Famous Battles -- Thermopylae

In 490 BC, King Darius of Persia sent a force to Greece to punish Athens for supporting an insurrection in modern day Turkey, which was part of their empire.

This force was ultimately defeated at the battle of Marathon.

(After this battle, a messenger was sent from the battle site at Marathon to Athens -- a distance said to be 26.2 miles. The messenger arrived in Athens, shouted "Nike!", which means "victory", then dropped dead. The exact distance is still in dispute.)

Darius vowed to avenge his defeat and began to mass a huge army for another invasion. But he died before this could be accomplished.

It was left to his son Xerxes to carry out this revenge.

This army, the exact number of which is unknown, was somewhere between 200,000 and perhaps as many as 2 million. It was the largest army the world had ever seen.

Xerxes created a bridge over an isthmus that separated his empire from northern Greece, and started his invasion. He also sent a large navy south towards Athens.

Greece at this time was still a collection of relatively small city states that frequently fought against each other. The dominant ones being Athens, and Sparta. These two took the lead in uniting the rest of Greece against the invading Persian army.

It was decided that the Persians could be delayed and perhaps even defeated by sending a force of men to a place in northern Greece known as the pass of Thermopylae (the hot gates). The Athenians also sent their navy into the Straights of Artemisium which is in the same area to hold up the vast Persian fleet.

A Greek force said to number around 7,000 men arrived at Thermopylae in the summer of 480 B.C. led by King Leonidas of Sparta. Leonidas brought along 300 men of his personal bodyguard.

The pass is a very narrow one with high cliffs to one side, and a cliff leading down to water on the other. It was thought by the Greeks that because of their armaments and tactics, a small force could hold up even as huge a force as the Persians indefinitely. In a narrow pass such as Thermopylae, they could make the vast Persian numbers count for nothing.

The Greeks fought in a formation known as the "Phalanx". The men would stand shoulder to shoulder with shields interlocked. The front ranks would extend their spears. The ones behind would protect the ones in front with extended swords.

The Greek "hoplite" shields were round and made of wood covered with a bronze coating. These shields also had, for this time, a revolutionary shield-holding design.

Most shields at this time only had one hand hold on the inside. The Greek shield had two. Instead of merely holding the shield with one hand, this design allowed the entire forearm to be used to grip the shield allowing for greater stability and maneuverability. These shields were also impervious to arrows, spear ans sword thrusts.

The Persians, by contrast used wicker shields with one hand hold. These were good for fending off a glancing blow by a sword in close combat, but not much else. The Persians did not employ the phalanx tactic.

It was this combination, of location, Greek tactics, and armament that would prove to make life very difficult for the Persians in the coming battle.

When the Persians arrived at the pass, they first tried to induce the Greeks to surrender, threatening that "Our arrows will blot out the sun". To this, one of Leonidas' lieutenants replied: "Then we shall fight in the shade."

Over 7 days, the Greeks, led by Leonidas fought off the Persian attacks.

But a local resident betrayed the Greeks by pointing out to the Persians small goat paths through the cliffs and mountains that would allow them to get behind the Greeks.

On learning this, Leonidas dismissed most of the original 7,000 men under his command, but remained behind with his 300 Spartans and several hundred other Greeks.

The Spartans could not hold off the Persians coming at them from both front and behind and perished -- virtually to the last man.

Xerxes succeeded in reaching, then burning Athens, but his army was eventually defeated by the Greeks at the battle of Plataea,

The battle of Thermopylae is still used today by military historians as an example of how a small force can hold up or even defeat a much larger force using a combination of training, tactics, and equipment.