Persians (foreground) attempting to drive through the pass at Thermoplyae.
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| Leonides, Spartan General. Commander of the 300 Spartans and of the allied Greek army that met the Persians at Themoplyae. |
Persians (foreground) attempting to drive through the pass at Thermoplyae. |
The Battle at Thermopylae, by Brian Palmer, from his series "Great Last Stands." http://www.military-art.com/dhm512.htm |
The Persian King Darius lost the battle at Marathon (490 BC).
His son, Xerxes, tried again (480 BC) to conquer Greece. The Greeks
sent an allied army of a few thousand hoplites (heavily armed infantry)
to Thermopylae (hot gates)--a narrow mountain pass in northeastern Greece.
The point was to stall the Persians long enough that the city states could
prepare for later major battles when the Persians broke through. When Leonides
was told that the Greeks would be allowed to live if they gave up their arms, he
said, "Come get them!" "Molon Labe."
But on the fifth day...he (Xerxes) sent against them the Medes and Cissians... The Medes charged the Greeks full tilt and had many of their own men killed. Others replaced them, and their attack did not cease, although they were sorely mauled; but they made it quite clear to everyone, and especially to the King himself, that though they [the Persians] had many men, there were few men. (Herodotus. History.)After more days of repelling wave after wave of Persians, the Greek contingents from most of the remaining city states, realizing the desperately bad odds, left Thermopylae to return to their cities and defend them for when the Persians came through the pass. This left the Greek commander Leonidas and 300 Spartans to defend all of mainland Greece against 310,000 Persians and their allies. A traitor, Ephialtes, informed Xerxes of a path that would enable Xerxes to encircle the Spartans.
At sunrise, Xerxes made his libations and...made his attack.... (T)he Greeks, knowing that their own death was coming to them from the men who had circled the mountain, put forth their utmost strength against the barbarians; they fought in a frenzy, with no regard to their lives...Most of them had already lost their spears by now, and they were butchering Persians with their swords... (T)he Greeks retreated into the narrow part of the road, and...defended themselves with daggers--those who had any of them left--yes, and with their hands and teeth, and the barbarians buried them in missles, some attacking them in front...while those who had come round the mountain completed the circle of their attackers. (Herodotus. History.)
"Leonides at Thermopylae," by David, 1814.
The inscription over their graves read, "Go, stranger, and tell
the Spartans that we lie here in obedience to their laws."
The panoply of the hoplite. Spartan on the right. Greaves (to protect the lower legs); cuirass (to protect the chest); helmet; spear; short sword; shield (hoplon)
Photos from http://joseph_berrigan.tripod.com/ancientbabylon/id28.html