to save her, and, stuck two inches in the flesh of her belly, he draw a needle out. And demandin’ of her how she come to be stabbed† (Miller 74). Abigail uses this situation to accuse Elizabeth of practising witchcraft to harm her Abigail. She does this to sabotage Elizabeth and, eventually, take her place as John Proctor’s wife. Abigail’s callousness with Elizabeth shows that her selfishness has no bounds or morals. If greed and selfish are not bad enough human characteristics, betrayal is perhaps the most cunning and provides the most false sense of security. Mary Warren accuses John Proctor of consorting with the devil and pressuring her to join him in his evil ways, which is not true. As Mary yells in anger, she says pointing at Proctor, â€Å"You’re the Devil’s man!† (Miller 118). She continues on to say â€Å"I’ll not hang with you! I love God, I love God† (118). Mary Warren’s loyalty to John Proctor is betrayed under pressure to save her own life rather than be hanged. Abigail betrays Tituba so that she does not get question by Reverend Hale. What Abigail says to Hale and Parris when she falsely accuses Tituba is â€Å"She sends her spirit on me in church; she makes me laugh at prayer!† (Miller 44). Abigail does not want to confess her practise of witchcraft in the forest with her girls at night. While in the play there is no shortage of characters willing to do the wrong thing in life, choosing to do the right thing is always the preferred path in life. Having to replace any form of righteousness (justice) with greed, selfishness or betrayal does not justify our actions or means for the end result. Each one of the characters in the crucible mention in the above paragraph have all demonstrated that some form of human nature for self rewardance was place before justice/righteousness. There are always consequences when the truth is not told. Whenever we use these actions in our character they always lead us away in the opposite  direction from our true and honest goals. Righteousness in the heart produces beauty in the character. Works Cited Miller, Arthur. The Crucible. New York: Penguin Books, 1976. Print

Marketing and Nike Essay

We can evaluate Nike’s core marketing strategy as related them to the relevant marketing theories. First of them is distribution theory. Nike distributes its products on different level basis. The high quality products are given to a certain distributers while the low price to be sold at highly discounted price at the retail stores such as Wal-Mart. Nike has also become the leader in the e-commerce by being the first to the market whit its e-commerce website. This program represents the first time a company has offered mass footwear through the internet and provides competitive advantages to Nike. One of the other theories is advertising and promotion. Nike makes contracts with some celebrity athletes which can take attention to their products such as Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, Maria Sharapova, Ronaldo. This has created a relatively high level of Nike’s awareness. Nike also employed a large amounts of advertisements. Their aggressive advertising campaigns, celebrity endorsements and quality products all enhance their brand and image. The other theory is price. The price is not effective on their strategy because Nike’s target market is based on the consumers who care more about the utility and quality of the product . This strategy focuses on the consumers who like Nike and pushes the products value to a higher level. Once the consumer develop the product intimacy, they come to associate their person with the products and will pay whatever price quoted on the products. Nike use vertical integration price strategy and they also engaged in various channel level operations both to control costs and influence the price function. And when we look at the market segmentation theory, we see that most of the consumer of Nike’s products is mainly athletic. Their segmentation market typically targets athletes, both women and men, from the age 15 to 35. Nike focuses on creating premium consumer experiences on product innovation, brand leadership and elevated retail presence. But Nike focuses on athlete more than any group of individuals. This strategy is especially successful because of its ability to reach a large number of athletes. Although Nike’s core marketing strategy had brings lot of positive directions to the company, but it will bring negative directions to Nike too. The mainly negative theory is the cost theory. Nike had incurred high costs in producing and promoting its products. The costs are increasing among handling inventory, designing, advertising and production. The inflation had also rised the costs. So Nike has increased the products prices and reduces its marketing budget. Nike had also employed child labor in Cambodia to reduce its production and labor costs. This affected brand image negatively and many people stop buying products from Nike. Furthermore, Nike has been using child labor in the production of its soccer balls in Pakistan. One of the Nike’s core marketing strategies is depend on a group of athletes to promote its products. Nike prefers to have high profile athletes as its endorsers, like Runner Steve Prefontaine, Michael Jordan and LeBron James. The action and attitude of Nike’s chosen spokespersons could bring the impacts on its promotional strategies. For instance, it will attract the athlete’s idolater to purchase the products if Nike using a popular athlete as endorser. On the other hand, if the athlete were caught in drug addicted or any immoral attitude, it will affect the customers not to buy Nike’s products, thus will affect Nike’s sales, revenue and profit. There is intense competition faced by Nike. Their competitors are Adidas, Reebok, Puma, and so forth, whilst competition is tighter with the coming of Adidas. More, the product line is slightly different between Nike and Adidas. Nike faces many risks when they use their core marketing strategies to achieve their goals and these risks can come from both internally and externally environment. The risks will have a negative influence about Nike’s future development. Nike needs to stay on the top of changes in consumer taste and preferences as evidenced by changes in fashion. So Nike face the risk that fashion trends may change so fast that Nike fails to follow. If Nike cannot follow the fitness trends in the market they will face risks of losing market shares. To compete with this risks and problems, Nike should position it as a trendsetter and not a trend follower and be responsible to their customers. The global trends are to be fashion and personality. So Nike change its marketing strategies and products design to become more fashion and focus on the youth consumers. It brings risks to Nike because in the traditional mind of customers, they consider Nike only sell the athletic products. The fashion or the changing style products is unimaginative for customers to purchase. Not all the customers can follow the changing of Nike. Therefore, Nike should analyse the market and customers’ preference as well as customers’ buying behavior from time to time. One of Major Nike’s marketing strategies is to expand to overseas and become the leader in the world. It also will bring risks to Nike when they expand their business globally. Currency exchange rate fluctuations can disrupt the business of the independent manufacturers that produce Nike products by making their purchase of raw materials more expensive and more difficult to finance. Besides that, the global economic recession influence the overall business operation in the outsourcing countries. 2) If you were Adidas, how would you compete with Nike? One difficulty most likely to be faced by Adidas is in its marketing, compared to its competitor Nike, Nike spends more money on advertising and promoting their products reputation. Adidas will have a hard time trying to compete with Nike in terms of advertising and promotion, considering Nike’s utilization of low labor cost of production, Nike can afford to spend so much money in creating awareness for their products and gaining consumers loyalty by utilizing celebrities. If I were Adidas I would invest more money on advertising and create innovative means of advertising their product, having consumers in mind and following the trends of technologies, for example, Adidas can collaborate with IT companies such as Samsung to create innovative means of advertising their products. Also a merger could be good for the Adidas, if the right strategy has chosen. For example; Adidas and Reebok joining up together as a merger would be a good deal for leading over Nike but the two companies have a bad reputation due to financial problems which almost led them to bankruptcy and since they are to work together.

Battle of Marathon Essay

In 490 B.C.E. the Battle of Marathon was a brief but important event in the war between the Greek city-states and The Persian Empire. The results of the battle had unforeseen effects on Athens and the future of Western Civilization. The Greek ‘Golden Age’, centred in Athens, brought about new forms of art, the foundations of future philosophy and redirected literature and drama. The achievements of the Athenians during this period were directly connected to the inspiration and prestige (which later translated into power) fuelled by the events at Marathon. How the events of a single day changed the entire course of Western Civilization is hard to fathom but obvious when one looks at the aftermath of that fateful event. The revolts of a few Greek cities of Ionia were what initially sparked the Persians interest in Athens, Attica and the Peloponnese. When Athens sent a small fleet in support of the Ionian rebels they immediately gave Persia a new target for further expansion. The failure of the revolts and the ruin of Sardis and Miletus shocked the Greek world. The Persians now thought, â€Å"if Miletus had been the glory of subject Greece, Athens was the golden gate to free Hellas. A bauble, perhaps, beside the treasures of the empire, but a tempting one.† Now not only did the Persian king Darius want revenge against the Athenians he wanted the entire Greek world to be integrated into the Persian Empire. In 490 BCE Darius finally advanced towards Greece. After the capture of Eretria, confident of their success, the Persians sailed on to Attica; and under the advice of Hippas* landed at the bay of Marathon, 26 km north east of Athens. When the Athenians received news of the Persians landing, they sent a runner (Philippides) to Sparta asking for support. They knew support would not get to them before the Persians decided to move so the Athenians then made â€Å"one of the most fateful decisions ever taken by a democratic government in ancient Greece. It was to advance and engage the Persians at their point of invasion, rather that to sit tight and try to hold the city.† . This decision was a radical one for a few reasons: the Athenians were highly outnumbered and historically, according to the historian Herodotus, the Greeks had never stood their ground against a Persian attack. Every major battle during the six years of the Ionian revolt demonstrated that the  Greeks preferred to defend their cities rather that fight out in the open. For these reasons the Persians were justifiably optimistic about their ability to defeat the Greeks. Upon the Athenian arrival at their base camp, away from the bay, they were joined by troops from the Athenian ally Plataia (about one thousand). There were 10,000 men in the Athenian army; a general represented each 1000. The ten generals of the army debated over a course of action, either to stay and meet the Persians as they advance or to attack them and try to take them by surprise. Miltiades* overcame the deadlock by appealing to the Polemarch Kallimachos who had an equal vote on the board of generals and convinced him to attack. Miltiades waited until the day of his prytaneia*, the day which he had supreme control over the entire army, to attack the Persians at their base camp. The Persians were taken by surprise and being unprepared, retreated back to their ships. While the Persians fled to their ships a point when only a narrow passage of beach separated the sea from a marsh was passed, it was here that around six thousand men from both sides were killed, the overwhelming number were Persians. Herodotus reported the casualties of the Greeks amounted to 192 Athenians, and an unrecorded number of Plataeans and slaves, the Persians lost 6400 men in total. The Greeks pursued in an attempt to capture the Persians ships but all but seven escaped. The Persians changed their course of action and sailed around to attack the now undefended city of Athens from the sea. The Athenian army was force to march the 26 km back to Athens in haste to defend the city. They reached the city and the Persian fleet seeing the defenders had returned, did not land but turned and headed back to Asia. The victory at Marathon and the successful defence of the city, gave the Athenians a sense of moral superiority and pride. In later battles of the Persian War, at Thermopylai and Salamis, the highly regarded Spartans and those of the Peloponnese were largely in control of strategic moves. Although still a major force in every battle, Athens and her allies were outnumbered and thus followed Spartan command. After the second occupation of Athens after the battle of Salamis, the Athenians gave Sparta an ultimatum due to a lack of Spartan support. â€Å"If the Peloponnesians wanted  Athens’ navy, they must save Athens’ land.† Because the Athenians had more damage to recover from it brought stronger confidence and overall pride for them once the city got back on its feet. The Spartans, Corinthians and other Peloponnesian allies now had reason to fear Athens growing naval power and its capabilities now that the city was repaired and invigorated with a renewed sense of pride. This is the point that we see the beginnings of a shift in the balance of power and influence between the city-states. When the Ionian states adopted the Athenians as leaders, as opposed to the Spartans who had been pre-eminent for a long time, the rise of the Athenian influence began to show. For the purpose of protecting all Greeks from a further Persian attack, a league was formed, of which Athens was now the leader. The league included all Aegean states in the interest of their common welfare, and was called The Delian League. At first it was as a leader that Athens lead the allies, who sent members to a general congress, in discussions of further campaigns against the Persians. But that would all change when other city-states adopted the Athenian form of government, democracy, either by force or voluntarily. Inevitably Athens became the leader of what was now an Athenian Empire. When Athens imposed their â€Å"superior† form of government onto other city-states it was no longer a league of self-governing city-states but a league ruled by one. The league, which was formed for the purpose of protection, now became the means for Athens to spread democracy. The Athenian Empire gave Athens a feeling of superiority; it felt that she had the superior form of government, superior ideals, culture and economic practices; that sense of superiority all traced back to the victory at Marathon. â€Å"Suppose, then, that we had never done anything but fight at Marathon – in point of fact we have done much besides: more than any other people of Greece – but just suppose; then Marathon alone would be enough to qualify us not only for the privilege we are claiming but for others too; for in that fight we stood alone against Persia – we dared a mighty enterprise and came out alive – we defended forty-six nations. Do we not, for this act alone, deserve the place of honour†¦Ã¢â‚¬  From the Athenian Empire and its attitude came many great things that had an unquestionable effect on the future of western civilization. Pericles, a famous name in Athenian politics, is a direct result of the Athenian Empire and all its ideals and attitudes. Pericles took advantage of Athens position of power and used money from the Delian League to fund the construction of major pieces of architecture in the city. Without Pericles there would be no Parthenon or Propylea, and Athens might now have gained the prestige it had during its Golden Age. Athens golden age was a direct result of the wealth and prestige of empire; without it Athens may not have reached the point where it became the educational and cultural centre of the Greek world. From this centre came great thinkers and playwrights; western civilization gained philosophy, Greek drama and literature, science and democracy. The Battle of Marathon, although only a single event, had an unquestionable impact on western civilization. Marathon allowed Athens to raise itself to a position of prestige and importance in the Greek world. The Athenians were given the opportunity to become culturally, politically and economically the centre of the Greek world because of the result of the battle of Marathon. Without the Athenians daring strategic move western civilization as we know it today would not be the same.