End of the Battle of Thermopylae

Meanwhile, the second day of the battle was ending at Thermopylae. Leonid sent messenger after messenger to the south with requests for reinforcements, but it was already clear that no one would come. The Spartans found themselves alone, and their ideas of honor rejected any thought of leaving their post. Soon after his arrival, Xerxes and his advisors learned of the existence of a path through the mountain that could be used to bypass the Spartans in the pass. Mount Callidromon is dotted with different paths - from narrow and steep goat paths to quite wide paths. The difficulty was that it was heavily overgrown with forest and it was almost impossible to cross the Callidromon without a guide. Even today, when this forest has become much thinner, it is still easy to get lost there even in daylight. Finally, the Persians found a local peasant named Ephialtes, who told them that there was one path called the Anopean Trail, and agreed to lead them for a reasonable price. That evening, as soon as it got dark, Hydarn led his “immortals” out of the camp and began to climb the mountain. Ephialtes showed them the way. All night the Persians laboriously climbed along the winding path, until the sky in the east began to turn gray and the ground became level. They entered a small plateau densely covered with oaks. The Persians made their way under the shade of oak trees. Last year's leaves rustled underfoot. Suddenly a noise was heard ahead of the detachment, the silence was broken by human voices, and then the Persian soldiers saw Greek hoplites hastily putting on their armor. Hydarn asked cautiously: “Are these the Spartans?” In fact, it was the same thousand Phocians whom Leonidas had assigned to guard the mountain path. When Hydarnes found out who they were, he lined up his warriors in battle formation and began showering the Phocians with arrows. The Phocians, having forgotten about the task entrusted to them, decided that they had become main goal the blow of the “immortals”. They fled to the top of the mountain and prepared to sell their lives dearly. However, as soon as they cleared the passage, the Persians hastily began their descent, not paying any attention to the Phocians. The question of where exactly the “immortals” passed gave rise to many disputes. More recently, W. C. Pritchett has studied the terrain in that area in detail and has proposed a path that fits fairly well by most criteria. Herodotus says that Hydarnes took with him the people he commanded - ten thousand “immortals”. There is no reason to doubt this. Then, if the road were a narrow goat path, which could only be followed in a column one at a time, the detachment would stretch for more than ten kilometers. This was no good, and Pritchett came to the conclusion that they should look for a wide path along which three or four people could walk in a row. There is one place in Herodotus's topography that is easy to find. He writes about this road: “It starts from the Asopus River, flowing through a mountain gorge.” The location of the Asop Gorge is difficult to dispute. Herodotus further writes that the Persians crossed Asopus before they began their ascent. This information allows us to conclude that they were on the eastern side of the gorge. About a kilometer east of the gorge there is a very convenient climb into the mountains. This is the shortest and most easy way into the mountains from the Lamian plain. It follows the Chalkomata stream to the village of Eleuferochori, where the remains of an ancient fortress can still be seen standing at the start of the trail. This proves that the trail was used many centuries ago. Herodotus says that the Persians walked all night, and the Etean Mountains rose to their right, and the Trakhin Mountains to their left. This does not allow us to agree with any of the proposed routes through the mountains, especially considering that the Persians crossed Asopus before starting the ascent. The fact is that both Trakhin and Mount Eta are located to the west of the Asops Gorge. However, since Thermopylae itself is located in the territory of Trakhina, and Mount Eta can, without a doubt, be included in the Etean Mountains, we can assume that the Trakhino Mountains included the northern part of the Callidromon range. The explanation is rather clumsy, but we simply have no choice, especially if we remember the words of Herodotus that the Persians walked between these mountains “all night.” If this explanation is correct, then it turns out that the detachment was moving in a southerly direction along the western slope of Mount Callidromon.

The Nevropol plain south of the Liafitsa - Callidromon pass. It is located where the road to the pass and the road leading to Phocis meet. Most likely this is exactly the place where the Phocians stood.

Herodotus writes that the path ran along a mountain ridge. This is a fairly accurate description of the route from Eleuferochori through the Neropolis plain to the pass between the peaks of Liafitsa and Kallidromon. This road goes along a plateau located just below the ridge of the mountain, to the south of it. According to Herodotus, the Phocians positioned themselves to protect both the mountain path and the path to their homeland. Such a place could only be the Nevropol plain, which is located approximately two kilometers from the highest point of the trail. There is a small lake there, which nowadays dries up in the summer, but in ancient times could remain filled with water. all year round. In addition, there is a source there that is quite capable of supplying drinking water a thousand hoplites. At this point the road leading to Phocis and the Anopean trail connect. If the Phocians had positioned themselves closer to the pass, they would have been cut off from the road to Phocis. Moreover, any route through the passage between Liathitsa and Callidromon had to pass here. Both Berne and Pritchett agree that the Phocians took their "last stand" on Mount Liathitsa, north of the trail, which is quite consistent with Herodotus' account of events. The Persians must have reached the top of the pass three-quarters of an hour later, at about half past six in the morning. First, Leonidas received news that the Persians had crossed the mountains from defectors who arrived under the cover of darkness. Then, at dawn, it was confirmed by observers stationed on nearby peaks. The Greek commanders immediately began to hold council. The majority were of the opinion that it was necessary to retreat before it was too late, and Leonidas, seeing the fear in their hearts, sent them away. He himself, a Spartan, would never leave his post. Together with the Lacedaemonians, 700 Thespians and 400 Thebans remained. Herodotus believes that Leonidas forced the Thebans to stay, and points out that they all went over to the Persian side before the last battle. They say that when they last time They all ate together before the start of the battle, Leonidas said: “Let your breakfast be plentiful, O men, for we will dine in Hades!” The descent from the mountain would take the Persians several hours, and the Spartans intended to make the enemy pay dearly for their death. The Persians reached the top of the mountain and began their descent. Herodotus writes that the Anopean Path descends into the pass at the Alpen. We can say with a fair degree of certainty that this city was located on a mountain ledge protruding towards the swamps, about 3 km from the Phocian wall, next to the eastern passage. It is easy to descend into the Alpena if you follow behind Mount Zastano and further down through Drakospilia. Such a journey, about 12 km long, could have taken the Persians from three to four hours. Xerxes delayed his speech until mid-morning. When the Spartans saw that his troops had entered the pass, they made no further attempt to defend the wall. Instead, the Lacedaemonians entered the widest part of the pass and formed there in the usual phalanx. Lightly armed helots covered their flanks. Here they took the fight, fighting with reckless fury. The Persians, who are said to have been driven into battle by whips, were forced to climb over mountains of corpses in order to reach the Greeks. Soon most of the Greek spears broke, and the hoplites drew their swords and moved closer, cutting into the sea of ​​faces before them. Leonidas fell and a particularly fierce battle ensued as both the Persians and Greeks sought to take possession of his body. The Persians captured it four times and the Greeks recaptured Leonidas’ corpse four times. The battle continued until news came from the posts that the “immortals” had reached the end of the path. Then the Greeks closed ranks and began to retreat behind the wall. They passed the gate and fortified themselves on a low (about 15 m) hill that overlooked the swampy plain. There they lined up in a circle and prepared to die. The Persians poured over the wall and tried to climb the hill, but were pushed back. At first the Greeks defended themselves with swords, and then, when the last swords broke, with their hands and teeth. They continued the battle until the Persians buried them under a hail of arrows. By midday everything was quiet.

The site of the “last stand” of the Spartans. The hill itself, which rises approximately 15m above the battlefield, was pinpointed shortly before World War II when excavations there uncovered hundreds of Persian arrowheads.

Herodotus tells about two Spartans who, by the time last battle were sick and lay in the Alpen, suffering from an eye disease. The first of them, named Eurytus, having learned that the Persians had gone around the mountain, demanded his armor. Then, since he could not see anything, Eurytus ordered his helot to lead him into the thick of the battle. The other, named Aristodemus, became frightened and retreated along with his allies. Upon his return to Sparta, dishonor and disgrace awaited Aristodemus. Only the desperate courage he showed the following year at the Battle of Plataea cleared him of the charge of cowardice.

On the last day of the Battle of Thermopylae, Leonidas and all that remained of his tiny army marched into the open space in front of the wall, intending to sell their lives dearly. A desperate battle unfolded over the body of the slain Leonid.

As for Ephialtes, a monetary reward was placed on his head. He fled to Thessaly, fearing that the Spartans would hunt him. Many years later, he returned to his homeland, Antikyra, where he was killed by a man who had personal scores to settle with him. The latter, however, demanded his reward. Around the time when the last Spartan fell in the Thermopylae Pass, the entire Persian fleet, enraged by the evening attack, put to sea and crossed the strait. The Greeks, who intended to maintain contact with their camp, lined up in shallow water, just off the shore. The Persians formed their ships in an arc and tried to encircle the small Greek fleet in comparison. Then the Greeks again came forward, ramming the sides of the lighter Persian ships. They suffered greatly in the ensuing skirmish, but were able to inflict even more serious damage on the enemy. The Persians retreated, finding that they had achieved little. Although no enemy could say who had won, the Greeks were well battered and the Athenians alone had 80 triremes damaged. Shortly after the battle, a thirty-oared ship, which maintained communication between the fleet and the Greek land forces, brought the tragic news of the battle at Thermopylae. The sailors' hearts trembled at the news of Leonid's death. Now there was no point in staying in place, and they weighed anchor and set off through the strait towards Euripus. The ships followed in a predetermined order: the Corinthians sailed in front, and the Athenians brought up the rear. The battered Greek fleet dragged itself south, passing first Euripus, then the site of the former Athenian victory at Marathon and, rounding Cape Sounion, arrived at Athens. The Persians did not notice the flight of the Greeks until the next morning - their movements were again covered by the haze hanging over the sea.

From the book War and Peace of Ivan the Terrible author Tyurin Alexander

The end of the turmoil On January 16, 1547, the sixteen-year-old boy Ivan was crowned king, taking the title of tsar. Before this, only powerful foreign rulers, Byzantine emperors, khans of the Golden Horde, Kazan and Crimean khans were called tsars in Rus'. Educated

From the book Great Civil War 1939-1945 author Burovsky Andrey Mikhailovich

End of the war On March 7, a Finnish delegation arrived in Moscow. On March 12, a peace treaty was concluded. The war is on! The treaty is signed during hostilities. The terms of the Moscow Peace Treaty were much more stringent than the requirements of the USSR in 1939. In particular, to the USSR

From Book One World War author Utkin Anatoly Ivanovich

The end of the drama In mid-April 1915, Ludendorff was given the freedom to do anything that could divert Russian forces from Galicia. His attention immediately turned to Courland with an eye on Riga. The Russians here relied unduly on the Kovno fortress, although the war experience had already

From the book History of Rome. Volume 1 by Mommsen Theodor

CHAPTER VI THE WAR WITH HANNIBAL FROM THE BATTLE OF CANNA TO THE BATTLE OF ZAME. By undertaking a campaign in Italy, Hannibal set himself the goal of causing the collapse of the Italian union; after three campaigns this goal had been achieved to the extent feasible. It was clear from everything that they

From the book Conversations with an Executioner. Executions, torture and harsh punishments in Ancient Rome author Tiraspolsky Gennady Isaakovich

CONCLUSION “And Scipio, as they say, seeing how this city, which flourished seven hundred years from the time of its foundation, ruled over so much land, islands and sea, had an abundance of weapons, and ships, and elephants, and money, on a par with the greatest powers, but

author

Completion of the operation (17 hours on September 22 - 0 hours on September 23) With the onset of darkness, the 157th Division was ordered to stop pursuing enemy units. By this time, a large gap had again formed between the 633rd regiment and its right neighbor, which should

From the book Landings of 1941 author Yunovidov Anatoly Sergeevich

Completion of the operation (September 19–22) On September 19, 1941, the Sovinformburo reported: “In stubborn battles in the Murmansk direction, our units inflicted heavy losses on three SS battalions and two German mountain regiments. The 136th and 137th German Mountain Regiments lost about 1,000

From the book of Xerxes. Conqueror of Babylon by Abbott Jacob

Chapter 9 The Battle of Thermopylae Thermopylae Gorge. - Its location. – Ancient fortifications. – View of Thermopylae Gorge. - Allied forces. - Leonidas, king of Sparta. - Disputes regarding the defense of Thermopylae. – Decision. - The character of the Spartans. - Their pride. –

From the book Greece and Rome, encyclopedia military history author Connolly Peter

Completion of the Battle of Thermopylae Meanwhile, the second day of the battle was ending at Thermopylae. Leonid sent messenger after messenger to the south with requests for reinforcements, but it was already clear that no one would come. The Spartans found themselves alone, and their ideas about honor swept aside any thought

From the book The Conquest of America by Ermak-Cortez and the Rebellion of the Reformation through the eyes of the “ancient” Greeks author

10.1. Herodotus about the battle of the Greeks with the Persians at Thermopylae and the death of the valiant Spartans. One of the most striking and famous events of Xerxes’ campaign against Hellas is the battle at Thermopylae and the heroic death of a Spartan detachment of 300 fighters led by the king

From the book Napoleonic Wars author Sklyarenko Valentina Markovna

End of the war With the onset of 1812, a turning point came in the Spanish-French war, fortune finally turned away from the invaders. The lack of a common plan, the death of military leaders, the withdrawal of troops from Spain for Napoleonic campaigns - all this undermined the position

From the book Francisco Franco and his time author Pozharskaya Svetlana

End of the war “On the historic morning of July 19, we saw how everyone, absolutely everyone, without remembering the past, without looking at each other to see if a neighbor was yesterday’s enemy, fought side by side and had only one common goal - to capture the citadels fascists",

From the book History of the Persian Empire author Olmsted Albert

Stop at Thermopylae The situation did not change when traffic resumed in a southerly direction. The loss of Thessaly sent King Leonidas north to the Thermopylae Gorge with three hundred Spartans and a small part of the allied troops, but some loudly proclaimed that

From the book ISSUE I. PROBLEM AND CONCEPTUAL APPARATUS. THE EMERGENCE OF HUMAN SOCIETY author Semenov Yuri Ivanovich

2.4. Completion of sociogenesis With the advent of the dual-clan organization, sexual relations ceased to be disordered and promiscuous. They were completely brought into the social framework. Promiscuity was replaced by marriage, but not between individuals, but between their groups. First

From the book History of Ukraine author Team of authors

Completion of the NEP. Failure of grain procurements in 1927–1928. brought the country to the brink of food riots and convinced Stalin that the NEP model, which had justified itself in the short period of 1924–1926, was not able to give the clumsy industrial-bureaucratic machine enough

From the book Tsarist Rome between the Oka and Volga rivers. author Nosovsky Gleb Vladimirovich

15. Another reflection of the Battle of Kulikovo in “ancient” Roman history as the battle of Clusia and Sentina. Apparently, the battle of Clusia and Sentina allegedly took place in 295 BC. e. is a duplicate of the Second Latin War of Rome, which we have already described above, allegedly 341–340 BC. e. Exactly

In 480 BC, a small detachment of soldiers of the Spartan king Leonidas, together with allies from other Greek city-states, successfully resisted the 200,000-strong Persian army of Xerxes I for several days. The defenders of Greece held the entrance to the narrow gorge of Thermopylae, leading deep into Greece. This is what the place looks like now.



Monument at the battle site. The inscription on the stele calls on everyone passing by to stop to honor the memory of the heroes

Thermopylae Gorge is located in eastern Greece, on the coast Aegean Sea near the city of Lamia. It is quite difficult to recognize this place now; the terrain has changed significantly over the past 2.5 thousand years. The sea, which came close to the gorge, has retreated several kilometers, and now there is a valley here. In fact, the gorge itself has disappeared - now it is a strip of several kilometers separating the coastline and the mountains.


Battle Map

Nowadays, a highway runs through the gorge and along the entire bay, connecting Larissa, a city in Thessaly, and Athens. By the way, the inhabitants of Thessaly sided with Persia in that war.


On the other side of the highway, a narrow path leads to the nearest hill; here was the headquarters of the Greeks


Slab at the site of the Greek camp headquarters


From the hill from where the Greeks were led, the area occupied by the Persians is clearly visible. The Persian camp stood near the green hill in the center of the photo


View of the monument


In ancient times, this place was the site of the small town of Anfela.

If, before reaching the battle site 1 km, you turn into the mountains onto the road to Delphi, then from these heights you will have a beautiful view of the entire valley


Once upon a time this entire plain was covered by the sea...


A narrow strip of sea can be seen far in the distance

The Battle of Thermopylae took place 10 years after the Battle of Marathon, when the Athenians defeated the landing troops of the Persian king Darius. His son Xerxes decided to repeat the campaign against Greece and assembled a huge army for those times. Most of the Greek cities recognized the power of Xerxes and abandoned the war with him, while the rest gathered an army of 5-7 thousand and marched to Thermopylae to block the Persians’ passage to southern Greece. The Greek hoplites, well-protected warriors with long spears in a defensive formation in the form of a phalanx, easily held the narrow passage, suffering few casualties. However, after 2 days of battle, when the Persians lost several tens of thousands of soldiers, there was a traitor among the local residents who showed a bypass mountain path. The Persians bypassed the Greek troops and struck the remaining soldiers led by King Leonidas in the back. Those who remained to fight to the death died, including all the Spartans. But a year later, the united army of the Greeks completely defeated the troops of Xerxes at Plataea, preventing the latter from conquering the Peloponnese.

By the way, “Sparta” is a much later name of the city where the Spartan wars came from. In those days, the city was called “Lakedaemon”, and the letter “L” on the shields of the warriors was the designation of the real name of the warlike city.

In 484 - 481 BC. The Persian king Xerxes, preparing for war with the Greeks, concentrated an army of about 200,000 people on its border. Athens and part of the Peloponnesian states, under the leadership of Sparta, decided to bravely resist. The rest of the Greek city-states, convinced of the power of the Persians, remained neutral or directly supported Xerxes.

Persian troops crossed the Hellespont (Dardanelles) and moved west along the coast of Thrace to Macedonia, then south to Thessaly. The main one, after Xerxes, was the experienced military leader Mardonius. The Persian fleet moved along the coast, which, according to the historian Herodotus, consisted of one and a half thousand combat ships and three thousand transport ships.

Northern Greece was left by the allied Hellenic (Greek) forces without a fight - the defense of the passes south of Mount Olympus required too large an army. The next convenient defensive position was Thermopylae. The passage in this gorge was no more than a few meters wide and represented an ideal position where even a small detachment of heavily armed hoplites could hold off an entire army for a long time.

The Spartan king Leonidas marched to Thermopylae at the head of a detachment of 7,000 hoplites and 2,000 archers. Almost all of them were militias of the Greek city-polises: Thebans and Thespians, except for Leonidas’s personal guard, consisting of purebred Spartans. The Spartans were famous throughout Greece as the most fearless and powerful warriors. “Win together or die together!” - said their law.

Leonid thoughtfully and carefully prepared for defense. With the main forces numbering about 6,000 people, Leonidas covered the Middle Gate of the passage, and placed a powerful guard detachment of 1,000 people on the slope located on the left flank of the mountain to block the path leading around.

When the Persians, on behalf of their king Xerxes, invited the Spartans to surrender their weapons, King Leonidas boldly replied: “Come and take it!”

As he expected, the Persians struck directly at the center of the pass, trying to decide the outcome of the battle with force of blow and numerical superiority, but the Greeks survived. A paradoxical situation arose: the most trained and numerous army in the world turned out to be powerless against a handful of Hellenes. This went on for three days, until a Thessalian named Ephialtes told the Persians about a path leading around Thermopylae. Xerxes immediately dispatched a detachment of his personal guard “immortals,” who quickly overpowered the Greek flank. Trying to hinder the Persian advance, Leonidas sent part of his small army of 4,500 men to block the Persian encirclement, but it was too late. Some of the reinforcements fell in battle, some retreated to the defenders.

By the time of the last battle, Leonidas had about 5,000 soldiers. Considering further defense pointless and trying to save most of the detachment, Leonid ordered them to retreat to join the main Hellenic forces, and he himself remained with his personal guard to cover their retreat. About 2,000 went south on the orders of the Spartan king to join the allied Hellenic forces. However, detachments of the Theban and Thespian militias, totaling about 2,000 people, refused to retreat, remained at Thermopylae and took the battle along with the Spartans. No one survived the bloody battle.

Paying tribute to the enemy, the Persians buried the fallen with military honors. Subsequently, a monument was erected over their grave.

Unfortunately, in world history Only the Spartans were hit; the other Greek heroes somehow fell out of people’s memory. If we compare all the participants in the Battle of Thermopylae: 300 dead Spartans, a thousand Greeks who fell in combat guard on a mountain slope, two thousand from those who went to their rescue and two thousand militia from Thebes and Thespius, then the question involuntarily arises - why only three hundred Spartans? Does 5000 really not count? The fact is that the first to describe this feat was the Spartan poet Simonides of Keos, who, naturally, tried to extol his compatriots. He glorified the Spartans, but somehow “forgot” about the rest.

The feat of three hundred Spartans in the Battle of Thermopylae Gorge, which happened back in 480 BC, is a vivid example of courage and heroism. In Hollywood, as many as 3 films were made telling about this feat - the first in 1962, the second in 2006 (the most famous, directed by Zack Snyder) and the third in 2014. And this fact itself says that this is truly a very exciting story. Of course, these films contain many inaccuracies, fantasies and inventions. But how did it actually happen, in reality?

The Battle of Thermopylae is one of the key battles of the Greco-Persian Wars. The Persian king Xerxes gathered a huge army to invade Europe and conquer the Greek city-states. According to modern researchers, the number of the Persian army, which actually consisted of representatives of many different nations, was in the range from 80 to 250 thousand. At the same time, the ancient Greek historian Herodotus writes about a five million army, but this is clearly not true.

The historian Herodotus in his writings described in detail the Battle of Thermopylae, but he was not always accurate in his assessments

In 481 BC. e. the ambitious Xerxes sent ambassadors to many Hellenic cities demanding “land and water,” that is, he demanded recognition of his power. However, ambassadors were not sent to Athens and Sparta - past experience said that in these policies they could deal with them very harshly (ten years ago in Athens, a Persian ambassador who came with a similar message was executed, and in Sparta they threw him into a well, saying, so that he would look for “land and water” there).

In the autumn of the same year, a pan-Greek meeting was held in Corinth. An alliance was concluded there and an agreement was reached to end internecine strife - this was the only way to counter the Persian threat. Ambassadors were sent to the rulers of the Greek colonies asking for help. This move, however, was not particularly successful.

The next year it became clear that Xerxes was extremely determined and serious. He even came up with a very elegant way to transfer his troops from Europe to Asia. He created two pontoon passages from interconnected ships across the Hellespont Strait (the modern name of the strait is the Dardanelles).


When this became known in Athens, the strategist Themistocles, who lived here, proposed to give battle to Xerxes in the narrow Thermopylae pass (gorge) - to get into southern lands Greece (what Xerxes longed for) was impossible by any other route by land. On the other hand, here the Greek army could at least somehow restrain the enemy, who was clearly superior in numbers. So that the gorge could not be bypassed by sea, the ships of the Athenians and other allies were ordered to control the strait between the island of Euboea and the mainland of Hellas. There, almost simultaneously with the Battle of Thermopylae, a large-scale naval battle took place.


Preparing for battle

So, by mid-August 480 BC. e. The Persian army found itself on the coast of the Gulf of Mali before entering Thermopylae. Xerxes sent an envoy to the Hellenic army, who invited everyone to surrender and receive in exchange for this freedom and the title of “friends of the Persians.”

The united Greek army was led by the Spartan king Leonidas. He rejected all of Xerxes' proposals. Then the ambassador conveyed the order of the Persian king to lay down his arms, to which the Greek king Leonidas replied “MOLON LABE”, which means “Come and take it.” This phrase has become legendary.


The average width of the Thermopylae Passage was sixty paces. The Greeks built a wall here, more precisely, a low barricade of heavy stones, and set up a camp behind it, blocking the entire width of the passage.

The army of King Leonidas consisted of 7,000 hoplites (heavily armed warriors) and 2,000 archers. Although, according to current estimates, the number of Greek soldiers defending the Thermopylae Pass could reach up to twenty thousand. And, of course, there could be no talk of any hundredfold or thousandfold superiority of the Persians, which ancient historians spoke about.

Warriors of Sparta - the best in Ancient Greece

Of course, Leonid’s personal guard, consisting of those same 300 Spartans, deserves a separate discussion. The number of soldiers in the guard was always constant; if one died, then another took over. The Spartans earned fame in Greece as the most courageous and fearless warriors. “Win together or die together!” - that was their motto.


Leonidas at that time was over forty years old (specialists were unable to establish his exact age at the time of the Battle of Thermopylae) and it was believed that he was a descendant of the demigod Hercules in the twentieth generation. Before going to Thermopylae, he personally selected 300 husbands from the citizens who already had sons. The rest of the Spartans were ordered to join the army after the holidays were over. And although the elders of Sparta tried to persuade Leonidas to take more than 300 people, Leonidas was inexorable.

Interesting fact: even the Persian invasion did not force the Spartans to abandon sacred celebrations. In Sparta at this time they celebrated Carnei - a holiday in honor of Apollo of Carnea, which lasted for nine whole days.

In general, it must be said that a very interesting political system developed in Sparta. The main principle here was the principle of unity of full citizens. And the state strictly regulated the life of the Spartans and prevented the emergence of property stratification. The Spartans were obliged to engage only in the art of war and sports. Agriculture and crafts were the lot of incomplete citizens - parieks and helots.

The education of youth was considered a state matter in classical Sparta. The entire education system was subordinated to the goal of making a citizen-warrior out of a child. From the age of seven to twenty, the sons of Spartan citizens were required to live in a kind of military boarding school. The young men engaged in physical training and hardening here, and played war games. Also, future warriors developed the skill of concise and competent speech. Among personal qualities Endurance, loyalty and determination were considered most important. In general, these boarding schools had a very harsh upbringing. And this is clearly one of the reasons why the Spartans were so good at fighting.


The first days of the assault on Greek positions

Xerxes, approaching Thermopylae, waited four days, and on the fifth he sent the most combat-ready troops of the Medes and Persians to attack. According to the historian Diodorus, the vanguard here were warriors whose relatives had fallen in the Battle of Marathon. It happened ten years before the Battle of Thermopylae, and the Greeks won.

The first attack of the Persians was quite straightforward - they struck strictly in the center. Having a clear numerical superiority, the Persians wanted to quickly decide the outcome of the battle in their favor, but the Greeks met them and survived. The Greek tactics were as follows: they pretended to begin to retreat, but then suddenly turned around and counterattacked the scattered Persians - this was very effective. A unique situation arose: the largest army in the world at that time was not able to withstand the relatively small number of Hellenes. Moreover, some of the Greek soldiers remained behind the wall.


The Battle of Thermopylae was indeed very fierce

Then the Persian king sent the Kissians and Saks, who were famous for their brutality, into battle. But even here Xerxes’ warriors were unable to make a breakthrough. They had light weapons and did not have good combat training. And therefore they were powerless against the disciplined phalanx of the enemy, hidden behind a continuous row of huge shields.

The day was already approaching evening when a ten-thousand-strong detachment of “immortals” went into battle (although, of course, they were mortal, that’s just what they called the elite guard of the Persian troops). But they retreated after a short battle. 300 Spartans took part in the battle all this time, and their losses, according to the historian Ctesias, were insignificant - only three people.

On the second day, the Persian king again sent his infantry to storm the Greek positions. He promised a generous reward for a successful offensive and execution for escaping from the battlefield. But this did not help either: all the attacks on the second day also turned out to be fruitless. Xerxes' troops replaced each other, but this led to nothing. The king of the Persians had to return back to the camp.

Ephialtes' betrayal

Xerxes did not understand how to proceed further until a man named Ephialtes approached him (it was still the same second day of the battle). For a generous reward, he volunteered to show the Persians a mountain path bypassing the Thermopylae Gorge. In the 1962 film “300 Spartans,” Ephialtes’ motivation is presented as follows: he allegedly wanted to conquer the beautiful Spartan Ella, whom he really liked, with his wealth. In the 2006 film, Ephialtes was a hunchback, whom Leonidas did not take into his guard because of this (he could not maintain a formation consisting of tall and stately men). He harbored a grudge and became a traitor. However, Ephialtes' true motives are shrouded in mystery. But it is known that in honor of the traitor, the Greeks subsequently named the demon who rules nightmares.


The secret path was guarded by the forces of the Phocians from Central Greece - there were about a thousand of them in total. A selected Persian detachment of 20,000 people, led by the commander Hydarnes, walked without giving themselves away all night, and at dawn attacked the unsuspecting Phocians. The Phocians were driven onto a mountain peak, and Hydarnes, taking advantage of this, simply continued to move to the rear of the Hellenes defending Thermopylae. The Phocians sent messengers to notify the Persians of the maneuver. But this information was already known: the Greeks, led by Leonidas, were told about this at night by Tirrastiades, a Persian defector warrior.

Death of the Spartans and other Greek warriors

By this time, Leonid had about five thousand soldiers left. The news of the Persians coming from the rear made the defense of the wall useless. Wanting to save a significant part of the Greek army, Leonidas gave them the order to retreat and unite with other Hellenic forces, and, indeed, about 2,000 soldiers moved south. Leonidas himself remained with 300 fellow countrymen - the Spartans, in principle, were forbidden by their charter to retreat, regardless of the circumstances. However, detachments of the Theban (under the command of Demophilus) and Thespian (under the command of Leontiades) militias, totaling approximately 2,000 people, also refused to leave. As a result, at Thermopylae they shared the fate of the Spartans.


Noticing the Persians, led by Ephialtes, approaching from the rear, the Greeks retreated from their barricades and positioned themselves on a hill at the exit from Thermopylae. They no longer expect to win, only to die with dignity. Ultimately, a handful of brave Hellenes took the fight to a place where the passage was already widening significantly. But even there the Persians could not really turn around, many of them died as a result of a crush or falling from a cliff.

The Persians shot at the Greek heroes remaining on the battlefield with bows and threw stones at them. But the Spartans still behaved very courageously. When the warriors from Sparta broke their spears, they fought with their opponents with short swords, and sometimes engaged in hand-to-hand combat. Herodotus testifies that the Spartans Alpheus, Dienek and Maron showed particular valor. A certain Dithyrambus from Thespia is also mentioned, who also proved himself to be a brave warrior. Almost no one survived the brutal battle. Leonidas died in the battle, but the Persians also lost, for example, Abrokomus and Hyperanthes, the brothers of Xerxes. Xerxes, by the way, when it was all over, personally went to inspect the battle site. Having discovered the body of Leonid, he ordered his head to be cut off from his shoulders and impaled.


Of the three hundred Spartans, only Aristodemus survived - due to illness, he was left in advance by Leonidas in Alpena, a settlement not far from the gorge. When Aristodemus returned to Sparta, dishonor awaited him. Not a single person spoke to him, and the nickname Aristodemus the Coward stuck to him. It is known that later Aristodemus tried to rehabilitate himself and died heroically in the battle of Plataea. According to some reports, a certain Spartan Pantit also survived, who was allegedly sent as a messenger to Thessaly. When he returned to Sparta, disgrace awaited him too.

Paying tribute to their opponents, the Persians buried the fallen Hellenes with military honors on the same hill where the last battle took place. Soon a monument was made over their grave in the form of a statue of a lion (Leonidas means “like a lion” in translation from ancient Greek) with a beautiful epitaph.


Fallen Spartans on native land revered as real heroes. And even six centuries later in Sparta, each of them was remembered by name.

Documentary film "The Last Stand of the 300 Spartans"


Probably the legend about 300 Spartans, who courageously resisted the numerically superior enemy army until their last breath, were heard by everyone. Hollywood films dedicated to this plot caused a lot of noise, although one should not expect historical accuracy from them. How did the legendary actually take place? Battle of Thermopylae?







Battle of Thermopylae happened in 480 BC. e. during the Greco-Persian War. Persia at that time was a young, aggressive superpower seeking to expand its borders. Xerxes was a ruler endowed with enormous power, despotic and ambitious - he sought power over the world. He was feared, but not deified, as shown in the Hollywood film. It also surprises him appearance– a king with piercings, hung with chains, looks, to put it mildly, strange.





The army of the attacking Persians was many times greater than the forces of the Greeks. According to various estimates, the number of Persians was from 80 to 250 thousand soldiers, the Greeks were from 5 to 7 thousand. Despite the unequal forces, in the first two days the Greeks repelled the Persian attacks in the Thermopylae gorge, but on the third day the tide of the battle was broken. According to one version, a local resident, Ephialtes, told the Persians about the presence of a mountain bypass route and showed it for a monetary reward; according to another, the Persians themselves discovered this path. Be that as it may, on the third day they were able to enter from the rear. The messenger warned the Spartans about this. Realizing the unsuccessful outcome of events, Leonid himself suggested that the Greeks disperse to their cities. He himself and his 300 Spartans remained.



If we abandon the excessive romanticization and glorification of this decision, it becomes clear that Leonid had no other choice. Sparta had very strict laws - no one had the right to retreat from the battlefield without an order. If this happens, the Spartan will lose his civil rights, he will face shame and exile. Leonid understood that everyone would die, but he had no choice, retreat was impossible. A Spartan warrior was obliged to fight to the death, otherwise he would become an outcast in society, and he himself would wish for death so as not to endure eternal insults and contempt.





The biggest question is the size of the Greek army. Herodotus says the following about this: “The Hellenic forces, waiting in this area for the Persian king, consisted of 300 Spartan hoplites, 1000 Tegeans and Mantineans (500 each); further, 120 people from Orkhomenes in Arcadia and 1000 from the rest of Arcadia. There were so many Arcadians. Then from Corinth 400, from Phlius 200 and 80 from Mycenae. These people came from the Peloponnese. From Boeotia there were 700 Thespians and 400 Thebans. In addition, the Hellenes called for help from the Opuntian Locrians with all their militia and 1000 Phocians.” That is, only 5200 warriors. In addition, there were servants with them - helots.



There really were 300 Spartans - the number of soldiers in the guard was constant, if one died, another took his place. But besides the Spartans, there were hundreds of Greeks from other city-states, numbering up to 5,000, and in the first two days of the battle they fought together at Thermopylae. But about 1,000 Greeks, in particular the Thespians, remained of their own free will and after Leonidas’ order to return home. No one belittles the merits and courage of the Spartans, but they were not the only ones who died in the unequal battle that day. The losses of the Greeks in three days amounted to about 4,000 people, the Persians - 5 times more.





There were many legends about the state of ideal warriors.