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Leonidas and his 300 Spartan warriors are
surrounded by Persian forces. The Spartans
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deflect blow after blow with their shields
as enemy soldiers crash against them like
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a wave in a storm. Spears shoot out
of the Spartan line like lightning,
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tearing through enemy flesh, but they are
vastly outnumbered; many begin to fall.
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Shields are splintered, spears broken
in two, Leonidas and his 300 Spartans
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retreat up a hill to make their final stand.
Suddenly, an arrow enters the chest of the
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great king. Leonidas falls to the ground as
his blood soaks into the earth around him.
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The Battle of Thermopylae went down in history
as one of the most awe-inspiring fights of all
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time. But how much of what we see on the
big screen and TV is actually true? Not
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everything you have watched or read about
on the Battle of Thermopylae is correct,
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but some truths are even more incredible
than the dramatizations of Hollywood.
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The invasion of Greece by the Persians was
predicated on revenge more than anything else.
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Xerxes, the ruler of the Persian Empire, had lived
with the brutal defeat of his father’s forces by
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the Greeks at the Battle of Marathon.
His father was Darius King of everything
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and everyone from Egypt to West India, but he
never managed to conquer the Greeks. The inability
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to defeat the Greeks was both a devastating
blow and a humiliating blunder for the ruling
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family of Persia. Xerxes was determined to crush
the insolence of the Greeks once and for all.
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Ten years after the failed invasion of
Greece by Darius, Xerxes would launch
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his own campaign into the heart of the
country to the west. This time, however,
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the Spartans of legend would join the battle.
There would be so much bloodshed and destruction
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during the Battle of Thermopylae that the final
stand of the 300 would never be forgotten.
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In 480 B.C.E., Xerxes and his forces
began marching towards the center of
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Greece towards Athens. At the time, many Greek
city-states were warring with one another.
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But when Athens received word of their
impending doom at the hands of the Persians,
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they pleaded with the other Greek city-states
to form an army to stop the invasion force.
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The Athenians had been able to fend
off Darius and his forces in the past,
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but Xerxes commanded an army many
times larger than his father's.
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Surprisingly, Sparta answered Athen's plea for
help. Up until this point, Sparta had stayed out
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of the conflicts with Persia. But the leaders
of the great city-state saw this new threat to
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their people and land as too great to ignore and
decided the Persians must be stopped at all costs.
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From scouting missions and allies to the east,
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the Greeks received word that Xerxes' army was
enormous. It was estimated that he commanded
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somewhere between 100,000 and 300,000 men.
This military force would be much harder to
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defeat than the one Darius had brought with
him a decade earlier. If the Greeks were not
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prepared, this would spell the end of
Democracy and their very way of life.
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Sparta knew that the only way Greece would be able
to survive this invasion would be if they could
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gather soldiers from across the city-states
together. But this would take time. It was
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decided that the only possibility for success
would be if Xerxes forces could be slowed down,
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giving Greece more time to organize their
defenses. Scouts were sent out across the
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lands of Greece to find a location to make a
stand; someplace where the number of soldiers
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Xerxes had wouldn’t matter. Tensions were high as
some Greek city-states refused to join the cause
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while others blatantly backed the Persian
forces and welcomed their new overlords.
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But Sparta and Athens would not let the progress
they had made and the freedoms their people
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enjoyed be taken away by a foreign power. The
scouts eventually returned with a location that
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suited their needs. There was a narrow pass at
Thermopylae that the Persian army would need
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to pass through to get from northern Greece into
the center where Athens and Sparta were located.
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Thermopylae also sat near waterways that
connected mainland Greece to the Aegean Sea,
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which meant Athens' formidable Navy
would be able to hold off Persian ships
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and prevent any forces from landing on the
shores behind Thermopylae. This would stop
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the Persians from circling behind the Greek
forces deployed at the narrow pass, making
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sure the only way into central Greece was by land.
It was the best possible location for a defense,
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and the Greeks only hope for slowing down the
swarm of Persian soldiers approaching their lands.
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However, this location was literally the spitting
image of hell. The location was named Thermopylae,
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which translates to “hot gates” because
the landscape was filled with hot sulfur
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springs. This created an eerie mist
that covered parts of the battlefield
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and a terrible smell. A more ominous location
couldn’t have been chosen even if they had tried.
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The Greek's plan to slow Xerxes now had its
foundation. But there was a problem. Xerxes
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was already close, and there wasn’t enough time
to send all of the Greek armies to Thermopylae.
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In fact, many city-states still didn’t think
there was an invasion force coming at all.
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It also didn’t help that the Olympics and several
important religious festivals were happening
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at the end of summer, which would be at the same
time that Xerxes forces would reach the hot gates.
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Many city-states were so focused on
these other events that they couldn't be
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bothered by something as trivial as a massive
invasion force knocking on their front door.
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Sparta decided they couldn’t wait for the
rest of Greece to come to their senses.
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They needed to send a force to secure
the hot gates and give the rest of
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the city-states time to organize their
militaries. After weighing their options,
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Sparta determined that they needed to
send one of their two kings and a force
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of 300 elite soldiers to Thermopylae to
hold the hot gates as long as possible.
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The king chosen for this mission was
Leonidus. But before he could head out,
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Sparta needed to speak with the Oracle at Delphi.
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This was not an uncommon occurrence. The Oracle
needed to be consulted before going to war and
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making major decisions. However, when the Oracle
looked into the future, they had bad news for the
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Spartans. The Oracle foretold that the Persians
would destroy either Sparta as a whole or one of
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the kings of Sparta would need to die. When this
prophecy reached Leonidas, he did not hesitate
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for a moment. He would gladly lay down his own
life if it meant securing victory for Sparta.
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Now that the Oracle had been consulted,
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Leonidas needed to select his 300 soldiers
and head to Thermopylae to prepare for battle.
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It seems likely that Leonidas knew that he and
his forces would not be making it back alive
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as he only chose men who already had a
male heir to carry on their family lineage.
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Spartan warriors fought until victory or
death, and since they were so outnumbered
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and the main objective was to slow Xerxes down
as much as possible, no one was coming home.
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Also, Leonidas had the Oracle’s prophecy to
contend with. Unless he somehow managed to defeat
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100,000 men with his 300 Spartans and a handful
of other Greek soldiers, he would need to fight
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to the death in order to ensure that the prophecy
was fulfilled and Sparta itself did not fall.
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Sparta recruited as many other soldiers as
possible for the mission from their allies
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and the surrounding area. The Athenians
were in charge of protecting the seas,
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so they could only offer a limited
number of soldiers on land.
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Upon departure for Thermopylae, Leonidas
had his army of 300 Spartan soldiers,
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and around 7,000 other men made up of Athenians,
1,000 Phocians, 700 Thespians, and 400 Thebans.
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The force marched from central
Greece to Thermopylae. The stage
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was set for the greatest
battle in ancient history.
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In late July or early August of 480 B.C.E.,
Leonidas and his forces reached the hot gates
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and set up their defenses. They were a few
days ahead of the Persians, which gave them
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time to scout out the area and make sure
everyone knew what to do during the battle.
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The Spartans were hardened warriors who had
fought in wars before. However, the same could
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not be said about all the soldiers that made
up the rest of Leonidas’ resistance force.
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The pass through the hot gates was approximately
20 to 100 meters across. On one side was a sheer
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cliff that dropped into the sea below; on the
other were impenetrable jagged mountains. With
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his 300 Spartans at the front and in key
positions along the opening of the pass,
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Leonidas could fend off the oncoming Persian
forces. The narrowness of the hot gates
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rendered the number advantage that Xerxes had
over the Greeks almost completely useless and
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would mean that his cavalry wouldn’t be able
to outflank the Greek forces. But would this
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be enough to allow Leonidas and his men to
slow the Persian army? Only time would tell.
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Up until this point, Xerxes and his military
had met little resistance. They had marched
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across the Persian empire, crossed the
Dardanelles strait on two pontoon bridges,
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and made their way through northern Greece
to Thermopylae. As Leonidas waited for the
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Persian army to reach the hot gates, he sent
men out to scout the area. Everything seemed
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to be going according to plan. The Spartans and
their allies were eating and preparing themselves
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for battle when one of the scouts frantically
returned to the camp. He had terrible news.
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A hidden path in the mountains led from where the
Persians would be camped to behind the Greek line.
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If the Persians discovered the trail, they would
be able to surround the Greeks and massacre them.
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Leonidas didn’t have enough men to fend off
attacks from both the front and back of his
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resistance force. Leonidas sent 1,000 Phocians to
guard the path in case the Persians discovered it.
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When Xerxes and his forces finally arrived at
Thermopylae, they decided to wait four days
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before commencing their attack. One reason for
this was to give the Persian troops time to rest,
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but Xerxes also had something else
in mind. He was almost positive that
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when the Greeks saw the size of his
army, they would run away in fear.
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Much to the dismay of Xerxes, this did not
happen. The Spartans had no intention of
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giving up Thermopylae and letting the Persians
pass without a fight. After waiting a few days
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to see if the Greeks would give up, Xerxes sent
an envoy to ask Leonidas to lay down his arms.
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According to the philosopher Plutarch,
Leonidas’ response was “come and take them!”
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Xerxes did not receive this defiance
very well and decided it was time to
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prepare for battle. Before launching his
first attack, he sent scouts to see how
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the Spartans were doing in preparation for the
battle. Their report shocked the Persian king.
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The scouts had found the Spartans exercising
naked and grooming each other's hair. The reason
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for this likely had to do with the religious and
funerary beliefs of the Spartans. Since Spartan
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soldiers fought until they were victorious or
dead, they needed to ensure their bodies were
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prepared for the afterlife. Therefore, before
a battle, they would groom each other. Another
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little-known fact about the way Spartans looked
was that all Spartan men shaved their upper lip.
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Like most Greek men, they still let their beards
grow long, but the upper lip was always shaved.
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Five days after arriving at Thermopylae, Xerxes
ordered his troops forward. He was sure that his
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superior numbers would make quick work of the
small Greek force, so he initially sent only
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his most mediocre soldiers into battle. Xerxes
quickly found that this was a huge mistake.
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The Spartans’ fighting ability was unmatched by
any other soldiers in the field. The Greeks had
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been practicing their tactics on the rough
terrain of Thermopylae for several days,
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which also gave them a slight advantage.
They used a phalanx formation, which was
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extremely effective in the tight space of
the hot gates. The Greek warriors would
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stand shoulder to shoulder, forming
a wall of shields in front of them.
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Wave after wave of Persian soldiers crashed
against the Greek line, but it did not break.
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The phalanx was so successful because the Greek
shields were stronger than the Persians and their
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spears provided a further reach. The Persians
were using short javelins and wicker shields.
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These definitely provided them an advantage in
open field combat as they offered more mobility.
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But in the tight quarters of Thermopylae,
these weapons were just not as effective
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against the heavily armed Spartans. It seemed
that no matter what they did, the Persians
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couldn’t get past the front line of the Greeks.
Leonidas and his Spartans were fierce. They would
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patiently wait for a build-up of Persian
soldiers against their shields and then use
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their spears from further back to decimate any
enemy who left themselves vulnerable to attack.
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Imagine being a Persian soldier and watching
line after line of your comrades die at the
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hands of Spartan warriors. Each wave of attack
brings you closer to the deadly phalanx.
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You find yourself face to face with Greek shields.
At your feet are the dead bodies of your friends.
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You look up and lock eyes with Leonidas
as his spear rockets out from behind the
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phalanx and through your heart. It is no
wonder that many Persian soldiers turned
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and fled the battlefield after witnessing
the carnage that the Spartans unleashed.
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After hours of battling, the ground was
soaked in Persian blood while the Greeks
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sustained minor casualties. Xerxes
realized he needed to try a different
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tactic and ordered his archers to release
a barrage of arrows at the Spartan forces.
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Unfortunately for the Persians, their arrows
were about as effective as their soldiers were
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against the Greek shields and armor, which is
to say they had little to no effect at all.
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For two days everything went according
to plan for Leonidas and his army.
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Even Xerxes' most elite fighters, the Immortals,
couldn’t defeat the Spartans and their allies.
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This group of soldiers got its name from their
ability to immediately replace casualties, making
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it seem that their numbers never diminished.
However, the Greek’s luck was about to change.
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It was said that during the first two days of
battle, the Spartans and other Greek forces
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killed over ten thousand Persian soldiers.
They sustained some of their own casualties,
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but most of the Greek force was still
strong and could continue fighting
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indefinitely. Xerxes watched the battle
from his golden throne atop a nearby hill.
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He became so enraged at the defeat of his soldiers
he jumped up from his seat and screamed in anger.
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This was unbecoming for a ruler who
was seen as a god by his followers.
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Leonidas, his 300 Spartan warriors,
and the other Greek soldiers
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had done the impossible. They had stopped
the Persian war machine in its tracks.
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During the second day of
the Battle of Thermopylae,
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a local Greek shepherd by the name of Ephialtes
asked for an audience with Xerxes. He told the
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guards he had information that would allow the
Persians to defeat the Spartans. At this point,
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Xerxes had lost all patience. It seemed that
the wall of Greek soldiers would not be broken,
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he was ready to try anything. Ephialtes
eventually got his meeting with Xerxes,
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and in exchange for a huge sum of money,
he told the Persian emperor of the Anopaia
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path that went through the mountains and
ended up behind the Greek defensive line.
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Xerxes dispatched his Immortals to encircle
Leonidas and his forces. By cover of night,
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they left the Persian camp and
traveled through the mountains.
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When the Immortals reached the 1,000 Phokians
Leonidas had ordered to guard the mountain pass,
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they quickly defeated them. Some accounts
say that the Phokians didn’t even put up
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a fight but ran away in fear as soon
as they spotted the enemy soldiers.
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Either way, the Persians were coming. Luckily,
word reached Leonidas before the enemy forces did.
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The Spartan king ordered his men and the rest
of the Greek forces to retreat further south
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to make their final stand. But
before the battle would take place,
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Leonidas did something that would secure
his name in the history books forever.
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Leonidas decided that all of the Greek soldiers
could leave the battle and return home to fight
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another day. However, he and his 300 Spartans
would stay and hold off the Persians as long
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as possible, taking as many with them before they
were all killed. Along with the Spartans, a group
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of Thebans would also stay and fight. But the
remaining soldiers were to be sent back to their
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cities to tell the tale of Leonidas and the 300
Spartans who defied a Persian king and slaughtered
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thousands of his men. It would seem that Leonidas
would indeed fulfill the prophecy of the Oracle.
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As the sun rose on the third day of the Battle of
Thermopylae, Leonidas gathered his men. They all
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knew what was to come, and they were happy to die
for their king and for Sparta. Leonidas looked at
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each of them in turn before the day got underway,
at which point he said: “have a hearty breakfast,
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for tonight we dine in Hades!” Later that day,
the Immortals arrived from the mountain pass,
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and a huge force of Persian soldiers advanced
through the hot gates towards the Spartans.
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There are two different accounts of what happened
next in the epic tale of Leonidas and his 300
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warriors. Ephorus and Diodorus Siculus say that
like a dangerous beast trapped in a corner,
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Leonidas decided to do something unpredictable
and attack first. In this scenario, the Spartans
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charged into the Persian camp and slaughtered a
large number of soldiers before being pushed back.
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The other account by Herodotus states
that the Persian’s struck first,
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but not before Xerxes presented an
offering to the Gods for his generals
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before launching the final attack
that would wipe out the Spartans.
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Either way, the outcome of what came next was
the same. Leonidas and his men repositioned
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themselves in an open area where they would
be able to move around better and kill as many
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Persian soldiers as possible. As the Immortals
closed in on one side and the rest of Xerxes
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forces moved in on the other, the Spartans
began fighting in a frenzied manner. They did
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not forget their training but used every method
at their disposal to rip through the Persians.
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As their spears broke off inside of enemy
soldiers and their shields shattered from
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slamming into the bodies of the Immortals, the
Spartans drew their swords and began to slash
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their way through the Persian ranks. It was a
bloodbath. But there were just too many Persians.
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Less than 300 Spartans and a handful of
other Greek soldiers remained against the
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might of the entire Persian army. Xerxes
still had tens of thousands of soldiers at
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his disposal while there was no hope for
reinforcements or relief for the Greeks.
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During the carnage, Leonidas fell. His men
surrounded their king and fought off the
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hordes of enemy soldiers. They managed to
grab Leonidas and pull his body to safety
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until he passed away from the wounds. At
the time of the Battle of Thermopylae,
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Leonidas was somewhere between 50 and 60
years old. He was by no means a young man,
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but Spartan warriors started their training as
teenagers and would serve in the military until
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their 60s, so it is not surprising that
Leonidas was still fighting at this age.
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The fact that he killed so many enemies
while also commanding the Greek troops
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at the Battle of Thermopylae makes him one
of the most respected warriors of all time.
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Even after Leonidas fell, the Spartans
that remained continued to fight.
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They had fallen back to higher ground
and used a protective wall to slow
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the onslaught of enemy troops. Many of them
had lost their swords, shields, and spears,
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so they fought with their bare hands. An unarmed
Spartan warrior was still a deadly adversary.
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The Persians knew this, and even after
breaking down the Spartan's protective wall
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and seeing that many of them were
unarmed, they did not advance. The
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Persian soldiers could see in the eyes of
the Spartans that if they got too close,
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they would very likely lose their lives.
So, the Persians took the easy way out.
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Rather than trying to defeat the Spartans
in hand-to-hand combat, they used bows
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and arrows to kill the remaining warriors.
This may seem like a cowardly thing to do,
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but after witnessing how much damage and death
the Spartans had caused over the last three days,
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they probably wanted to stay as
far away from them as possible.
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A barrage of arrows was fired into the
remaining Spartans, killing them all.
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Now that the defiant Spartans had been defeated,
Xerxes could move freely across the battlefield
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without fear of being killed. He did not fight
alongside his soldiers like Leonidas did. Once the
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Battle of Thermopylae ended, Xerxes had Leonidas’
head cut off and his body impaled on a stake.
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After Xerxes and his forces moved on, Greek
citizens recovered the bodies of the dead
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soldiers, including Leonidas, and buried them at
Thermopylae. After the Persian War ended, a stone
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monument in the shape of a lion was erected on the
spot where the 300 Spartans were buried. On it,
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the words “Go tell the Spartans, thou that passest
by; That here obedient to their words we lie,”
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were written by the poet Simonides. Basically,
he was saying that the 300 Spartans who said they
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would fight to the death to slow the advance
of the Persian army were true to their word.
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Now to be fair, several Spartan soldiers
died in battle before the final stand.
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Also, King Leonidas allowed two Spartans
who were ill to return home instead of
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forcing them to fight in the final battle.
One refused to leave and was killed with
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the rest, while the other, a man named
Aristodemus, did return home to Sparta.
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However, once he reached the city,
he instantly regretted his decision.
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From the moment Aristodemus stepped foot in
Sparta, he was shunned by everyone in the city.
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The fact that he abandoned his duty and left his
king to die on the battlefield was unforgivable.
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Aristodemus was stripped of his civic
rights and had to carry his disgrace as
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a coward for the rest of his life. Luckily for
Aristodemus, that wouldn’t be very long. The
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next year he joined a campaign to fight the
Persians once again at the Battle of Platea.
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It was said Aristodemus fought like a mad man as
he wanted to make up for his shameful decision
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to leave the Battle of Thermopylae. He ran
to the front lines in a rage-filled furry
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and slashed apart the Persian ranks until
he was finally brought down and killed.
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There is no doubt that Leonidas, his 300
Spartans, and the other Greek soldiers who
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fought in the Battle of Thermopylae slowed down
the Persian advance through Greece, but there
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was a much more important effect that
the battle had on the Greek populace.
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After the story of the 300 spread across the
lands of Greece, more and more people felt it
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was their duty to fight. This was a matter of
pride for many and a way to avenge the deaths
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of the 300 Spartans who had fallen at the Battle
of Thermopylae. It was also clear at this point
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that the Persians were coming for everyone,
and all men who could fight needed to do so.
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The Spartans stopped the Persian forces at the hot
gates for several days and did significant damage
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to their ranks and morale. The Persian soldiers
who fought against Leonidas and his 300 Spartans
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would not soon forget how vicious and deadly
they were. As Xerxes' army marched into Greece,
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they were met by an even larger Spartan force,
which must have been incredibly intimidating.
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The victories at Salamis and Plataea led to
the Greeks finally defeating the invading
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Persian force and pushing them out of
their borders. The sacrifice of the men
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at the Battle of Thermopylae was definitely
a call to arms for many Greeks. Without it,
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the Persians may very well have conquered
the rest of Greece and enveloped it into
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their empire. Around 440 B.C.E, decades after the
Persian Wars were over, the bones of Leonidas were
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dug up and brought back to Sparta. His tomb still
exists where the modern city of Sparta is today.
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Now watch “Most Hardcore Soldier:
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00:19:12,160 --> 00:19:18,000
Spartan.” Or check out “1 NAVY SEAL vs
the SPARTAN 300 - Who Actually Would Win?”
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