The Battle of Thermopylae took place in September 480 BC. e. in the Thermopylae gorge.
Few historical events are as famous and at the same time surrounded by so many myths and misconceptions as the Battle of Thermopylae. Repeatedly I had to hear the opinion that in this battle, 300 heroic Spartans for several days held back the five million army of the Persians (one of the most absurd delusions of Herodotus, but at the same time one of the most tenacious), and only betrayal led the Spartans to death.
According to another opinion, the Spartans, led by King Leonidas, sacrificed themselves to give Hellas time to prepare for the invasion. The reality, as often happens, looked completely different …
The defeat in the Battle of Marathon did not make the Persians abandon the idea of conquering Hellas. But preparations for a new invasion dragged on for 10 years. Death in 486 BC e. the Persian king Darius I led to the struggle for power, which is usual for eastern despotism, and other troubles in the form of uprisings of the conquered peoples. It took Darius' successor and son Xerxes several years to solve these problems. And when the new king strengthened his power, he immediately returned to the old idea.
It took almost 2 years to prepare for the great invasion. By the beginning of 480 BC. e. the main preparations were completed. A huge fleet (1207 ships) pulled up to the coast of Asia Minor, and in Sardis, the capital of the Lydian satrapy, a land army gathered, which consisted of representatives of various tribes and peoples, and all with their own weapons.
Xerxes himself arrived here with his guard - 10,000 "immortals". So these royal bodyguards were called because the number of their detachment always remained unchanged: a new guard was immediately taken to the place of the killed or deceased.
Herodotus, reporting on the size of the army gathered by Xerxes, wrote that for the campaign against Hellas, Xerxes gathered more than five million people, of which 1,700,000 were soldiers. This figure is absolutely unrealistic, and it can only be explained by the fact that fear has large eyes, and then an unprecedented fear reigned in Hellas.
In fact, the Persian army could hardly have more than 200,000 men. A larger number simply could not feed themselves, and there would not be enough drinking water for them in all rivers and reservoirs that were to meet along the way. It should be noted that out of these 200,000, no more than half (and rather a third) were real warriors, the rest were numerous servants, travel agents, builders.
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Nevertheless, such an army to a large extent exceeded the strength of not only any of the Greek city-states, but also all of them combined. And if we consider that just this unity among the Greeks did not exist, it should be recognized that the forces of Xerxes were extremely great and the danger for Hellas was in fact formidable.
480 BC e. - a huge Persian army, led by King Xerxes, made the transition from Asia Minor to Europe through the Hellespont Strait (now the Dardanelles). At the narrowest point of the strait, which separates Asia from Europe, the Phoenician builders erected a cunning bridge connecting both banks: they put side on side of the ships, putting a deck on top. However, a storm broke out, and only chips remained from the bridge.
The enraged Xerxes ordered to execute the builders, and to whip the sea with whips and lower the fetters into it, so that henceforth it would not dare to oppose his will. After that, a new bridge was built, much stronger than the previous one, and the Persian army moved along it to Europe. We crossed without a break for 7 days and nights.
The Greeks sent an army - about 10,000 hoplites - to detain the Persians on the distant approaches to the Peloponnese. At first, the allied army wanted to keep Xerxes on the northern border of Thessaly with Macedonia, but after that it retreated to the Isthmian isthmus, which connects the Peloponnese peninsula with the Balkans.
But in that case, many of the Greek cities on the mainland would be defenseless, and as a result, the army moved on to Thermopylae, a narrow passage in the mountains leading from Thessaly to Central Greece. At the same time, the Greek fleet in the amount of 271 triremes became a barrier for the Persian flotilla near Thermopylae, at Cape Artemisium.
Herodotus has a description of the Thermopylae Gorge. “For example, the village of Alpena, beyond Thermopylae, has a carriageway for only one carriage … In the west of Thermopylae, an inaccessible, steep and high mountain rises, extending to Eta. In the east, the passage goes directly to the sea and marshes. A wall was built in this gorge, and there was once a gate in it. The ancient wall was built in ancient times and from time to time for the most part has already collapsed. The Greeks have decided now to restore the wall and thus block the path to Hellas for the barbarian."
The Greek army consisted of standing urban detachments of professional, heavily armed hoplite warriors, sent as a front line while the cities gathered militias. Up to 6,000 hoplites gathered at Thermopylae; a Spartan detachment of 300 soldiers was led by Tsar Leonidas, the son of Anaxandris. He was also considered the commander-in-chief of the entire Hellenic army.
It should be noted that these 6,000 heavily armed soldiers were by no means the entire Greek army. From various sources it can be learned that the army had up to 1,000 Spartan periecs (non-citizens), and for each Spartan hoplite there were 7 helot slaves, who were used as lightly armed soldiers. It is possible to assume that in the detachments of other policies there were many soldiers who were not included in the number of hoplites given by Herodotus.
According to modern estimates, the number of Greek soldiers gathered to defend the Thermopylae Pass could be as high as twenty 20,000. Modern historians estimate the army of the Persians at 70,000. Therefore, there could be no question of any one hundred or a thousand-fold superiority of the Persians.
The Greeks set up camp behind the wall blocking the narrow Thermopylae pass. This wall was a low barricade made of heavy stones. The Persian army stopped at the city of Trachina before entering Thermopylae. One local resident, telling the Hellenes about the large number of barbarians, added that "if the barbarians shoot their arrows, the sun will be eclipsed from a cloud of arrows."
In response, the Spartan Dienek lightly joked: "Our friend from Trachin brought wonderful news: if the Medes darken the sun, then it will be possible to fight in the shadows" (in some sources this statement is attributed to Tsar Leonidas himself).
Xerxes waited 4 days, and on the 5th sent the most combat-ready detachments of the born Medes and Persians to the assault. According to the historian Diodorus, the king sent in the first wave of attacking those warriors whose close relatives had died 10 years earlier in the Marathon battle.
The Greeks met them in the gorge face to face, while the other part of the soldiers remained on the wall. The Greeks feigned retreat, but then turned around and counterattacked the frustrated forces of the Persians. Then the Persian king changed the Medes to the Kissians and Sakas, famous for their belligerence.
The warriors of Xerxes, in lighter weapons and not having combat training similar to the Greek, could not break through the dense phalanx of the enemy, hiding behind a solid wall of large shields. Before evening came, Xerxes' guards, soldiers from the "immortal" squadron, went into battle. But they too retreated after a short battle.
On the second day, the king of the Persians sent warriors known for their courage (mostly Carians) into battle, with the promise of good rewards for success and death for fleeing the battlefield. The second day was also spent in fruitless attacks. The Persians were replacing the attacking troops; the Greeks, in turn, replaced each other in battle.
Xerxes did not know what to do next when he was approached by a local resident, Ephialtes, who volunteered for a reward to lead the Persians along a mountain path bypassing Thermopylae. The path was guarded by a detachment of Phocians (from Central Greece) - 1,000 soldiers. A select Persian detachment of 20,000 under the command of Gidarn walked covertly all night, and by morning suddenly attacked the Phocians. Having driven them to the top of the mountain, Gidarn continued to move to the rear of the Hellenes guarding Thermopylae. The Phocians sent runners to inform the Greeks of the Persian detour; about this the Greeks were warned at night by a defector from the Persian camp named Tyrrastiad.
The allies were divided. Most, obeying the will of circumstances, went to their cities. Only 300 Spartans of King Leonidas remained, 700 Thespians under the command of Demophilus, the son of Diadrom, and 400 Thebans under the command of Leontias, the son of Eurimachus.
The number of soldiers in the detachments is indicated at the beginning of the Battle of Thermopylae, but in two days of fighting, the Greeks suffered significant losses. Thespia and Thebes - cities in Boeotia, through which the Persian army inevitably ran, so that the troops of these cities defended their native land in Thermopylae.
Herodotus wrote his historical work at the time of the enmity of Thebes with Athens, therefore he does not miss the opportunity to expose the Thebans as traitors to Hellas and reports that the Theban detachment was held by Leonidas against their will as hostages. But this version of Herodotus is refuted by both the fate of the detachment and the very logic of the war.
Counting not for victory, but only for a glorious death, the remaining Greeks took up the battle far from their former place, where the passage widened. But, even there, the Persians could not turn around and died in masses in a crush or being thrown from the steep coast. The Spartans' spears were broken, they struck the enemy with short Spartan swords in close melee.
Leonidas fell in battle, the Persians lost Abrokom and Hyperanthos, brothers of King Xerxes. Noticing the approach from the rear of the Persian detachment led by Ephialtes, the Greeks retreated to the wall, and then, passing it, took up a position on the hill at the exit from Thermopylae. According to Herodotus, during the retreat, the Thebans separated and surrendered: by this, they saved their lives at the cost of being branded into slavery.
The Spartans and Thespians took the final battle. The Persians shot the last heroes with bows, pelted them with stones. According to the testimony of Herodotus, the Spartans Dienek, the brothers Alpheus and Maron, the Thespian Dithyrambe distinguished themselves for their valor.
Of the 300 Spartans, only Aristodemus survived, who was left by Leonidas in the village of Alpeny due to illness. Upon his return to Sparta, Aristodemus faced dishonor and shame. No one spoke to him, they gave him the nickname Aristodem the Coward. Over time, Aristodemus atoned for the nonexistent guilt with his heroic death in the battle of Plataea. According to rumors, another Spartan survived, named Pantitus, who was sent as a messenger to Thessaly. Upon his return to Lacedaemon (the area where Sparta was), dishonor awaited him, and he hanged himself.
Diodorus presents the last battle of 300 Spartans in legendary form. They allegedly attacked the Persian camp even after dark and killed many of the Persians, trying to defeat Xerxes himself in the general turmoil. Only when dawn broke did the Persians notice the small size of Leonidas' detachment and pelted him with spears and arrows from a distance.
King Xerxes personally examined the battlefield. Having found the body of Leonidas, he ordered to chop off his head and impale him. Under Thermopylae, according to Herodotus, up to 20,000 Persians and 4,000 Greeks, including the Spartan helots, fell. The fallen Hellenes were buried on the same hill where they fought their last battle. A stone was placed on the grave with the epitaph of the poet Simonides of Keossky:
A. Domanin