The Spartans at Thermopylae
Indeed that
battle at the 'Hot gates' must rank as one of the most famous last stand, hold out actions in
history.
I first read about it at about age 6 when my parents had some old
encyclopaedia Britannica volumes that had the story in it.
The last time I read about it was in
Steven Pressfields '
Gates of Fire' an excellent book I thought.
The thing with ancient history is of course that its ancient history, details are scarce.
the fact that people can still read about it thousands of years after that furious clash in the mountain pass is quite incredible.
I have heard all sorts of variations on the numbers of both combatants, 1,400 to 10,000 for the Greeks, and 80,000 to 4 million for the Persian Imperial army.
As for casualties 298 Spartan Troops, and 3,700 other Greeks.
(two Spartan
soldiers were stricken blind, by sickness or enemy action, it's unclear, these two are supposed to have survived, one hanging himself in shame and the other redeeming his honour by cutting a suicidal swathe through the Persians at
Plataea before being killed.
Persian Losses are said to have been 10,000 to 30,000, although modern estimates put it at around the 20,000 mark.
It is well that this battle is remembered, of course it was a loss for the
Greeks but it bought them precious time to pull back into a more
defensive position, and in the end, as we all know they won the war and prevented
democracy from dying in the cradle again.
The checking of the Persians at
Thermopylae, in my view showed that the Greeks were willing to stand up to the
myriads, well some of the Greeks anyhow, And yet again proved the advantage of the
bronze clad
phalanx over the lightly armed
Mede infantry.
The Spartans may have enslaved an entire
kingdom with the
helots, but in those days who didn't?
They were brave and they gave up their lives so their fellows would not have to live under the Persian yoke.
Full Credit to them.
I always enjoying reading about the Greek envoy in King Xerse's throne room telling the king about the different Greek peoples before the invasion, when he mentioned the Spartans
Xerses flippantly asked "Who are the Spartans?"
At Thermopylae he would find out exactly who the Spartans were.
Molon Labe.