Almost 2500 years ago, an army of 300 elite warriors defied a tyrant with an army of legions and achieved what they considered to be the highest honor they could attain in this life. They died glorious deaths on the battlefield. The legend of their unshakable courage in the face of overwhelming odds has been an inspiration to succeeding generations for two and a half millennia.
This is the story of the Spartan stand against the Persian army at the Battle of Thermopylae. This battle was one of the key events of the Persian Wars and was recently the subject of a major motion picture based on a graphic novel series by artist Frank Miller. As one might expect, the movie and the graphic novel are not entirely accurate, as they sometimes stylize or exaggerate the facts. Nevertheless, they contain enough truth to inspire fans to do a little research into what historians say about this landmark battle in world history.
During this period, Greece was not a unified nation, but a collection of individual city states. At the same time, the Persian Empire controlled a vast territory from Eastern Europe to Western India. In 490BC, King Darius of Persia set out to conquer the Greek city states and bring them into the empire. After defeat at the Battle of Marathon at the hands of the Athenians, however, Darius was forced to abandon his expedition.
Ten years later, his son, Xerxes, returned at the head of a massive army that he had been preparing for years. While modern historians cannot be sure how large it actually was, the Greek historian Herodotus estimates that the army, navy, and support crew consisted of over 5,000,000 men. While that number is probably highly exaggerated, it is reasonable to imagine that the small Greek force did stand up to a Persian army of several hundred thousand men.
Meanwhile, several Greek city states formed a defensive alliance in preparation of the Persian assault. It was agreed that the best defense could be made at Thermopylae, because it was a very narrow pass that the Persian army would have to pass through. There their numbers would account for very little. While some historians believe that the Greek alliance really believed that a small force would be sufficient to defeat the Persians given the terrain, others believe the Greeks merely wanted to slow the land force enough to allow the Athenian navy to defeat the Persians at sea. Whatever their goals, it is clear that a very small Greek force led by Spartans defied Xerxes and his army in the narrow pass at Thermopylae.
Legend says that King Leonidas consulted the Oracle at Delphi before the campaign and that that the oracle prophesied that Sparta must either mourn the loss of her city or her king. Leonidas apparently took this prophecy to heart, so he left with only 300 men, all with born sons to carry on their family names, on what was essentially a suicide mission. He was also joined by a number of warriors from other city states like Thespiae, Thebes, Phocis, as well as by 900 helots (slaves of the 300 Spartan citizens). Herodotus claims that the Greek force consisted of about 7,000 men. While other sources disagree, most modern scholars believe that this figure is probably accurate.
Remarkably, the Greeks did manage to hold the pass for at least two days. They fought in a phalanx, locking their shields and using their long spears. The narrowness of the pass prevented anything but a fraction of the Persian army attacking at any given time or from effectively attacking with their archers. Wave after wave of soldiers died upon that deadly wall of swords and spears and shields. Modern estimates put Persian casualties around 20,000 dead. No doubt the Persians were greatly demoralized by the piles of bodies in front of the Greek lines and would have retreated if not for the whips of their officers.
Just when it appeared that Xerxes would be forced to withdraw, he received word that a local named Ephialtes knew of a path around the Greeks and was willing to lead the Persians to it. This information allowed a detachment of elite Persian troops to circumvent the Greek lines under the cover of darkness. When word of this reached the Greek camp, the Greeks despaired and all but the Spartans, their slaves, the Thebans, & the Thespians withdrew. In all, only 2,000 of the original 7,000 remained.
Surrounded and facing such overwhelming numbers, the Greeks had no chance for success. Nevertheless, they resolved to kill as many Persians as possible before they were inevitably defeated. Thus, they moved into more open terrain and fought an even larger section of the Persian army. Those who were not killed within a few minutes of fighting, retreated to a small hill behind a low wall where they made their last stand. The Persians rained so many arrows down upon these few survivors that archaeological evidence of this last stand can still be seen at the sight today.
While the Greeks lost the battle of Thermopylae, they inflicted a great number of casualties on the Persian army and bought the Athenians enough time to evacuate Athens and retreat to the island of Salamis. The subsequent naval Battle of Salamis was a major victory for the Athenian navy and forced Xerxes to retreat. What Persian land forces remained were defeated by a Greek coalition under the command of the full Spartan army. This proved the beginning of the end for the Persian Empire. It never again attempted to bring Greece under its dominion and within two hundred years, it had been conquered by Alexander the Great.
