I've just finished reading a book about ten moments in history that were important to the causes of freedom and intellectual thought, and found it a very odd mix.

Shall we play "who can guess the eclectic mix of moments that someone in the very late 19th century would have chosen? And a starter [which surprised me] is that Waterloo ain't in there...

Now I'm not saying I defend these as *the* most important movements of history, but #1 in the book I read is perfectly justifiable.

Chapter 1 is "Defense of Freedom by Greek Valour", mainly but not entirely about Thermopylae and Marathon, but also including the Athenians abandoning their city for a time to the Persians, reforming and retaking it, and the whole battle to defend the Hellenic peninsular.

That's also the start of Sir Edward Cressy's "15 most decisive battles of world history", subtitled "From Marathon to Waterloo", obviously in order categorical. I think few people would argue with that as an important starting point.

In terms of justifiability it will go downhill very quickly.