As I was reading about the Battle of Tours in the Decline and
Fall of the Roman Empire, by Edward Gibbons, I decided to
compile a list of the significant battles in human history: the
results of which changed the course of history. Historians call
them 'macro historical' events. On an average, there have been
one such battle every century; but every three hundred or four
hundred years there have been a really major battle that changed
history for at least the next half-millenia. The seven major
battles are: The Battle of Gaugamela, 331 BC. This is the first
time a western nation defeated an eastern empire. The history of
the 300 hundred years before that had become the story of large
eastern empires, under an absolute emperor (shah-en-shah, king-
of-kings) menancing smaller western states. This set a pattern
of the so called 'clash of civilzations', and a similar theme
would repeat in the list. However, the impact of the Greek
victory was huge: it brought the Greek wisdom and culture to all
of known Asia: brou