According to Herodotus, the Persian kings military personnel numbered 2.6 million in all. Battle of Artemisium and Therpolaea The Greeks were outnumbered and outmatched, but they fought bravely against the Persians. The normally antagonistic Greek city-states, Athens and Sparta chief among them, had already brokered a fairly unprecedented alliance in the face of what they realized was a shared existential threat. Copyright 2015-2023 National Geographic Partners, LLC. Xerxes too found this behavior odd, but Demaratus explained that the Spartans were in the habit of grooming their hair before risking their lives. They repulsed the first wave of attackers, and then a second group composed of the Persians finest warriors, called the Immortals. initial volley of arrows to do as much damage to enemies as possible before sending a huge number of infantry in waves to overwhelm the remaining defenders. With the death of the lastGreek defender, Xerxes ordered that the defensive wall at Thermopylae to be torn down, and This would simply slow the Persian advance in order to By this time the spears of most of them were broken, and they were slaying the Persians with their swords, recounted Herodotus. [I] am not surprised if in Sparta they deem death preferable to a life so steeped in dishonour and reproach.. The Epic Battle of Thermopylae Remains One of the Most Stirring On the second day of battle, Xerxes became impatient and ordered his troops to attack again. While dangerously exposed, he was better placed to deploy his men and kill the greatest number of enemies. It was fought between an alliance of Greek city-states, led by Sparta, and the Persian Empire of Xerxes I. After furious debate, the plan was rejected. and fight to the end with the Spartans. When Leonidas learned that the Persians had his forces surrounded, he called a council of war. Leonidas, alerted to the Persians' movements, made a quick decision. Leonidas, aged about 60, had ascended the throne around 490 B.C., after the previous king, his half brother, Cleomenes, died heirless. Battle of Artemisium - Wikipedia In Sparta, men generally married around the age of thirty, so soldiers with sons were probably in their thirties or forties. Retrieved from https://www.worldhistory.org/image/1134/battle-of-thermopylae-480-bce/. They repulsed the first wave of attackers, and then a second group composed of the Persians finest warriors, called the Immortals. It was here, at the Middle Gate, that the Greeks defended the pass. At the front of a Spartan phalanx, Leonidas is finally slain by the Persians, a moment depicted here by the Italian painter Massimo dAzeglio, circa 1823, housed at the Civic Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art of Turin. Thermopylae was a strategic location, because the Persians had to travel along a road through this region in order Glory and revenge brought Xerxes to Thermopylae. HistoryNet.com contains daily features, photo galleries and over 25,000 articles originally published in our nine magazines. pass that would further obstruct the Persian army's ability to advance along the road. Kleombrotos, Leonidas' brother took over command of the Spartan army and prepared to defend the isthmus of Corinth from an expected Persian attack. He had also discovered reasons to think twice before sending his men in to fight Spartans. Xerxes accepted the Thebans as allies, but he nevertheless had them branded on the forehead with the royal mark, beginning with their commander, Leontiades. Plutarch wrote that when the king was asked before the battle, What, Leonidas, do you come to fight so great a number with so few? he replied laconically, I have enough, since they are to be killed.. "Battle of Thermopylae 480 BCE." In exchange for a handsome reward, he promised to show the Persian soldiers the way. He wore a felt hat or a turban on his head, while his lower body was covered either by a long draped robe or by a pair of trousers. Leonidas reasoned that in its confines a small number of men could hold off the Persians. throughout the course of the battle, fearful for his safety as he watched his best soldiers die in droves. The battle was a relatively small setback for the Persians, who would go on to burn Athens afterwards and continue their invasion of Greece. was a king of the city-state of Sparta from about 490 B.C. The seven hundred Thespians at Thermopylae died fighting with the Spartans. 01 Jun 2023. Knowing this, Leonidas may have believed that his sacrifice would save his city-state. The battle opened with wave after wave of Persians attacking, but each broke on the long spears and the rugged training of the Greek infantrymen. One Spartan king had died trying to stop Persias march southward and another had put his life on the line in an endeavor to deflect it. Battle of Thermopylae The Persians best troops, the so-called Immortals, did no better than their less elite comrades when they were committed to the fight late in the first day. Thespians: The Forgotten Heroes of the Battle of Thermopylae Japan had little chance of victoryso why did it attack Pearl Harbour? The navy stopped about fifty miles to the north, at Aphetae, opposite the Greek fleet at Artemisium. History is a guide to navigation in perilous times. Because the Olympic Games, and perhaps the Carnea too, especially involved youth, men with sons might possibly have been exempted from attending religious observances which makes them the logical option for the mission. Greek commanders decided that there was nothing more to be gained at Artemisium and they retreat back to Athens that night. Fact or Fiction: 300 Spartans Fought A Million Persians In The They must have made an odd pair, the king of kings in his purple robes and gold jewelry and the austere Spartan, raised in a country whose citizens slept on straw pallets and allowed their sons only one cloak a year. The historian said that Leonidas had three reasons to have the Spartans stay: a sense of propriety, a desire to fulfill a prophecy that only the death of a king could save Sparta, and a thirst for glory a primitive wish out of the pages of Homer. When Leonidas finally fell, the Greeks drove the enemy off four times before recovering his body. The history of the Battle of Thermopylae comes to us today from a few ancient Greek historians, including Herodotus, the , . Their accounts largely line up with each other, though they do disagree on a few minor points. On the fifth day, however, Xerxes patience wore out. The braids of his long hair ran out from under his helmet, while a horsehair plume swayed above it. Finally Leonidas fell. Although they had been defeated at Thermopylae, the Greeks went on to defeat Xerxes' army at Salamis later that year. A gold daric from the fifth century B.C. In early June of 480 B.C., a mighty Persian army crossed the Dardanelles strait on two pontoon bridges to continue a brutal advance into Greece. The Persians, led by King Xerxes, had WebThe battle of Thermopylae between Greeks led by Leonidas and Persians led by Xerxes. Their swords were shorter than those of the Greeks, and their shields were smaller. Spartan casualties were light, but Persian losses were huge. The Persian army was a massive force, estimated to be around 100,000 men strong. Greece would become a Persian province. Battle of Thermopylae: History, Facts, and Location - TheCollector When Xerxes arrived at Thermopylae in mid-August, he met a stern resistance that was ready for him. Yet they were each easily outstripped by the seven hundred men from the tiny city-state of Thespiae. when the Kallidromo massif formed the southern wall of the narrow Thermopylae Pass, and the northern boundary was the Aegean Sea. A similarly massive Persian navy also set sail for Greece around this time. Xerxes' army reached Athens shortly after the retreating Greek navy. 31 May 2023 18:55:25 WebHitman82 Terms in this set (18) When was the battle of Thermoply and Artemisium 480 B.C. Here's what we really know. But the Greeks had the advantages of home water, short supply lines, and maritime expertise. Please note that content linked from this page may have different licensing terms. (Credit: Bibi Saint-Pol/CC BY-SA 3.0/Wikimedia Commons), (Credit: John Steeple Davis/Public Domain/Wikimedia Commons), Want More? What the scout had seen, therefore, was a deadly sign of Spartan ferocity. Nicholas Hammond accepts 300,000 Persians at the battle of Plataea, though he claims that the numbers at Doriskos were smaller. Second, since Persia was attacking Athens via northern Greece rather than by island-hopping across the Aegean, the allies would mount a forward defense in the north. In fact, Leonidas wanted to avoid unnecessary risk. This was primarily due to the differences between the infantry The approximately seventy-one hundred Greeks at Thermopylae were made up of about four thousand Peloponnesians from nearly a dozen different states as well as about thirty-one hundred soldiers from central Greece. Therefore the Greeks had an incentive to drag out the war until the Persians gave up. One thing most sources agree on is that the battle was born of both vengeance and ambition. Now the Persians sought to settle the score. This was a key moment in the war. Themistocles, an Athenian politician and general, prepared his city for war by using his fleet to ship the Athenians to the island of Salamis, across the bay from Athens. Leonidas ordered the Greek fleet in the strait of Artemisium to abandon its position and ordered most of the men fighting with him on land to leave the battlefield. Stoic Knights on Twitter: "Leonidas: A Spartan king, Leonidas led A map indicating the location and military positions taken in the Battle of Thermopylae in 480 BCE between the Persian invading forces of Xerxes I Die Schlacht bei Marathon by Hermann J. W. Knackfu, 1889. : If they could force the Persians to meet them in battle at points where the Greeks had a territorial advantage, they might be able to eke out a victory. The Greek fleet at Artemisium would keep Persian reinforcements from arriving by sea and cutting off the Greek army holding the pass at Thermopylae. Although they had not planned matters quite so precisely, the land and sea battles there turned out to be fought on precisely the same three days in late August 480 b.c. A coward would have to give up his seat even to a younger man, and no woman would marry him. Some of the more noteworthy contributions, besides the three hundred Spartans, were four hundred men each from the great states of Thebes and Corinth. Thermopylae is a famous battle in ancient Ephialtes of Trachis | Who is the biggest traitor of the history of Southern Navalist on Twitter: "Thermopylae has been given The Greeks were protected No Peloponnesian state wanted to risk sending a large force off to central Greece without first dispatching a smaller force to test the waters. for centuries. Nevertheless, prior to being at last overwhelmed by Persian spears and arrows, the Greeks killed two of Xerxes half-brothers, Abrocomes and Hyperanthes. For more great articles, subscribe to MHQ: The Quarterly Journal of Military History today! At the meeting, news was received about Leonidas' death and the defeat at Thermopylae. Leonidas: A Spartan king, Leonidas led a small group of soldiers against the massive Persian army at the Battle of Thermopylae. The Persians began by targeting Athens, one of the mostimportant Greek city-states. (Credit: Mino Surkala), Sign up for our email newsletter for the latest science news. The Thebans stretched their hands out in a gesture of submission, and they called out their friendship to the Persians. These main Persian forces could defeat the rest of the Greeks. The second question is just what were Spartas intentions at Thermopylae. The Greeks dubbed them the Immortals because they seemed able to replace casualties immediately, so their ranks were never depleted. Persians closed in from both ends of the pass in a classic pincer movement. give the Greek cities in the south time to evacuate to safety. Why fight a battle when the enemy might be scared into retreating? With around 26 000 to 28 000 men and a massive navy of 600 triremes, the Persians sought to subjugate all of Greece. Because much of Greece is mountainous, the invading Persians were forced to take a fairly non-linear approach to the Greek heartland, one that wound its way along the coast. That is when a local Greek shepherd named Ephialtes (whose name has since become synonymous with treachery) handed them the secret to victory. For two days the slaughter continued. Battle of Thermopylae The Greeks believed that men with sons were especially mature and reliable, hence they would make highly motivated soldiers. The700 Thespians,400 Thebans, and probably the 2000 helots also chose to stand According to Herodotus, Xerxes entrusted the advance to Hydarnes and his Immortals, who set out from the Persian camp about the hour when lamps are lit and marched all night up the trail. With his bronze helmet, breastplate, and greaves, each Spartan seemed to be sheathed in metal. That night, Ephialtes led a group of Persian soldiers through a secret path that went around the narrow pass. In the pitiless Greek light of high summer it was a reminder of Persian weakness. hand-picked by the king and given special training. As a way of punishing the Greeks, Xerxes ordered that Athens be burnt to the ground. Standing in his way in the summer of 480 B.C. The Greek commanders met, debated, disagreed, and most of the men started to leave. The Greeks, outnumbered and fighting to a certain death, displayed the greatest strength they had against the barbarians, fighting recklessly and desperately, Herodotus says. Though defeated at Thermopylae, the Greeks would ultimately prevail in the second Greco-Persian war, though not before Athens was sacked by the Persians. In 480 BC, he assembled the largest army that had ever been seen and set out to conquer Greece. Xerxes was determined to complete his father's work and Seeing his remaining enemies trapped on a hill with Over the centuries, silt brought downstream by rivers has shifted the coastline farther north. Xerxes, Herodotus writes, stood up three times throughout the course of the battle, fearful for his safety as he watched his best soldiers die in droves. Two major festivals Spartas Carnea (dedicated to Apollo) and the all-Greek Olympic Games (in ancient times, a celebration of the gods) took place the same time as the mustering of the Greek army. At Thermopylae, the road became a narrow pass that was bordered by steep mountains on one side and the sea on the other. There were other paths, known only to locals. Xerxes had learned how high the price of victory would be, if he could pay it at all. It demonstrated the power of a well-trained and disciplined fighting force against a much Uploaded by Mark Cartwright, published on 06 April 2013. It represented the struggle of the smaller Greek empire against an overbearing force bent on taking their homeland away from them, and forever enshrined the valiance of the Spartans. of History, US Military Academy. That was the question that Thermopylae would test. For 1.5 kilometres, the Persian army would become This is probably a legend. The other, Aristodemus, went home, but when he reached Sparta, he was shunned, marginalised, and deprived of his civic rights. WebThermopylae has been given far too much attention in popular culture. Or perhaps the king had now decided to die the interpretation that Herodotus strongly preferred, although he admitted that this was controversial. The Immortals were a group of hand-picked soldiers who had He was buried in Thermopylae, along with the other soldiers. of the Achaemenid Empire (named for Achaemenes, the semilegendary founder of Cyrus clan). Thermopylae - Terms to Know About The Battle of Thermopylae And they could leverage success simply by bloodying Persia and slowing it down. The Greeks pushed back Xerxes men time after time, and Persian casualties mounted. WebThermopylae has been given far too much attention in popular culture. until his death at the Battle of Thermopylae against the Persian army in 480 B.C. Thermopylae is narrowest at its two ends, the so-called East and West Gates, while the mountains are sharpest in the center of the pass, at the so-called Middle Gate (all modern appellations). be end in defeat and only wanted soldiers who had living sons who could replace them after their deaths. The fact is that war tends to make people more, not less, religious. At sunrise, back at the western end of the Thermopylae pass, Xerxes carried out libations. The Greeks had a fleet of around 270 triremes under the command of the Spartan admiral,Eurybiades, and the Athenian commander, larger and better-equipped enemy. Persians. And existing fortifications there, built by the Phoecians, offered another layer of defense. Defending the pass for three days, the Greek force was ultimately defeated. When Leonidas was aware of this development, he ordered the majority of the Greek soldiers to leave if they wanted to, which many did. His feet were protected by shoes. A combination of Greek boldness and disastrous weather (the gods of the winds, it was said, favored Greece) reduced the Persian fleet by nearly half. He sent his soldiers against the Greeks. Wedged into the narrow pass, the Greek tactics proved devastatingly effective. The gantlet at Thermopylae had punished the Persians. Taking advantage of a dilapidated old wall, which they rebuilt, they took their stand between the sheer cliffs and the sea. In the coming months of drudgery and blood, the sacrifices of the Greeks at the Middle Gate no doubt buoyed up the national spirit. To do so, the Persians assembled a massive army, pulling soldiers from all regions of their considerable empire. Thermopylae consists of a tapered plain that stretches for about 3 1/2 miles, from east to west. Stripped of its helmet, Leonidas head is framed by his long hair. The lean skin of the warriors face, its color gone, stands out all the more against a short and pointed beard. Each Iranian wore a brightly colored, sleeved, knee-length tunic, under which an iron-scaled breastplate protected the torso, but he had neither helmet nor greaves. Thermopylae - Chris Carey - Oxford University Press But ultimately, the sheer force of numbers prevailed. Whether they were deserters or just soldiers doing their job is unclear. The Persian spear was much shorter than the Greek pike, which put the Iranians at a disadvantage. According to Diodorus Siculus, Leonidas said, with grim humour, Have a hearty breakfast, for tonight we dine in Hades! Ephorus and Diodorus Siculus recount how Leonidas then made an audacious, early assault on the Persian camp. Ephialtes told Xerxes about the Anopaia path, which led around the mountain ridge and ended behind the Greek positions, beside the eastern end of the pass. About 150,000 men willing to die for the glory of Xerxes, the Persian Great King, came up against the most efficient killing machine in history. On the fifth day, the Persians attacked. On the plus side, Thermopylae was too strong a position to give up and a successful forward defense might have kept war away from the Peloponnesian homeland. A combined Greek army led by King Leonidas of Sparta took up a defensive position at the narrow coastal road of Thermopylae to prevent the Persians from advancing further into Greece. WebIt was a suicide mission, designed to detain the Persians just long enough for the rest of the Greek allies to gather their forces. Any more such victories and the Persians were ruined. Perhaps better known today as that battle from the movie 300, the Battle of Thermopylae was an epic, three-day face-off between a small group of Greek soldiers and the massive Persian Army in 480 B.C. led But even they couldnt subdue the Greeks and were soon forced to retreat. He plainly wished to die, Herodotus wrote, and so pressed forward in frenzy from his post. Aristodemus finally died in battle in an effort to redeem himself. The Of the three hundred Spartans at Thermopylae, only two survived the battle: Pantites, who had been sent with a message to Thessaly, and Aristodamus, who was also a messenger or in a different version was one of two men excused for severe eye infections. Prior to the battle, the Persians had lost around 400 ships in two successive storms along the coast of Euboea. This 3,500-year-old tomb held the treasures of Greece's 'Griffin Warrior', Dionysus, Greek god of wine and revelry, was more than just a 'party god', Vikings in North America? Herodotus adds another detail to the decision: The Oracle of Delphi had foretold that either Sparta would be destroyed by the Persians or its king would die. at Marathon in 490 BC. In order to do this, they needed to first deal with the Greek city-states who had supported the Ionian cities in Asia Minor in a revolt against Persia. In 480 BC, an alliance of Greek city-states led by Sparta faced an enormous invading Persian army at the pass of Thermopylae. The following year he returned to fight the Persians, this time at the Battle of Plataea. Formal defensive preparations began in spring 480, when members of the Greek alliance against Persia the Hellenic League met at the Isthmus of Corinth to chart strategy. A closer look only compounds the puzzle. Please note that some of these recommendations are listed under our old name, Ancient History Encyclopedia. The Spartans only had 300 hoplites because they knew that the fight would Whether it was the will of the gods or the stubbornness of the Great King, the Persians would not be denied their appointment in Athens. He told Xerxes that Sparta had eight thousand soldiers, all as good as the men who had fought at Thermopylae. Eurytus, decided to stay, and was killed in battle. Academy, D. o. H. U. M. (2013, April 06). But the barbarians as the Greeks sometimes called the Persians were waiting in turn. Following the defeat at Marathon, the Persian king Darius had died and was succeeded by his son, Xerxes. Xerxes advertised heroism in his very name: Xerxes is Greek for the Persian Khsha-yar-shan, the kings throne name, which means Ruler of Heroes. Tall and handsome, Xerxes looked the part. Corinth and Sparta both lie in the Peloponnese, a peninsula located several hundred miles south of Thermopylae, and which is protected by the natural barrier of the narrow and mountainous Isthmus of Corinth. Since the Persians normally took pride in treating their enemies with respect, they would not have insulted the body of a fallen foe like Leonidas unless he had enraged them by the force of his resistance. However, he stayed behind Maj. Samuel Woodfills Army career is the stuff of legend. The newly-crowned Persian ruler, Xerxes I, decided to pick up where his father, Darius I, had left off and conquer the pesky Greek city-states. Though he left a force to continue the invasion the next year, they too proved unsuccessful. On this ceramic plate from the fifth century B.C., a Greek with a shield bearing the image of Pegasus defeats a Persian warrior. A council of war was held among the Greeks to decide what to do. army was delayed long enough for the Greeks to prepare their defenses at the narrow pass at Corinth and to evacuate the people from the city of Athens. Themistocles. the narrow path reduced any benefit of larger numbers of soldiers. However, when it became apparent that the invading Persian force was Leonidas appears to have not expected a victory against the Persians, but hoped to fight a delaying action. The Spartans' bravery and sacrifice also inspired other Greeks to resist the Persian invaders. The story of the world's most important battleshow they were fought, how they have been commemorated, and the long historical shadows that they have cast The city-states central Greek location, however, put it directly in harms way. The Great King hoped to win the war in central Greece. Despite the impossibility of their position, Leonidas was firm in his decision: His 300 Spartans, along with a band of Thebans, would stay and fight. His selection of an all-fathers unit of Spartans might similarly have served a psychological purpose, in this case, unit motivation. Barry Strauss is an MHQ contributing editor and the author or editor of numerous books on classical history. That night, Ephialtes led a group of Persian soldiers through a secret path that went around the narrow pass. Leonidas, king of Sparta, commanded the ground forces at Thermopylae: 300 members of his royal Spartan bodyguard, called the hippeisthe subjects of countless books, movies, poems, and songsalong with a lesser-celebrated contingent of 7,000 soldiers in all, including 1,000 Phocians, 700 Thespians, and 400 Thebans. he continued his march towards Athens. had been aware of this mountain path, and he had sent the 1000 Phocians to keep watch over it. Academy, Dept. But on that second night, a betrayal sealed the Greeks downfall. In any case, it highlights the risks that real leaders take.
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