16
BEFORE 1000 CE
4
TACTICAL ADVANTAGE
In an attempt to block
the advance of the Persian
invaders, Leonidas placed
his forces at the Middle
Gates of Thermopylae
in central Greece. The
45-ft (15-m) gap was
anked on one side by
water and on the other
by a sheer slope which,
together with a wall that
had been built decades
earlier, made passage
by an attacking force
almost impossible.
Middle Gates of
Thermopylae
Mountain path
taken by Persian
outflanking force
Spartan defensive
position and wall at
Middle Gates
Site of Spartan
last stand
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17
THERMOPYLAE
◼
480 BCE
In 480 BCE, Xerxes I restarted
the Persian invasion of Greece that
had ended at Marathon 10 years
earlier (see pp.12–15), bridging
the Hellespont (Dardenelles) with
pontoons to transport his huge
army. Unable to oppose such a
force, the northern Greek cities quickly capitulated and
the Persians swept through Thessaly in central Greece. An
anti-Persian resistance coalesced around Athens and Sparta,
however, and resolved to halt the invaders. The Spartan army
under Leonidas marched to Thermopylae in Boeotia, where
a narrow pass could be held by a small number of hoplites.
Simultaneously, the Athenian eet blocked the Persian
navy at the Straits of Artemisium to the northeast.
Xerxes approached on August 18 with around 70,000 men,
10 times that of the Spartan-led defenders. He unleashed a
volley of arrows, followed by a headlong charge and an assault
by his elite forces, the Immortals, all of which the Greeks
withstood. With Persian losses mounting on the second day,
Thermopylae
480 BCE
◼
CENTRAL GREECE
◼
GREECE VS. PERSIA
GRECO–PERSIAN WARS
Xerxes’s campaign was only saved by the discovery of a
mountain path that enabled him to attack from the rear.
Outanked, Leonidas sent most of the army away, and fought
to the death with a smaller force. The Greek eet retired, and
Xerxes marched on Athens and into the Peloponnese.
KING LEONIDAS C.548480 BCE
The third son of King Anaxandridas of
Sparta, Leonidas received the rigorous
martial training typical of high-born Spartan
males, and his military experience included
service in a campaign against Argos in
494
BCE. He became king in 490 BCE and was
selected to lead the anti-Persian alliance in
480
BCE. Ignoring a prophecy from the Delphic
oracle that predicted his death, he made a heroic
stand at Thermopylae, stubbornly resisting and
then refusing to retreat with the rest of the army.
Leonidas’s actions made his name a byword for
bravery among future Greek generations.
4 Depicting the hero of the battle, this statue of
Leonidas was found in the city of Sparta in Greece.
In detail
4
LEONIDAS’S LAST STAND
A local man betrayed the Greek
forces by revealing a track over
the mountain that allowed the
Persians to circumvent Leonidas’s
defences. Xerxes used the path
to send 10,000 men to attack
from the rear. Facing the Persian
forces with 300 Spartan warriors,
accompanied by 700 Thespians
and a force of Thebans, Leonidas
made a heroic last stand while the
remaining Greek forces retreated.
This painting from 1963 depicts
the nal moments of the battle.
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