Be that as it may, Manzikert is
one of history's turning points and, as might well happen to the Horali
some day, was the battle the Byzantines never recovered from. This judgement
is made looking back with the benefit of hindsight of course: the
people at the time did not realise it was a mortal wound, albeit one that
took another *4 centuries* to finally extinguish the victim.
He is correct that many battles become decisive only in retrospect. Two other examples from MidEastern history of the same period: The decision of the Second Crusade to attack Damascus, and then the failure to take it!; The battle of Ain Jalut between Mongols and Mamelukes.
But writing books about decisive battles was one of the hobbies of popular "historians" like Fletcher Pratt. There would usually be 30 to 100 such battles. My question is -- what would the list of "decisive battles" in Gloranthan, or Genertelan, history, be? Room for a military history writer, there!
Jim Chapin
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