An old theme and a well-known legend. I remember at one time everyone believed that there were really only 300 Spartans. Then a stage began that everyone began to expose, including exposing the Spartans. They claimed that there were a lot more of them, and just “for the sake of the word” and greater tension of the feat, they wrote that there were 300 of them. As if simply symbolic as 33 heroes, for example.
So how many Spartans were there and were there any? Here's what information I managed to find …
In fact, the Greeks collected about 6,000 heavily armed warriors (and Herodotus lists them by city, the Spartans fielded one of the smallest units, which probably consisted of about 300 people).
Let us turn to the seventh book ("Polyhymnia") of this work, the only reliable source about this battle, where in paragraphs 202 and 203 we read: 500 each); further, 120 people from Orchomen in Arcadia and 1000 from the rest of Arcadia. There were so many Arcadians. Then 400 from Corinth, 200 from Fliunt and 80 from Mycenae. These people came from the Peloponnese. From Boeotia there were 700 Thespians and 400 Thebans. In addition, the Greeks summoned the Opunt Locrians with all their militia and 1000 Phocians to help … "*. By simple arithmetic calculations, we get the figure: 5200 soldiers (note: Wikipedia in the article "Battle of Thermopylae" gives other figures: 5920, nevertheless, this figure is erroneous,since the author of the article in Wikipedia, when counting the number of warriors from Mycenae, indicated "800" instead of "80", which explains the inaccuracy of the count).
The Greek army stood in a narrow gorge, which made it possible to block it with a small wall and in battle to change tired detachments for fresh ones.
When the Persians bypassed the Greeks, Leonidas sent almost everyone to the main forces, and he himself remained with the Spartans, Thespians (voluntarily remained) and Thebans (detained by force, because he suspected of treason) and left the gorge to meet the main forces of the Persians.
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In addition, there is a suspicion that the helots who accompanied the Spartans participated in the battle (according to Herodotus' records, it seems that one Spartan was usually accompanied on a campaign by up to 7 helots, who played the role of light infantry in battle).
The Thebans in battle went over to the side of the Persians, for which Xerxes "awarded" them all with a personal stigma.
Unfortunately, only Spartans got into world history, other Greek heroes somehow fell out of human memory. If we compare all the participants in the Battle of Thermopylae: 300 dead Spartans, a thousand Greeks who died in combat outposts on a mountain slope, two thousand from among those who went to their rescue and two thousand militias from Thebes and Thespius, then the question involuntarily arises - why only three hundred Spartans? Doesn't 5000 count? The fact is that the first who described this feat was the Spartan poet Simonides of Keossky, who, naturally, tried to extol his compatriots. He glorified the Spartans, but somehow "forgot" about the rest.
Subsequently, many historians, studying the Battle of Thermopylae, often came to the wrong conclusion about the fate of the militia. Having data on their participation at the beginning of the battle and, thanks to Simonides of Keossky, data on the death of only 300 Spartans, they misinterpreted their further fate. Someone wrote about their shameful flight from the battlefield, someone generally attributed to them a total surrender to the Persians.
Only for some reason no one could imagine a heroic death on the battlefield. But the dead militias are worthy of no less glory than the Spartans. Leonidas' Spartan warriors could not retreat, according to the military code of honor. They were professionals and had to fulfill their duty to the end. But their allies did not have this duty. Moreover, Leonidas directly ordered them to leave to join the main forces of the Greek army, but they refused, deliberately dooming themselves to death.
However, this circumstance in no way diminishes the feat of the Spartans and warriors from other Greek poleis, because they were opposed by about 200 thousand Persian soldiers, including the elite units of Xerxes - the so-called "immortals". In this battle, which lasted three days, about 20 thousand Persians fell (including 2 brothers of King Xerxes)
This is the version of the Spartans. Who is sure of the other? Share …
Such a story about the battle at Thermopylae can be found in the book Heroes and Battles: A Publicly Available Military History Reader. This book is more than a hundred years old, it was published in 1887 in St. Petersburg. It was compiled by the well-known writer and military historian Konstantin Abaza. I present his sketch in modern spelling.
Morning came, the last for the defenders; it was the seventh day that a handful of Greeks held back an army of two million. The courageous Tsar Leonidas donned royal clothes and, according to the customs of his people, made a sacrifice to the gods. With this rite, he celebrated funeral feast for himself and his comrades. Then he took food with them and prepared for battle. The Persians had a military clamor; they hit this clique from the front. Amicably and steadfastly, the Spartans repulsed the first blow, and, closing even more closely, pushing their long pikes even further, they moved forward in a formidable formation. The Persians drowned in the sea, climbed the rocks, fled, lay down in a shine - all the phalanx was chalk, advancing with the usual measured step. At that moment the Persians appeared from behind, to the rear of the phalanx. The Thebans were immediately transferred; but the Spartans and Thespians swore to die before the king, every single one. With courage and terrible strength, they now rushed back, clearing their way to the small hill. Many noble Persians fell in a crushing battle; the two king's brothers fell one after the other.
When the Greeks broke their spears, they grabbed their swords. Here and there, in a small group of fighters, a heavy sword rises and cuts through the "immortal" with a helmet, with his armor. But they all come, and the Spartans decrease. They are stepped on, trampled, pressed; enemy strikes become more frequent, defenders weaken. Tsar Leonidas rushed forward, raised his formidable sword, took two or three steps and fell to the ground, struck down. Around his body, a battle broke out more than ever before - the Persians gave in, then the Greeks retreated. Finally, the Greeks dragged the king's body into the middle and continued to repel the attacks of the Persians, surprising the enemies with their courage. But this was the last feat of the Greeks. They perished every single one, lay down among the heaps of defeated enemies, among the debris of spears, arrows and swords as their victorious trophies.
No victory glorified the fighters as glorified this defeat. The following inscription was made to the fallen Spartan heroes in the same place on the stone: "Passer-by, tell in Sparta that obedient to its laws, we lay down here dead." For a long time the stone lion pointed out to the travelers the very place where tsar Leonidas courageously fell”.