The point of nabbing them as great battles is not their influence, or their purpose, really. It's the sheer numbers. I mean, when you've got an army of Athenians and Palatians outnumbered 3 to 1, and you CRUSH such a well-oiled army..that's really incredible.

The Persians didn't so much rely on "missles" as they did on bows and arrows. They had one heck of a line that would barrage the enemy with arrows, and then bring in their incredible calvary. (Aside from the infantry, blah.)

The Greeks DID use javelins. They were long, heavy spears. That's really their best offensive; stay in the phalanx and charge with your spear. I said javelins only because some soldiers tossed their spears as javelins and relied on their short swords for hand-to-hand.

To say the Persians had a better culture than the Greeks, well, I'm not sure about that. The Greeks offered too much in the world of science, philosophy, and democracy to be undermined by the Persians.

the greeks did not use javelins at marathon....actually small missiles were used mainly by the persians...greeks just went strait up phalanx...and crushed them.

BUT...

after that battle the greeks realized the military potential for light missiles such as javelins and rocks etc and began to use them

It's funny how the Persian Wars are popping up as some of the most influencial battles in history, because, in all honesty, they shouldn't of happened. Hellenic Greece was politically, culturally, technologically, and spiritualistically backward, with a trend toward disunity and an antipathy for cooperation. The only plus of the Pelaponesses was that it was rugged, and an invasion would be long and arduous. This fact also dissallowed for a unified greek state. Persia was a much more advanced culture, unified, with much more opulent and wealthy cultural centers, and a much longer history of a unified nation. The Greeks had a history of fragmentation- instead of allowing settlements to grow into large cites, as in Persis and Mesopotamia, whenever too many people populated an area, they moved away, creating a new city-state somewhere else from scratch. If Persia had continued on it's assimilation progress, the Hellenic kingdoms would have been cultural minorities in Persia, just like the Hittites, Medians, Egyptians, Jews, Babylonians, Sumerians, Assyrians, ex.

Greece was only able to conquer the world after it began to collapse, which is interesting. It was more that it's culture was favored by foreigners, who were powerful, and instituted it as a high-culture of the upper class and burghers of the cities. Interesting.

The Battles between Israel(modern) and The Middle East are all very impressive because the Isrealis not only fought off but slaughtered and counter-attacked some of the most powerful nations in the middle east.

The Battle of Issus - Alexander the Great's second meeting with Darius. The Persians surrounded Alexander's army, and Alexander thrust his calvary straight for Darius. Like a pussy, Darius fled and the Persians fell apart. Great victory of Alexander.

The Battle of Gaugamela - One of the largest ancient battles ever. Alexander had a calvary of 7,250 and an infantry of 40,000 and defeated the Persian army 5x its size.

The Battle of Cannae - Hannibal's best victory. His small calvary killed 68,000 Romans troops. Brilliant.

The Battle of Marathon - Most famous for the messenger who sent word of the Greek victory, and before he collapsed said "nike" and died. This is when the small Greek army, armed with swords and javelins beat the Persian army.

Some more recent ones...The Battle of the Bulge, Stalingrad, The Battle of Midway, The Battle of Hastings, Gettysburg, Waterloo, and the Tet Offensive.

The Battle of Thermopylae - You can't beat this one. 1000 greeks against an army of 3-5 million. Sure they were annihilated, but they delayed and demoralized Xerxes' forces allowing Greek victory in the long run. Molon Labe!

The Battle of Gettysurg- Turning point of the American Civil war. Up untill this point the Confederates were on thier way to a victory. Picket's charge and the subsequent weakening of Lee's army changed the war. A fractured US would have had tremendous implications in the upcoming world wars and the collapse of Europe.

The Battle of Kursk- Largest tank battle in the history of warfare, and the final turning point on the Eastern front of WW II. The amount of firepower that went into this one was just crazy.

Ah that's enough for now. I'd probably say something about Carthage v. Rome or maybe the defeat of the Spanish Armada.

Battle of Midway Island: Turns the tide of the Pacific War.
The Siege at Leningrad: Russian citizens survive 900 day siege of there city.
The Siege at Stalingrad: For obvious reasons.
Operation Barbarrossa (sic): Hitler's fatal error.
Operation Overlord: For obvious reasons.
Blitzkrieg against Poland: For obvious reasons.

Battle of Marathon :

keeps western culture uninvaded by the east. If it were not for the greeks victory here the greeks would have been wiped out and their unique culture that foreshadowed todayus wetern culture would have been gone. Marathon was the first battle the greeks fought against the persians and it was the one where the odds were the heaviest against them. Slamis and platea were easier for the greeks to win because salamis was with navy, and the athenians had an awesome navy....while platea was after the persians lost their navy, ie their supplies and support, so they were bound to be defeated on land.


Battle of Austerlitz :

Napoleons greatest victory (tactically and strategically) that let him to conquer....continental europe...basically.

this battle embodied the Napoleonic wars


Battle of Stalingrad :

The no. 1 turning point in WW2. People like to depricate the russians and the part they played in WW2, but in fact the russians were the most crucial country fighting against the nazis. the germans sent the majority of their armor and crack divisions to fight against the russians while most of the staunch resistance against the allies was just for the sake of buying time so they could produce more stuff for the eastern front. stalingrad was the point at which the Nazi momnetum shifted and the point at which the russians started to reconquer and pushg the russians back


Battle of Zana : for the same reason northstar picked this battle



i dunno, i cant name a fifth one....there are too many. but the ones above are some battles that are definately in the list of most important battles ever. limiting this to just 5 is tricky because you have to consider the entire world , i mean most people just name battles from western history...

Man thats hard I know very few ancient histoical battles but here are the greatest battles in US Marine history are:

The Battle of Tripoli: defends America's new merchant marine
The Battle for Bellau Wood:Not a major battle but a defining moment for the Marines who despite being ordered to retreat dig in and after two days of fierce combat defeat the advancing German forces this in the end helps prevent the kaiser's forces from reaching paris. It also give the Marines a reputation for ferocity and a nickname to go with it. Devil Dogs
The Battle/Return to Guadcanal(sp forgive me gunny): In round one despite being abandoned by Gen. Macarthur the Marines dig and are only overrun from lack of ammo despite orders to surrender from macarthur. On the return the nails are being struck for Imperial Japan in south asia.
The Battle of Midway: Led off with the destruction of Japanses carriers by Navy and Marine Dive Bombers the battle of midway destroyed almost all of the remining japenese carrier force.
The Battles of Iwo Jima and Okinawa: The last nails in the coffin for Imperial Japan the allies then bomb the hell out of the home islands ending with two nuclear strikes from Iwo Jima.
The Battle For Chosin Resivoir(sp) aka Frozen Chosin: Though a loss for US forces the Marines manage to retreat with 90% of their equipmen and all their dead and wounded while under attack from NK forces in comparison the US Army on the other side of the resivoir(sp) lose most of their equipment and some of their wounded but manage to pull out.