The Greeks responded by putting aside traditionally enmity, allying, and identifying a place to check the Persian advance: the land pass of Thermopylae, already fortified, was just forty miles away from a narrow sea strait between Euboea and the mainland.
Here, smaller Greek forces could block the armies and fleet of the Persians at the same time and hopefully protect Greece itself. However, this agreement was given in the first half of and, as the Persian advance proceeded inexorably but leisurely, months passed. By the time Xerxes had reached Mount Olympus, it was August. August was a bad time for the Spartans to go into battle, for they were to obligated to hold both their Olympics and Carneia that month.
To miss either was to offend the Gods, something the Spartans cared passionately about. A compromise was needed between sending a full army and keeping their divine favor: an advance guard of Spartans, led by King Leonidas ca. Instead of taking the Hippeis his strong bodyguard of the best young men , Leonidas departed with veterans. There was a little more to the compromise.
The Spartans themselves brought Helots , basically enslaved people, to assist. At least 4, men occupied the pass of Thermopylae to fight. The Persian army did indeed arrive at Thermopylae and, after their offer of free passage to the Greek defenders was refused, they attacked on the fifth day. For forty-eight hours, the defenders of Thermopylae held out, defeating not just the poorly trained levies sent to dull them, but the Immortals, the Persian elite.
Unfortunately for the Greeks, Thermopylae held a secret: a small pass by which the main defenses could be outflanked. On the sixth night, the second of the battle , the Immortals followed this path, brushed aside the small guard and prepared to catch the Greeks in a pincer. King Leonidas , undisputed head of the Greek defenders, was made aware of this pincer by a runner. Unwilling to sacrifice the entire army, but determined to keep the Spartan promise to defend Thermopylae, or perhaps just act as a rearguard, he ordered everyone but his Spartans and their Helots to retreat.
Many did, but the Thebans and Thespians stayed the former possibly because Leonidas insisted they stay as hostages. When battle commenced the next day, there were Greeks left, including Spartans two having been sent on missions. Caught between the main Persian army and 10, men to their rear, all were involved in fighting and wiped out. Only Thebans who surrendered remained. During a frontal attack, this wall of shields provided significant protection to the warriors behind it.
If the phalanx broke or if the enemy attacked from the side or the rear, however, the formation became vulnerable. Although these many city-states vied with one another for control of land and resources, they also banded together to defend themselves from foreign invasion. Twice at the beginning of the fifth century B. In B. Under Xerxes I, the Persian army moved south through Greece on the eastern coast, accompanied by the Persian navy moving parallel to the shore. In the late summer of B.
Leonidas established his army at Thermopylae, expecting that the narrow pass would funnel the Persian army toward his own force. For two days, the Greeks withstood the determined attacks of their far more numerous enemy. A local Greek told Xerxes about this other route and led the Persian army across it, enabling them to surround the Greeks. Much of the Greek force retreated rather than face the Persian army. An army of Spartans, Thespians and Thebans remained to fight the Persians.
Leonidas and the Spartans with him were all killed, along with most of their remaining allies. In September B. Leonidas achieved lasting fame for his personal sacrifice. Hero cults were an established custom in ancient Greece from the eighth century B. Dead heroes were worshipped, usually near their burial site, as intermediaries to the gods. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us!
Subscribe for fascinating stories connecting the past to the present. The Battle of Marathon in B. At the time of the invasion the view was more daunting still. Changes in the sea level mean that these days, the hills at Thermopylae now skirt an alluvial plain [a mainly flat landform].
But in BC, the sea washed up to the base of steep hills and the pass was narrow: five metres wide at most at each end, and no more than 15 metres even in the middle. The opposing Greek force was small, not much more than 7,, with Spartans at its core. But it was stuck like a cork in a bottle. To advance south, Xerxes had to take the pass — and time was not on his side. It was late summer, and he needed to wrap up the whole invasion as far as possible before winter.
His army was vast: ancient sources put its numbers in the millions, although modern historians incline to about , Even 50, would have been huge by ancient standards.
Xerxes knew that if he delayed, he faced supply problems. He needed to feed and water not just the warriors but a host of camp followers, cavalry mounts and baggage animals — plus an immense and lavish royal retinue. So, he was under pressure. The Greeks were heavily outnumbered. But the tight space meant that the Persians could not use their vast numbers to crush them. And they could not use the tactics that had made them masters of the world from the Aegean to the Indus: breaking the enemy with volley after volley of arrows from a distance, before moving in to annihilate them.
Worse still, the sheer numbers of the Persian force counted against them, since in this confined space they were at constant risk of being crushed by their own side. For two days, Xerxes threw division after division into the pass.
But there were paths through the hills, and one in particular led along the mountain overlooking the pass to a point behind the Greek lines. Alerted to the path by a local Greek, at dusk on the second day Xerxes sent his Immortals to prepare to outflank the Greeks on the morning of day three. When Leonidas learned of the encirclement early on the third day, he called a meeting. They still had time to withdraw, but Leonidas and what was left of his Spartans insisted on staying.
So, too, did the contingent of from the ancient Greek city of Thespiae.
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