Thermopylae is a pass between mountains and sea, in what is now central Greece, that was the site of many ancient battles, the most significant of which was between the Greeks and the Persians, in August 480 BC. Although significantly outnumbered, the Greeks held the narrow pass for three days, with the Spartan king, Leonidas, giving the final stand, along with a small force of Spartan and other Greek hoplites. Eventually, the Persians took control of the Straits, but Leonidas' heroic defeat would become legendary for future generations of Greeks, and within a year, the Persian invasion would be repelled at the battles of Salamis and Plataea.
Context: The Persian Wars
In the early 5th century BC, the Achaemenid Persian Empire, under Darius I (r. 522–486 BC), was already expanding into continental Europe and had subjugated Thrace and Macedonia. King Darius' next targets were Athens and the rest of Greece. Why Persia coveted Greece is not clear. Wealth and resources seem unlikely as motives. Other, more plausible possibilities include the need to increase the king's prestige at home or to subdue once and for all a group of potentially troublesome states that could provoke revolts on the empire's western borders.
Whatever the exact motives, in 491 BC, Darius sent heralds to demand Greek submission to Persian rule. The Greeks sent a blunt response, executing the envoys, and Athens and Sparta swore an alliance to defend Greece. Darius's response to this diplomatic diversion was to launch a fleet of 600 ships and 25,000 men against the Cyclades and Euboea, bringing the Persians within a stone's throw of the country. In 490 BC, Greek forces led by the Athenians met the Persians at the Battle of Marathon and defeated the invaders. The battle would gain mythical status among the Greeks, but in reality it was only the prelude to a long war, the main events of which would be many more battles. The Persians, the world's largest empire, were vastly superior in military and resources, which they would now use in an all-out offensive.
The Epic Battle of Thermopylae: How 300 Spartans held off thousands of Persians
In 486 BC, Xerxes I (reigned 486–465 BC) became king after the death of Darius and began massive preparations for the invasion. Warehouses of equipment and supplies were constructed, a canal was opened in Chalkidiki, and a pontoon bridge was built across the Hellespont to facilitate the movement of troops. Greece was preparing to face the greatest threat it had ever faced, and even the oracle at Delphi advised the Athenians to "run to the ends of the earth."
The Strait of Thermopylae
When news of the invasion reached Greece, the initial reaction of the Greeks was to send a force of 10,000 hoplites to wait in the Tempi Valley, near Mount Olympus, but they retreated as soon as the sheer size of the invading army became apparent. Then, after much discussion and compromises among the wary Greek city-states, a joint military force of 6,000–7,000 men was sent to defend the straits of Thermopylae, through which the Persians had to pass to enter Greece. The Greek forces included 300 Spartans with their helots, 2,120 Arcadians, 1,000 Locrians, 1,000 Phocians, 700 Thespians, 400 Corinthians, 400 Thebans, 200 men from Phleion, and 80 Mycenaeans.
The comparatively small size of the defending force has been interpreted as a reluctance on the part of some Greek city-states to commit troops so far north and/or as religious concerns, as it was the time of the sacred games of Olympia and Sparta's most important religious festival, the Carnea, and fighting was forbidden during these events. Indeed, for this reason, the Spartans had arrived very late to the preceding Battle of Marathon. Thus, the Spartans, widely regarded as the best warriors in Greece and the only city with a professional army, contributed only a small force of 300 hoplites (out of about 8,000 available) to the Greek defending force. These men were selected from among those who had male descendants.
In addition to the land forces, the Greek cities also sent a fleet of triremes, which was stationed off Artemisium, on the southern coast of Euboea, 40 nautical miles from Thermopylae. The Greeks had assembled over 300 triremes and their main objective was probably to prevent the Persian fleet from reaching the inner coasts of Locris and Boeotia.
The strait of Thermopylae, 150 km north of Athens, was an excellent choice for the defense of the country, as the steep mountains ended in the sea, leaving only a narrow marshy area along the coast. The straits were also fortified by the local Phocians, who had built a defensive wall from the so-called Middle Gate to the sea. The wall was in ruins, but the Spartans made the best repairs possible given the circumstances. It was there, in a strip 15 meters wide, with the steep cliffs protecting their left flank and the sea on their right, that the Greeks chose to resist the invading army. With about 80,000 soldiers available in the area, the Persian king, who personally led the invasion, waited four days in the expectation that the Greeks would retreat in panic. When he saw that the Greeks remained in place, Xerxes again sent heralds, offering the defenders one last chance to retreat without bloodshed, surrendering their weapons. Leonidas's strong response to Xerxes' demand was "molon labe", that is, "come and take them", and so the battle began.
Hoplites vs. Archers
Spartan Battle | 1,200 vs 10,000 Persian Immortals - Epic Cinematic Total War Battle
The two opposing armies were essentially representative of two different approaches to classical warfare – the Persian style of warfare favored ranged attacks, with archers followed by cavalry, while the Greeks favored heavily armored hoplites, arrayed in a dense formation called a phalanx, with each man carrying a heavy, round, bronze shield and fighting hand-to-hand with spear and sword. The Persian infantry carried a light wicker shield (often crescent-shaped) and were armed with a broadsword, axe, short spear, and compound bow. The Persian forces also included the Immortals, an elite force of 10,000 men, who were better protected by armor and armed with spears. The Persian cavalry carried the same armament as the infantry, with a bow and two additional javelins for throwing and piercing. The cavalry, usually deployed on the flanks of the battle, was used to clear away the enemy infantry, which had been disorganized by the repeated volleys of archers. Although the Persians had enjoyed victories in previous engagements, during the Ionian Revolt a little earlier, the terrain of Thermopylae was better suited to the Greek style of warfare.
Although the Persian tactic of rapidly launching large numbers of arrows at the enemy must have been a unique spectacle, the light weight of the arrows meant that they were ineffective against the bronze-armored hoplites. Indeed, Spartan indifference was embodied by Dienekes, who, when someone told him that the Persian arrows were so numerous that they would cover the sun, replied "better, we will fight in the shade". At close range, the longer spears, the heavier swords, the better armor and the rigid discipline of the phalanx gave the Greek hoplites every advantage and in the narrow territorial limits of Thermopylae, the Persians would have difficulty exploiting their numerical superiority.
The battle
On the first day, Xerxes deployed the Medes and the Cissians and after their failure to open the pass, the elite of the Immortals entered the battle, but in the fierce hand-to-hand combat, the Greeks held firm. The Greek tactic of feigning a disorderly retreat and then turning towards the enemy in a phalanx formation also worked well, limiting the threat of Persian arrows. The hoplites probably surprised the Persians with their disciplined mobility, an advantage that the trained professional army had.
The second day followed the pattern of the first, with the Greek forces still holding the pass. However, a ruthless traitor would tip the balance in the invaders’ favor. Ephialtes, son of Eurydemus, a local shepherd from Trachina, seeking a reward from Xerxes, informed the Persians of an alternative route – the Anopaia Pass – which would allow them to bypass the main body of the enemy forces and attack their rear. Leonidas had positioned the Phocian army as a garrison at this crucial point, but they, believing themselves to be the primary target, retreated to a higher defensive position, and it was then that the Immortals attacked. This helped the Persians, as they could now follow the mountain path unhindered and encircle the main body of the Greek force. Now in a desperate position and before their retreat became impossible, the bulk of the Greek forces were ordered by Leonidas to withdraw. The
Last Stand
On the third day of the battle, the Spartan king gathered his small force – the survivors of the original 300 Spartans, 700 Thespians and 400 Thebans – and took up a rearguard position to defend the pass to the last man, hoping to delay the Persian advance, giving the remaining Greek forces time to retreat or perhaps waiting for reinforcements from a larger Greek force. Early in the morning, the hoplites again encountered the enemy, but this time, Xerxes could attack both the front and the rear, and that was exactly what he planned to do, except that the Immortals behind the Greeks were late in arriving. Leonidas moved his troops to the widest point of the pass to utilize all his men at once, and in the battle that followed, the Spartan king was killed. His comrades fought fiercely to recover the body of the fallen king. Meanwhile, the Immortals entered the battle in the rear of the Greeks, who retreated to a high mound behind the Phocian wall. Perhaps, at this point, the Theban army surrendered (although this is disputed among scholars). The remaining hoplites, now trapped and without their king to encourage them, were met with a barrage of Persian arrows until the last one fell. After the battle, Xerxes ordered Leonidas' head to be placed on a stake and displayed on the battlefield. As Herodotus claims in his account of the battle, in Book VII of Histories, the Delphic Oracle proved correct in its prediction that either Sparta or one of its kings would perish.
Meanwhile, at Artemisium, the Persians were fighting the elements rather than the Greeks, losing 400 triremes in a storm off Magnesia and others in a second storm off Euboea. When the two fleets finally met, the Greeks fought late in the day and thus limited the duration of each engagement, which reduced the Persian numerical advantage. However, the outcome of the battle was inconclusive and upon hearing the news of Leonidas' defeat, the fleet withdrew to Salamis.
The aftermath
The Battle of Thermopylae, and especially the Spartan role in it, quickly took on mythical proportions among the Greeks. Free men, out of respect for their laws, sacrificed themselves to defend their way of life against foreign aggression. As Simonides' epitaph at the site of the fallen states: "O stranger, announce to the Lacedaemonians that we are buried here, obeying their orders."
A magnificent defeat, perhaps, but the fact was that the way was now open for Xerxes to advance into mainland Greece. However, the Greeks had not said their last word, and although many cities were sacked and Athens had been plundered, the Greek army, under the leadership of Leonidas' brother, Cleombrotus, began to build a defensive wall near Corinth. However, winter interrupted land operations and the Greeks lured the Persians into a naval battle at Salamis, where they achieved a decisive victory. Xerxes returned to his palace at Susa and left the talented general Mardonius in charge of the invasion. After a series of negotiations, it became clear that the Persians would not win the war through diplomacy, and the two armies met at Plataea in August 479 BC. The Greeks, with the largest army of hoplites ever assembled, were victorious in the battle and put a definitive end to Xerxes' ambitions for Greece.
As an interesting footnote: the important strategic position of Thermopylae would make it a battlefield again, in 279 BC, when the Greeks faced the invasion of the Gauls, in 191 BC, when the Roman army defeated Antiochus III and more recently, in 1941, when the New Zealand Allied force clashed with the Germans.
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