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The Truth About The Battle of Thermopylae and The Legendary 300
Dividing fact from fiction
In 490 BCE, the Persian Empire lost the Battle of Marathon to the upstart Greek city-states. The loss was an embarrassing blow to the Persians, who believed it was their right to conquer Greece. With their army defeated on land and their navy unable to secure Athens by sea, the Persians were forced to turn around and return to Asia. But the loss at Marathon would not be the last clash between Persia and Greece.
Just a decade later, the Persians decided to come back and try again. This time, the Persians deployed overwhelming force. In 480 BCE, an army numbering hundreds of thousands made for Greece in the hopes of squashing the defenders with sheer numbers. The Battle of Marathon featured 30,000 Persian soldiers. The Battle of Thermopylae will feature 200,000.
The Greeks watched the fearsome army muster with trepidation. They knew that if such an army broke through and was able to flood the Greek interior, they had a very good chance of losing. In order to block the Persian army from reaching the vulnerable heartland, the Greeks devised a devious plan that has gone down in history.
The Battle of Thermopylae is seeped in mythos, rumor, and functionalization. Few events in history have captured the imagination, like…
