Persians of Sparta. End of the Battle of Thermopylae

I first learned about the feat of the Spartans at the age of twelve, when I watched the American film “300 Spartans” directed by Rudolf Mate.

Then all the boys were inspired by this film and watched it several times. In every yard they played Spartans. They made spears, swords, and shields with an inverted letter “V”. The phrase “with a shield or on a shield” has become a catchphrase for us.

But I never even dreamed of seeing the site of the legendary battle of the Spartans with my own eyes.
And when I recently visited Greece, I visited the site of the battle between the Spartans and the Persians.
True, it has not been preserved. In 480 BC, when the Battle of Thermopylae Gorge took place, it was a narrow piece of land 20 meters wide on a cliff face. Now the sea (Malian Gulf) has receded, exposing a large area of ​​land.

Recently, I once again enjoyed watching the 1962 film “300.” In my opinion, the old film is incomparably better than the new one - the computer comic “300” on the same topic, which only more accurately reproduces the location of the battle.
In life, of course, everything was much more complicated than shown in the film.

The only reliable primary source about the feat of the 300 Spartans, on which later references are based, is Book VII of Herodotus.

At the end of the 6th century BC. The Persian power, having by that time conquered the Greek city-states of Asia Minor (Ionia), directed its expansion into the territory of Hellas. In 480 BC. e. A huge army of Persians led by Xerxes made the transition from Asia Minor to Europe through the Hellespont.
Herodotus estimates the army of the Persians and dependent peoples at 1 million 700 thousand people. Modern historians estimate the number of Persians to be up to 200 thousand people, although these figures are also questioned as overestimated.

Representatives of the independent Greek city-states met in a council in Corinth to decide how to work together to repel the Persian invasion.
The Spartans did not want to send a large army to Thermopylae because they were only going to defend their own lands. The Athenians proposed sending an army to Thermopylae. At that time, the Thermopylae Passage was the only route from Northern Greece to Southern Greece.

The Greeks revered the gods and therefore, even during the Persian invasion, they did not intend to anger the gods by refusing to celebrate. In Sparta, the festival of Carnei was celebrated, which also coincided with the 75th Olympic Games in 480 BC. And during the Olympic Games there were no wars.
However, the Spartans could not completely refuse to participate in the war against Xerxes, and therefore sent a small army led by King Leonidas. Leonid selected 300 worthy husbands from the citizens who already had children, so that the line would not be cut off. The rest of the Spartans were going to join the army immediately after the end of the festivities.
When the detachment left Sparta, the Spartan leadership shed crocodile tears: take, they say, Leonidas, at least a thousand, to which he reasonably remarked: “To win, a thousand is not enough, to die, three hundred is enough.”

The united Greek army at Thermopylae consisted of permanent city detachments of professional, heavily armed hoplite warriors, sent as advance troops while the cities raised militias.
In total, up to 6 thousand hoplites gathered at Thermopylae. The Spartan detachment of 300 warriors was led by King Leonidas; he was then about 40 years old.

To the west of Thermopylae a steep and high mountain rises. In the east the passage leads directly to the sea and marshes. There was a road for only one cart, 20 meters wide and 1 km long.

A wall was built in the Thermopylae Gorge, and there once was a gate in it. The wall was a low barricade made of heavy stones. The Greeks now decided to rebuild the wall and thus block the Persians' path to Hellas. They set up camp behind a wall blocking the narrow Thermopylae Pass.

For the first two days, the Greeks successfully repelled the attacks of the Persians, thanks to the fact that they were armed with long spears and acted harmoniously in the phalanx, covering themselves with large shields. The Persians could not turn around in the narrow passage and died en masse in a crush or being thrown off a steep bank.

Xerxes did not know what to do, and sent messengers to announce that he would reward the one who would show the way around the Thermopylae Gorge.
And then a certain local resident Ephialtes approached him, who volunteered to lead the Persians along a mountain path around Thermopylae for a reward. The path was guarded by a detachment of Phocians (from Central Greece) of 1000 soldiers. A selected Persian detachment of 20 thousand under the command of Hydarn marched secretly all night, and by the morning they unexpectedly attacked the Greeks. The Phocians sent runners to inform the Greeks about the Persian outflanking maneuver; The Greeks were warned about this at night by a defector named Tirrastiades from the Persian camp.

The Greeks found themselves surrounded. What was to be done?
Submitting to the will of circumstances, most of the units from the united Greek army went to their hometowns. Only 300 Spartans of King Leonidas, 700 Thespians and 400 Thebans remained to cover the retreat. Thespiae and Thebes are cities in Greece through which the route of the Persian army inevitably had to pass, so the detachments of these cities defended their native land in Thermopylae.

Xerox suggested that Leonid surrender. To which King Leonidas answered succinctly: “Come and take it!”

Leonid allegedly forced the Thebans to stay by force so that they would not run over to the enemies. According to Herodotus, during the retreat the Thebans separated and surrendered, thus saving their lives at the cost of being branded into slavery.

Not counting on victory, but only on a glorious death, the Spartans and Thespians accepted the battle. The Spartans had broken spears and struck their enemies with short swords. By the end of the battle, they didn’t even have any weapons left - they were dull, and then hand-to-hand combat began.
All the Spartans, of course, died. King Leonidas fell in battle, and the brothers of King Xerxes died among the Persians.

King Xerxes personally inspected the battlefield. Having found Leonid's body, he ordered his head to be cut off and impaled. At Thermopylae, according to Herodotus, up to 20 thousand Persians and 4 thousand Greeks fell, including Spartan helots (helots are state slaves).

Of the 300 Spartans, only Aristodemus survived, who was left sick by Leonidas in the village of Alpena. Upon his return to Sparta, dishonor and disgrace awaited Aristodemus. No one spoke to him, they gave him the nickname Aristodemus the Coward. The next year, at the Battle of Plataea, he fought like a madman, trying to atone for his guilt.

Sparta announced a reward for the head of the traitor Ephialtes. But he was killed by a fellow tribesman in a quarrel.

The fallen Hellenes were buried on the same hill where they took their last battle. The names of all those who died at Thermopylae were carved on the slab. A stone was placed on the grave with the epitaph of the poet Simonides of Keos: “Wanderer, go and tell our citizens in Lacedaemon that, keeping their covenants, here we are laid to rest.”

At the site of the death of the last Spartans, they subsequently placed an empty sarcophagus - a cenotaph (so that souls would find peace), on which there was a statue of a stone lion (Leonidas in Greek Leo). On the sarcophagus it was written: “Of animals I am the strongest, among people the strongest is the one whom I am guarding here in a stone coffin."

The remains of King Leonidas were reburied in Sparta 40 years after his death. Residents of the city, 600 years after the battle, already in Roman times, held annual competitions in honor of the national hero.

In 1955, a memorial was built on this site. Every year on August 26, the “Feast of Thermopylae” is held here - in memory of the heroism of 300 Spartans and 700 Thespians.

The death of a detachment under the command of King Leonidas in September 480 BC. e. became a legend. Although another similar detachment of 300 Spartans was also completely destroyed in the 3rd Messenian War (mid-5th century BC).

History is unfair. The feat of the 300 Spartans was forgotten for a long time, until Napoleon revived this story in the 19th century to inspire his soldiers.

Mussolini also made attempts to exploit history for the sake of his political goals, putting the history of ancient Rome at the service of his fascist regime.
Hitler also used the spirit of the ancient Germans to create the thousand-year Third Reich.

Any ruler rapes history, turning known mythologemes into the ideologemes he needs.
In Russia, this is how the famous saying of Elder Philotheus was used, to whom the words “Moscow is the third Rome, and there will never be a fourth” allegedly belonged. The theory of “Moscow is the third Rome,” as we know, served as the semantic basis for messianic ideas about the role of Russia and the justification for the policy of gathering Russian lands around the Moscow principality, and later the creation of the Russian empire.

History was once thought to belong to kings. Then they believed that everything was decided by the masses. Now we see that putting your own person at the head of the state means turning politics in your favor, even despite the protests of the popular masses.

Why do people always fight? Why can’t they solve all their problems peacefully?
Maybe innate aggressiveness is getting in the way?
Representatives of no other biological species fight each other like this.

What prompted Xerxes to conquer small, free Greece, while the Persian empire was several times larger and more powerful?
Ambition? revenge for the defeat of Darius' father at the Battle of Marathon? or thirst for conquest?

What can be opposed to the paradigm of conquest?
War is on our minds!

Over the past five thousand years, only two hundred and fifteen have been without war. The entire history of mankind is one continuous war. Just pure murder! The ground is all soaked in blood.

Of course, you don’t have to interfere when the ants are fighting among themselves. But when, in the heat of battle, they are ready to blow up the planet...

Wars are still the same, only bows and arrows have been replaced by atomic bombs and laser weapons.

Or maybe the Spartans died in vain if Xerxes burned and plundered Athens anyway?
Was their self-sacrifice meaningful?

Why didn't the Spartans surrender?
Why did they die?

Not why, but why!
They couldn't do otherwise!
Their slogan was: victory or death!

Of course, we can say that the Spartans had cruel morals: they led a paramilitary lifestyle, threw children born sick into the abyss, and expelled cowards and traitors. It is known that a mother killed her Spartan son, who returned from the war wounded in the back.
According to rumors, another Spartan named Pantitus survived the Battle of Thermopylae, sent as a messenger to Thessaly. Upon returning to Lacedaemon (the region where Sparta was located), dishonor also awaited him, and he hanged himself.

Is it possible to sacrifice one to save many?
For military leaders, this issue has long been resolved. To cover the retreat of the main forces, it is necessary to leave the rearguard to die in order to save the retreating ones.

Was there a feat?
Or did the rearguard simply perish, as usually happens during a retreat?
The Spartans, of course, were in a hopeless situation. Someone had to cover the retreat of the main forces and die so that the rest could be saved.
What is this, heroism out of necessity?

Could the Spartans have surrendered as the Thebans did?
No, they couldn't. Because “either with a shield or on a shield”!

Death was a necessity for them. They died fulfilling their duty to their family and friends. After all, they defended their loved ones, they defended their love - Greece!

A similar feat was accomplished by 28 Panfilov heroes who blocked the road to Moscow for fascist tanks.
They saved us - the living ones.

Those who die for the sake of others want their death not to be in vain.
This is why it is so important to remember fallen heroes.
The dead don't need this, the living need this!

Walking for 14 days along the shores of the Pagasei Gulf, they reached the city of Galos. Three days later, having crossed Othrid, it descended into the wide valley of Sperchei, all the tribes of which had previously expressed their submission by sending land and water to the Persian king. All the way to this valley, the Persians did not encounter obstacles, but they met them in the south of it: there, between the city of Anthelo, where the ancient Amphictyony gathered in a temple dedicated to Demeter, and the Locrian town of Alpenami, the path goes along a very narrow strip of seaside and, in the so-called “warm gate” (Thermopylae), it narrows twice so that it barely has the width of a cart. Here stood the allied Greek army, under the command of the Spartan king Leonidas. It occupied both of those very narrow places, and its position at Thermopylae was insurmountable as long as its communications with the sea remained free and until the road in its rear was occupied by the enemy along a narrow gorge through Mount Callidromus; To guard this road, 1000 Phocians were stationed on it. The Greeks believed that this detachment was sufficient to defend the Thermopylae Gorge.

Persian warriors. Palace bas-relief at Persepolis

When the Greeks saw the first Persian horsemen and heard about the countless forces of the enemies that filled the Spercheus valley, they lost heart. The Peloponnesians said that it was necessary to retreat; they wanted to stop for defense only on the Isthmus Isthmus. The Locrians and Phocians argued against this plan, whose areas would be abandoned defenseless to the prey of enemies if Thermopylae was left undefended. The Spartans and their brave king joined their opinion. It seemed to the Spartans that it would be an eternal shame for them if they gave into the hands of the barbarians the place about which so much is said in the myth of Hercules, the ancestor of their kings: here at the warm springs was his altar, here stood the city of Trakhina, where he made his last labors of Hercules; here flowed the stream of Diras, trying in vain to douse the blazing fire on which Hercules was dying; here was the most ancient meeting place of the Delphic amphictyony. The voice of the Spartans decided the matter. It was decided to defend Thermopylae, and in order to encourage his detachment, Leonidas sent the council of the union meeting on Isthmus a request to send reinforcements.

Xerxes I was surprised to hear from the spy that the soldiers assigned to guard Thermopylae were engaged in wrestling and other gymnastic exercises and combing their hair. The former Spartan king Demaratus, who was in the Persian army, explained to him that this was a sign of their determination to fight; Spartans usually comb their hair before battle. Xerxes delayed the attack on Thermopylae for four days in the hope that they would leave without a fight, or in anticipation of the Persian fleet. Tradition says that he sent them a demand that they give up their weapons, and received a laconic answer: “come and take it”! According to another legend, one of the citizens of Trakhina wanted to frighten the Greeks with the words that the arrows of the enemies would obscure the sun, so countless were the enemies; then the Spartan Dienek answered him: “So much the better, we will fight in the shadows.” But the fleet still did not appear on the fifth day, as it fought with the Greeks at Artemisium; then the king moved troops against Leonidas. He sent the Medes and the Susian Kissians. Their attack was unsuccessful: high shields protected the Greeks from countless arrows, and their long spears overthrew many enemies. Xerxes, watching the battle of Thermopylae from a hill near Trakhina, ordered Hydarnes to lead a detachment of 10,000 immortals into battle, of which he was the leader. Leonidas moved his bravest warriors, the Spartans, against this detachment. They quickly attacked the Persians and killed many. Then they pretended to flee, and when the barbarians, as they expected, rushed after them with a loud cry, they suddenly rushed forward again and drove the Persians back with great loss. This is how the brave Spartans fought and showed that they were skilled warriors. Three times the Persian king stood up from his seat, peering at the battle of Thermopylae.

Map of the Greco-Persian Wars showing the site of the Battle of Thermopylae

The next day it resumed and was also unsuccessful for the Persians. Leonid's steadfast courage inspired the entire army. The Greeks went into battle with their tribal troops in orderly order; there was no hesitation in their ranks. Xerxes was embarrassed; but the betrayal of the greedy Greek brought him success, which his arrows and spearmen could not achieve. Before evening, the Malian Ephialtes came to the king and offered to show the Persians the path through the mountain. He hoped for great reward. Xerxes joyfully accepted his offer and ordered Hydarnes to follow him with a detachment of immortals. When night fell, the detachment left the camp and by dawn reached a pass over the mountain. The noise of leaves in the dense oak forest in the quiet hour of dawn was heard by the Phocians standing there; They realized that the enemy had approached them, quickly jumped up and grabbed their weapons. Hydarn was surprised to find warriors here; he feared that these were the Spartans, whose courage he had already experienced at the Battle of Thermopylae. But, hearing from Ephialtes that these were not Spartans, he led his army into battle. The Phocians could not withstand the arrows that the Persians showered on them: careless, taken by surprise, they timidly fled to the heights of Eta. The Persians, without pursuing them, went down the southern gorge of the mountain to attack the Greeks from the rear, when at the agreed time, around noon, a mass of troops would resume the attack from the front.

The fleeing guards brought news to the Spartan king at dawn that the Persians were beginning to descend from the mountain. A military council hastily gathered to decide what to do now that destruction threatens.

There would still be time to escape by a quick retreat from Thermopylae, and there were people who said that this should be done. But Leonidas would have disgraced himself if he had left the dangerous post entrusted to his protection by the Spartan government. He could not return to Sparta having fled from the enemy; Spartan custom was not like that. The Delphic oracle told the Spartans that either their country would be devastated or one of their kings would be killed; he predicted to them that the strength of the “lion” would not stop the enemies. This clearly showed Leonid what decision he had to make; he knew what the Spartan government expected from him, sending him to a forward position with a few and already elderly warriors and leaving him without reinforcements.

Leonid understood his destiny and thought about death without fear. But he did not want to involve warriors of other states in his death. Therefore, he released his allies from Thermopylae, while the route of retreat through Scarthea and Tronion to the south was still clear. He left to die with him in the battle of Thermopylae only the Spartans, Perieci and Helots who still survived, and the Theban hoplites, whom he took with him as hostages. The Locrian and Peloponnesian warriors willingly obeyed his orders to leave. But the Thespians, of whom there were 700 people, under the command of the brave Demophilus, firmly said that they would not leave. They voluntarily chose death in the battle of Thermopylae in order to save the honor of the Boeotian name.

The number of hoplites remaining with Leonidas was probably about 1200; In the morning he led them from the northern gorge forward into the last battle. At breakfast before leaving the Fermopil camp, he, as the legend says, told them that they would dine in the underworld. “They found the enemy already ready for battle: Xerxes made a sacrifice early in the morning, put his troops in battle formation, and waited for the agreed signal from Hydarnes to quickly move them against the Greeks. They were surprised to see that the Greeks themselves were coming towards them. The Greeks fought with the courage of lions in the Battle of Thermopylae against countless enemy forces. The Persians fell in heaps from the spears and swords of the hoplites, drowning in the swamp, pressed by them; the guards drove the rear ranks forward with whips, the onslaught overturned those fighting in front, and those driven by the whips trampled their lying comrades. The Greeks, who doomed themselves to death, performed miracles of courage: they walked forward, fought so that their spears broke and their swords became dull. Among the Persians killed were two sons Daria. But fewer and fewer Greeks remained. Leonidas, “the most praiseworthy man,” as Herodotus calls him, fell struck by a mortal wound in the chest. The Persians and Greeks fought over the possession of his body.

Four times the Greeks repulsed the enemies who rushed at them. Finally, they received news that the Persians, whom Ephialtes had led across Mount Ephialtes, were already approaching their rear; then they, tired, retreated behind the wall built by the Phocians across the second gorge; it was fortified with a ditch, along which the Phocians ran the Warm Springs. The Greeks locked its gates and defended themselves with bent, broken weapons, bare hands, and teeth from the barbarians who stormed the wall. The Persians finally climbed the wall, broke it, and surrounded the Greeks. The last few who were still alive, the Lacedaemonians and Thespians, sat on a hill and calmly awaited death. The Persians killed them all. The Thebans, who had separated from the other Greeks, laid their helmets and shields on the ground, and, holding out their hands, shouted that they were friends of the Persians, that they went into battle only under duress. But before the Persians could understand their cry, many of them were killed; Xerxes sent an order to spare the surviving Thebans, but ordered the mark of the royal slaves to be burned on their leader Leontiades and on all of them; with this shameful stigma he sent them home.

The last battle of the 300 Spartans was the Battle of Thermopylae. Video

The number of Greeks killed in the Battle of Thermopylae probably extended to 4,000 people, the number of Persians killed was five times higher. Of the Spartans, two survived who were not in the camp on the last day; they were declared dishonorable because they were suspected of not going to battle out of timidity. One of them killed himself. Another restored his honor the following year with a heroic death at the Battle of Plataea. The Spartans glorified Leonid and his 300 warriors with songs and legends, holding holidays and games in their honor. At the place where the heroes of the Battle of Thermopylae fell, a copper lion was placed, the inscription on which told the traveler that Leonidas and his companions died fulfilling the orders of Sparta. They brilliantly proved the truth of the words spoken by Demaratus to Xerxes, that the Spartans would do everything that honor and laws demanded of them.

Commanders Tsar Leonidas I † King Xerxes I Strengths of the parties up to 6 thousand hoplites at the beginning of the battle,
500-1400 hoplites on day 3 approx. up to 200 thousand Losses 4 thousand killed,
OK. 400 prisoners approx. up to 20 thousand

Battle of Thermopylae(Greek Μάχη των Θερμοπυλών ) - battle in September 480 BC. e. during the Greco-Persian War 480-479. BC e. in the narrow gorge of Thermopylae, where a detachment of 300 Spartan hoplites died heroically, blocking the path of the Persian army of King Xerxes I.

The only reliable primary source about the feat of the 300 Spartans and on which later references are based is Book VII of Herodotus. Independently of Herodotus, the later author Ctesias of Cnidus told about the battle of Thermopylae from Persian sources. Perhaps the work of Ctesias (which came down in the form of fragments) was used by Diodorus in his description of the feat of the 300 Spartans. Other ancient sources convey an already established legend with the addition of fictitious details.

Background

The Greeks sent an army of up to 10 thousand hoplites to delay the Persians on the distant approaches to the Peloponnese. At first, the allied army wanted to contain Xerxes on the northern border of Thessaly with Macedonia, but then retreated to the Isthmus, an isthmus connecting the Peloponnese peninsula with the Balkans. However, in this case, many Greek cities on the mainland would be defenseless, and the army moved to Thermopylae, a narrow pass in the mountains from the region of Thessaly to Central Greece. At the same time, the Greek fleet became a barrier to the Persian flotilla at Cape Artemisia near Thermopylae.

Modern view of the Thermopylae Passage at the site of the battle. The coastline has moved far from the mountains.

Here is how Herodotus described the Thermopylae Passage:

“So, near the village of Alpena beyond Thermopylae there is a road for only one cart... In the west of Thermopylae there rises an inaccessible, steep and high mountain, stretching to Eta. In the east, the passage approaches directly to the sea and swamps... A wall was built in this gorge, and there once was a gate in it... The ancient wall was built in ancient times and has mostly collapsed over time. The Hellenes now decided to rebuild the wall and thus block the barbarian’s path to Hellas. There is a village there very close to the road called Alpena.”

Feat of the Spartans

Modern monument to Tsar Leonid

Of the 300 Spartans, only Aristodemus survived, who was left sick by Leonidas in the village of Alpena. Upon his return to Sparta, dishonor and disgrace awaited Aristodemus. No one spoke to him, they gave him the nickname Aristodemus the Coward. According to rumors, another Spartan named Pantitus survived, sent as a messenger to Thessaly. Upon returning to Lacedaemon (the region where Sparta was located), dishonor also awaited him, and he hanged himself.

Diodorus conveys the last battle of the 300 Spartans in a legendary form. They allegedly attacked the Persian camp while it was still dark and killed many Persians, trying to hit Xerxes himself in the general confusion. Only when it was dawn did the Persians notice the small number of Leonidas’s detachment and pelt it with spears and arrows from a distance.

After the battle

Memorial epitaph (modern) at the site of the Battle of Thermopylae.

King Xerxes personally inspected the battlefield. Having found the body of Leonidas, he ordered his head to be cut off and impaled. According to Herodotus, up to 20 thousand Persians and 4 thousand Greeks, including Spartan helots, fell at Thermopylae.

The fallen Hellenes were buried on the same hill where they took their last battle. A stone was placed on the grave with the epitaph of the poet Simonides of Keos:

In the next 479 BC. e. The Persian army was completely defeated at the Battle of Plataea in Boeotia. In that battle, Aristodemus distinguished himself among the Spartans, the only survivor of the 300 warriors of King Leonidas. He fought like a madman, leaving the ranks, and accomplished great feats only because, as the Spartans themselves believed, he sought death because of his guilt.

Sparta announced a reward for the head of the traitor Ephialtes, son of Euridemus. He was then killed by a fellow tribesman in an argument. The remains of King Leonidas were reburied in Sparta 40 years after his death. Residents of the city, 600 years after the battle, already in Roman times, annually held competitions in honor of the national hero. The names of all those who fell at Thermopylae were carved on the slab.

Other battles of Thermopylae

The following battles also took place at Thermopylae:

• In 279 BC e. The allied army of the Greeks stopped the Gallic invasion.
• In 191 BC e. here the Syrian king of the Macedonian dynasty, Antiochus III, was defeated by the Romans.

300 Spartans in cinema

Based on the legendary feat, 3 films were made in Hollywood:

• Three Hundred Spartans (film) - historical film of the year with elements of melodrama. Differs from the 2007 film in its relative historical accuracy (combined with the non-athletic figures of the Spartans).
• 300 (film) - film of the year, a film adaptation of Frank Miller's graphic novel, telling the story of the 300 Spartans in a fantasy treatment. It is a comic book film with stylized characters and low historical accuracy.

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 Gorge. We have repeatedly heard the opinion that in this battle, 300 heroic Spartans held back a five-million-strong Persian army for several days (one of the most absurd misconceptions 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 did not force the Persians to 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 usual struggle for power for eastern despotism and other troubles in the form of uprisings of conquered peoples. It took Darius' successor and son Xerxes several years to resolve 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 basic preparations were completed. A huge fleet (1207 ships) was pulled up to the coast of Asia Minor, and in Sardis, the capital of the Lydian satrapy, a ground army gathered, which consisted of representatives of various tribes and peoples, all with their own weapons.

Xerxes himself arrived here with his guard - 10,000 “immortals”. These royal bodyguards were called that way because the size of their detachment always remained the same: a new guardsman was immediately accepted in place of someone killed or deceased.

Herodotus, reporting on the size of the army assembled by Xerxes, wrote that for the campaign against Hellas, Xerxes gathered more than five million people, of which 1,700,000 were warriors. This figure is absolutely unrealistic, and it can only be explained by the fact that fear has big eyes, and then unprecedented fear reigned in Hellas.

In fact, the Persian army could hardly number more than 200,000 people. A larger number simply could not feed itself, and there would not be enough drinking water for it in all the rivers and reservoirs that were to be encountered along the way. It should be noted that of these 200,000, no more than half (or rather a third) were real warriors, the rest represented numerous servants, transport workers, and builders.

However, such an army significantly exceeded the forces of not only any of the Greek city-states, but also all of them combined. And if we take into account that precisely this unity did not exist among the Greeks, it must be admitted that the forces of Xerxes were extremely great and the danger for Hellas was actually 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, Phoenician builders built a cunning bridge that connected both banks: they placed ships side by side, laying a deck on top. However, a storm broke out, and only chips remained of the bridge.

The angry Xerxes ordered the builders to be executed, and the sea to be flogged and shackles placed in it so that in the future it would not dare to resist his will. After which they built a new bridge, much stronger than the previous one, and along it the Persian army moved to Europe. We crossed without a break for 7 days and nights.

The Greeks sent an army - about 10,000 hoplites - to delay the Persians on the distant approaches to the Peloponnese. At first, the allied army wanted to contain Xerxes on the northern border of Thessaly with Macedonia, but then it retreated to the Isthmian Isthmus, connecting the Peloponnese peninsula with the Balkans.

But in this case, many of the Greek cities on the mainland would be defenseless, and as a result the army moved to Thermopylae, a narrow pass in the mountains leading from Thessaly to Central Greece. At the same time, the Greek fleet of 271 triremes became a barrier for the Persian flotilla near Thermopylae, at Cape Artemisium.

Herodotus has a description of the Thermopylae Gorge. “So, near the village of Alpena beyond Thermopylae there is a road for only one cart... In the west of Thermopylae there rises an inaccessible, steep and high mountain, stretching to Eta. In the east, the passage approaches directly to the sea and swamps. A wall was built in this gorge, and there once was a gate in it. The ancient wall was built in ancient times and has mostly collapsed over time. The Hellenes have now decided to rebuild the wall and thereby block the barbarian’s path to Hellas.”

The Greek army consisted of permanent urban units of professional, heavily armed hoplite warriors, sent to act as an advance screen while the cities raised militias. At Thermopylae, up to 6,000 hoplites gathered; The Spartan detachment of 300 warriors was led by King Leonidas, son of Anaxandrides. He was also considered the commander-in-chief of the entire Hellenic army.

It should be noted that these 6,000 heavily armed warriors by no means constituted the entire Greek army. From various sources you can find out that there were up to 1,000 Spartan perieki (non-citizens) in the army, and for each Spartan hoplite there were 7 helot slaves, who were used as lightly armed warriors. It is possible to assume that in the detachments of other policies there were many warriors 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 reach up to twenty 20,000 people. Modern historians estimate the Persian army at 70,000. Therefore, there could be no talk of any hundred or thousandfold superiority of the Persians.

The Greeks set up camp behind a wall blocking the narrow Thermopylae Pass. This wall was a low barricade, which was lined with heavy stones. The Persian army stopped at the city of Trakhina before entering Thermopylae. One local resident, telling the Hellenes about the large number of barbarians, added that “if the barbarians shoot their arrows, then the cloud of arrows will cause an eclipse of the sun.”

In response, the Spartan Dienek joked lightheartedly: “Our friend from Trachin brought excellent 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 King Leonidas himself).

Xerxes waited for 4 days, and on the 5th he sent the most combat-ready troops from the native Medes and Persians to attack. According to the historian Diodorus, the king sent in the first wave of attacks those warriors whose close relatives had died 10 years earlier in the Battle of Marathon.

The Greeks met them face to face in the gorge, while the other part of the soldiers remained on the wall. The Greeks feigned retreat, but then turned around and counterattacked the frustrated Persian troops. Then the Persian king replaced the Medes with the Kissians and Saks, famous for their belligerence.

The warriors of Xerxes, in lighter weapons and without drill training similar to the Greek, could not break through the dense phalanx of the enemy, hidden behind a solid wall of large shields. Before evening came, Xerxes' guard, warriors from the detachment of the "immortals", went into battle. But they retreated after a short fight.

On the second day, the king of the Persians sent warriors known for their courage (mostly Carians) into battle, with the promise of a good reward for success and death for fleeing the battlefield. The second day also passed in fruitless attacks. The Persians replaced 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 certain local resident, Ephialtes, who volunteered to lead the Persians along a mountain path around Thermopylae for a reward. The path was guarded by a detachment of Phocians (from Central Greece) - 1,000 soldiers. A selected Persian detachment of 20,000 under the command of Hydarnes marched secretly all night, and in the morning suddenly attacked the Phocians. Having driven them to the top of the mountain, Hydarnes continued to move to the rear of the Hellenes guarding Thermopylae. The Phocians sent runners to inform the Greeks of the Persian outflanking maneuver; The Greeks were warned about this at night by a defector from the Persian camp named Tirrastiades.

The allies disagreed. Most, obeying the will of circumstances, went to their cities. Only 300 Spartans of King Leonidas remained, 700 Thespians under the command of Demophilus, son of Diadromus, and 400 Thebans under the command of Leontiades, son of Eurymachus.

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. Thespiae and Thebes are cities in Boeotia, through which the route of the Persian army inevitably ran, so that the detachments of these cities defended their native land in Thermopylae.

Herodotus wrote his historical work at a time of enmity between Thebes and Athens, so 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 on victory, but only on a glorious death, the remaining Greeks took the battle at a distance from the previous place, where the passage widened. But even there the Persians could not turn around and died en masse in a crush or being thrown off a steep bank. The Spartans' spears were broken; they struck the enemy with short Spartan swords in close hand-to-hand combat.

Leonidas fell in battle, and the Persians killed Abrokomus and Hyperanthes, the brothers of King Xerxes. Noticing the approach from the rear of a Persian detachment led by Ephialtes, the Greeks retreated to the wall, and then, having passed it, took up a position on a hill at the exit from Thermopylae. According to Herodotus, during the retreat, the Thebans separated and surrendered: by doing this, they saved their lives at the cost of being branded into slavery.

The Spartans and Thespians made their last stand. The Persians shot the last heroes with bows and threw stones at them. According to the testimony of Herodotus, the Spartans Dienek, the brothers Alpheus and Maron, and the Thespian Dithyrambus distinguished themselves with their valor.

Of the 300 Spartans, only Aristodemus survived, who, due to illness, was left by Leonidas in the village of Alpena. Upon his return to Sparta, dishonor and disgrace awaited Aristodemus. No one spoke to him, they gave him the nickname Aristodemus the Coward. Over time, Aristodemus atoned for the non-existent guilt with his heroic death in the Battle of Plataea. According to rumors, one more Spartan survived, named Pantitus, who was sent as a messenger to Thessaly. Upon returning to Lacedaemon (the region where Sparta was located), dishonor also awaited him, and he hanged himself.

Diodorus presents the last battle of the 300 Spartans in legendary form. They allegedly attacked the Persian camp while it was still dark and killed many Persians, trying to hit Xerxes himself in the general confusion. Only when it was dawn did the Persians notice the small number of Leonidas’s detachment and pelted it with spears and arrows from a distance.

King Xerxes personally inspected the battlefield. Having found Leonid's body, he ordered his head to be cut off and impaled. According to Herodotus, up to 20,000 Persians and 4,000 Greeks, including Spartan helots, fell at Thermopylae. The fallen Hellenes were buried on the same hill where they took their last battle. A stone was placed on the grave with the epitaph of the poet Simonides of Keos:

Traveler, go and tell our citizens in Lacedaemon,
That, keeping their covenants, we died here with our bones.

Persia, which reached its peak under the rule of the Achaemenid dynasty, actively expanded its borders. In some sources, the Greco-Persian Wars are sometimes simply called the Persian Wars. This formulation usually refers to the campaigns of the Persian army on the Balkan Peninsula in 490 BC. and a series of military conflicts in 480-479 BC.

The main historical result of the Greco-Persian Wars was the following: the territorial expansion of Achaemenid Persia was stopped, and the ancient Greek civilization, which defended its independence, entered an era of prosperity and its highest cultural achievements.

In the historiographical tradition, it is customary to divide the Greco-Persian wars into two (the first - 492-490 BC, the second - 480-479 BC) or even three wars (the first - 492 BC, the second - 490 BC, the third - 480-479 (449) BC).

And the main milestones of this historical period are the following events:

• Revolt of Miletus and other cities of Ionia against Persian rule (500/499-494 BC).
• The invasion of Darius I on the Balkan Peninsula, which ended with his defeat at Marathon (492-490 BC).
• Campaign of Xerxes I (480-479 BC).
• Actions of the Delian Military League against the Persians in the Aegean Sea and Asia Minor (478-459 BC).
• The Athenian expedition to Egypt and the end of the Greco-Persian wars (459-449 BC).

Of all these wonderful historical events, in this material we will talk about only one. We are interested in the campaign of the Persian king Xerxes I, and even more precisely - the battle of the Persians with the Spartans and the Greek militia in the Thermopylae gorge.

Army of Xerxes and Greek militia

According to ancient chronicles, compiled, in particular, by the ancient Greek source Herodotus, the number of Persian troops was almost two and a half million soldiers. Persia in its heyday, of course, was a huge state, but even at that time the Persian kings would hardly have been able to assemble such a huge army.

Researchers agree that ancient historians significantly exaggerated the number of troops that invaded Greek territory. The figures proposed by modern historians look much more plausible: 200-250 thousand.

However, regardless of the actual number of soldiers in the Persian army, the number of Xerxes’ troops was truly colossal at that time. This is what Xerxes was betting on: to conquer the scattered Greek city-states, crushing them with a numerical advantage.

The Persian king sent envoys to all Greek city-states with an ultimatum, according to the text of which it was proposed either voluntary surrender on extremely humiliating conditions, or doom the cities to destruction and the inhabitants to extermination. Almost all Greek policies accepted the terms of the ultimatum and recognized Xerxes as king, but Athens and Sparta not only refused to submit to the demands, but also dealt with the ambassadors.

According to the testimony of Herodotus and Diodorus Siculus, the Greek militia had much smaller forces: from 5,200 to 7,700 soldiers. Despite the rather advantageous defensive positions, such a small army could successfully defend itself, but not win.

Battle of Thermopylae

The militia was led by the Spartan king Leonidas, who selected three hundred soldiers to participate in the battle. The elders, as the chronicles report, insisted on increasing the number of the detachment to one thousand people, to which Leonid replied: “To win, a thousand is not enough; to die, three hundred is enough.”

The main task of the Greeks was to delay the further advance of the Persian army into the territory of the Peloponnese. The narrow gorge of the Thermopylae Pass made it possible to solve this strategic problem even with small forces.

According to the accepted disposition, the Greek militia positioned its forces in the narrowest places in the path of Xerxes' armies. This allowed the inferior Greeks to compensate for the enemy’s numerical advantage: the Greek army did not need a large amount of forage (food and feed for horses), while the Persians needed to pass through Thermopylae deep into the peninsula to supply the army.

From a tactical point of view, the Thermopylae Gorge was an ideal position for the Greeks. The phalanx of hoplites (Greek heavily armed warriors) could not be outflanked in the narrow gorge, and the Persians could not use their cavalry. The only weak point of the position was a bypass mountain path, quite surmountable for infantry, which Leonid knew about. A detachment of a thousand Phocians was posted on the path.

Before the battle, Xerxes sent an envoy to the Greeks, who offered to surrender and receive in return freedom, the title of “friends of the Persian people” and lands better than those they owned. Such a proposal was naturally rejected and then the ambassador conveyed Xerxes’ demand to lay down his arms, to which, according to Plutarch, he received the legendary answer: “Come and take it.”

According to the testimony of ancient historians, Xerxes waited four days before starting hostilities. On the fifth day the Persians began to act. Xerxes consistently sent into battle first close relatives of the soldiers who died 10 years earlier in the battle with the Greeks at Marathon. Then - the Kissi and Saks, and when these units failed - the personal guard, the so-called "Immortals", who, however, also failed. According to Ctesias, Spartan losses were minimal - 3 people died.

The second day did not bring any significant changes to the balance of forces: the Persians were defeated while trying to break through the Greek defense with a frontal attack. Being forced to retreat, Xerxes pondered further actions. Just at this time, the Trakha resident Ephialtes was brought to him.

This man told the Persian king about the existence of a bypass mountain path that led directly to the rear of the militia. The traitor even offered his services as a guide, asking for a considerable reward. That same evening, an army of twenty thousand under the command of a certain Hydarn set off along a mountain path to make a detour.

On the third day, Hydarnes' detachment reached the Phocian positions. They, preparing for defense, sent a messenger to Leonid. Having received the news, Leonid convened a council. The opinions of the Greeks were divided and as a result, part of the army was disbanded to their policies. Only the Spartans, the Thespians, who refused to leave the battlefield, and the Thebans remained in the gorge. According to Herodotus, Leonidas himself ordered the Greeks to disperse to their cities, since the situation was hopeless.

Moving away from their original positions deeper into the gorge, Leonid and the remaining soldiers fought a general battle, in which he died. His detachment was completely defeated, the victory was Xerxes. According to Herodotus, up to 20 thousand Persians and 4 thousand Greeks, including Spartan helots, fell at Thermopylae.

In 1939, Greek archaeologists under the leadership of Spyridon Marinatos carried out excavations at the supposed battle sites. They found numerous evidence of a battle described more than two thousand years ago. Today, several monuments and memorial signs have been erected near the site of the battle. In addition to the slab with the epitaph of Simonides, there is a monument to King Leonidas and a detachment of 300 Spartans, as well as a monument in honor of the Thespians who died along with the Spartans.