The Hot Gates: Battle of Thermopylae
The Battle of Thermopylae is known to be one of the fiercest last stands known to mankind, the battle was fought in 480 BC during the Persian Emperor Xerxes’ conquest of Greece. A Greek coalition of 7,000 men led by Anax Leonidas I of Sparta, Leontiades of Thebes, and Demophilus of Thespiae against a mighty Persian force between 70,000–300,000 men. (Source: Herodotus)
The Greeks had positioned themselves around the Phocian wall, allowing them to use fewer soldiers at the narrow pass. The First Wave started with a volley of arrows fired at the Greek Phalanx, which proved ineffective. The different states fought in turns, as one got tired the other took over. The shorter spears and weaker shields used by the Persians did not help as stated by their casualties, the first horde was cut to pieces by the Greek coalition with only 2–3 losses sustained by the Spartan contingent. The first day had been a great success with the Greeks causing over 10,000 casualties.
At one point a Persian emissary had been sent to the Greeks, asking them to drop their arms, to which Anax Leonidas I of Sparta had responded, “Damon Labe” or “Come and take them.”
The second day, proved to be the most crucial one a Greek shepherd by the name of “Ephialtes” had given the Persians knowledge of a secret path to flank the Greek forces at Thermopylae. As the Greeks had fought on the second day, a Phocian contingent of Greeks had been slaughtered at the secret path by a Persian army. Upon finding this out, Anax Leonidas had ordered each and every man who was not a Spartan to return back to their homes, for the Spartans were making their last stand, many Greeks returned but a few wished to die alongside the Spartans.
On the third day, King Leonidas ordered his men to form around the cliff, which was right next to a river. Soon, from both sides the Persian hordes had begun engaging the Greeks in combat, many Persians falling dead within mere seconds. But their number had given them the edge, one Spartan fell, and so did the other, and so on. At one point Anax Leonidas had fallen fighting bravely, and the Spartans had been pushed back. But the men would do everything to recover his body, the Spartans had fended off 4 Persian hordes, to find the body of Leonidas separated from his head, which stood on a pike. This obviously enraged the remaining Spartans, they fought till their spears broke, till their swords had become blunt, till their shield had become a beat-up unrecognizable mess, till their hands were bruised and splintered, pushing every Persian back. In fact, the surviving Spartans were such a menace, Emperor Xerxes had his archers take them out rather than risk any more of his men. This was the bravery of the Spartans.
