One man vs an army, a few standing against impossible odds-
these are the greatest last stands in history!
Agis III of Sparta
It's no surprise that we're starting off our list with a Spartan- these dudes were
literally made for war. Trained from childbirth to be warriors,
history has created few warrior societies that can match those of the Spartan kingdom.
And of all Spartans ever born, few can match the ferocity of Agis III.
Son of Archidamus III of Sparta- guess the ancient Greeks had a thing for thirds-
Agis succeeded his father to the throne in 338 BC.
At about this time King Philip II of Macedonia had defeated the splintered armies of the Greek
city-states and united them under the Corinthian League. Philip was soon assassinated and his son,
Alexander, succeeded him. You probably know him from his conquest of Persia and most of
the known world, as well as a really awful, uncomfortable movie starring Colin Farrel.
Alexander decided to take up his father's tradition of conquering foreign lands
and launched his crusade against Persia. With Alexander knee-deep in Persian dead and pushing
ever further eastwards, Agis saw this as an opportunity to free Greece from under his thumb.
Reinforced by Greek mercenaries who had fought for the Persians,
as well as a healthy sum of money from a defeated Persian admiral with more than one bone to pick
with the Macedonians, Agis' campaign really picked up steam during the winter of 333/332.
Agis' rebellion was in full swing, with a great deal of support from across southern Greece-
however, the Arcadian city of Megalopolis refused to join Agis- mostly because they had a pretty
big bone to pick themselves with Sparta and its very aggressive policy of enslaving neighbors.
Alexander immediately dispatched a force to defend Megalopolis led by a general named Amphoterus.
The battle would be a disaster for Agis and his forces, outnumbered and outfought with
5,300 losses from the Spartans and their allies, and 3,500 losses for the Macedonians. However,
Agis himself would buy time for his army to escape complete slaughter.
Wounded all over, he was dragged off the battlefield by his men
who assumed he was dead. To their surprise Agis was stubbornly alive,
and he immediately ordered his men to retreat so they could live to fight again.
However, he demanded that they put him directly in the path of the enemy.
Barely able to stand, Agis III lifted himself up onto his knees and proceeded to hack and
slash every enemy soldier that dared get within reach. Bleeding from over a dozen
wounds and absolutely refusing to die, the Macedonians finally decided that the safest
thing to do was to simply put a javelin through his chest from a safe distance.
That would end up doing the trick, but we're betting it took a while
to find a man brave enough to go up and confirm Agis was actually dead.
Our next greatest last stand saw 21 brave men face off against an entire horde of enemy soldiers.
21 against 10,000
In the 19th century the British empire's holdings in India were looking rather shaky.
Occupying what is today Pakistan, the northwest border was always particularly troublesome,
and the British built two forts to secure the area, Forts Lockhart and Gulistan. However,
in an age before radio, the two forts- which were not in line of sight to each other- needed
a way to communicate across the mountainous terrain. Thus a third, much smaller outpost,
Saragarhi, was built between the two, and would send messages back and forth
using mirrors reflecting the sun's light or other sources. This small outpost consisted
of a main signaling tower, a small block house, and a palisade that surrounded the enclosure.
In the summer of 1897 the British put down an uprising of Pashtun in the region,
but by fall the Afghans and Pashtuns were once more in revolt, with attacks against British
positions. An attack on Fort Lockhart prompted a call for reinforcements from Fort Gulistan,
and the Pashtun forces were thus easily repelled. Realizing that if they wanted
to destroy the forts they would need to eliminate their ability to communicate,
the Pashtun commanderl decided to attack Saragarhi and eliminate it.
However, on the return trip back to Fort Gulistan,
the British reinforcements dropped off 21 Sikh soldiers to defend the outpost.
Figuring that due to its position between forts reinforcements should be easy,
21 was deemed enough to successfully fend off any incursion by the Pashtun- and it nearly was.
The Pashtun forces launched a sudden attack on the outpost on the morning of September 12th,
1897, with a force of 10,000. The Sikh soldiers immediately messaged for help,
but the swiftness of the attack had taken the British by surprise and it would take time to
rally together their forces. In fact, the attack was so unexpected that Forts Gulistan
and Lockharts themselves were ill-prepared to face off against such a massive force.
Understanding the situation the British forces were in,
the Sikh commander knew he had one duty- hold off the Pashtun as long as possible so that
the other two forts could be reinforced. He would sacrifice his life and that of
his men so that the two forts could have a chance to stand against the onslaught.
The attacking enemy broke through part of the wall, injuring Bhagwan Singh in the attack. The
Sikh were offered a chance to surrender, but the men all refused. An attack on the gates soon came,
but under withering defensive fire the Pashtun were unable to breach them. A second attempt
also failed, with Pashtun soldiers falling by the dozen to the defender's rifle fire.
With the attack on the gates though a smaller force was able to breach the
outpost's walls. With enemy forces pouring into the encampment, the fighting came down
to fierce hand-to-hand combat- and yet the Sikh held. Repelled briefly by the fierce defense,
commander Ishar Singh ordered his men to retreat to the signaling tower while
he held the breach in the wall alone. Ishar Singh was eventually overwhelmed,
but bought enough time for his men to set up new positions along the signaling tower.
The men would all fall one by one, with the last to die being Gurmukh Singh,
the heliograph operator. He would be burned to death as the Pashtun set fire
to the signaling tower, and was heard to be repeatedly shouting out the Sikh battle cry,
“Bole So Nihal, Sat Sri Akal!”- meaning “Shout aloud in ecstasy! True is the great Timeless One.”
The Sikh were killed to a man, but are estimated to have inflicted between 180 and 600 losses on
the Pashtun. The greater victory however was in their delay of the Pashtun forces,
which allowed reinforcements to arrive at the British forts and prevent their fall.
These brave Sikh soldiers showed a dedication to duty that would make them heroes in death,
but one man almost two thousand years before them would show a
dedication that would set an example for all time.
Sempronius Densus
Military service is about duty and honor above all else- even your personal feelings.
One man in history would espouse these sacred virtues like none other or before him.
Little is known of Sempronius Densus, a man history would find utterly unworthy
of being remembered, save for how his life ended. What is known is that he
was a centurion in the Praetorian Guard, and bodyguard to the emperor himself.
Following Emperor Nero's death, Rome underwent a turbulent time known as the 'year of the four
emperors'. Galba would be the first of these short-lived emperors. By what accounts we
have he was a strict disciplinarian bordering on cruelty, and stirred up the wrath of the people
by disbanding faithful German mercenaries and sending them back home with no reward
for their service. He also dispersed a crowd of protesting marines who had served as legionnaires
and now demanded they receive their own eagle standard, by ordering a cavalry charge against
them. Afterwards he had the marines rounded up and enacted the traditional Roman punishment of
decimation- where for every set number of men one would be singled out and brutally killed.
Needless to say, Galba was extremely unpopular both with the military and with the civilian
population. When he turned up Marcus Otho for appointment as his deputy and heir, Otho took it
upon himself to simply murder Galba and his chosen successor and become emperor himself. The task
would be an easy one, as most of the praetorian guard was loyal to Otho and not to Galba.
As Emperor Galba and his successor were being carried through the streets of Rome on litters,
Otho made his move. An estimated crowd of 1,000 marched upon the royal entourage,
which immediately either began to defect and join Otho or simply stood aside and
did nothing to stop the carnage which was to come.
But Sempronius Densus had sworn an oath to the position of Emperor, regardless of which
man sat on the throne and how he personally felt about them. It was his job to guard the emperor,
even give his life if necessary, and as the crowd neared he first drew a switch made of vine,
with which centurions discipline soldiers. He then bellowed out at the crowd and
ordered them to stop immediately. The crowd ignored him and continued pressing forward.
Alone and outnumbered a thousand to one, Sempronius drew his sword.
What happened next has been recorded by several historians, with Plutarch commenting
“And when they came upon him hand-to-hand, he drew his sword, and made a defense for a long time,
until at last he was cut under the knees and brought to the ground.”
It's not known how many assassins Sempronius killed, but his dedication to duty was enough to
inspire antiquity's greatest historians to record his name, while the names of the other traitorous
bodyguards have long been forgotten to history. Dio Cassius would go on to write about Sempronius
Desnus, “This is why I have recorded his name, for he is most worthy of being mentioned.”
Our next greatest last stand would set the standard for knights in the middle ages.
Battle of Roncevaux Pass
In 778 Charlemagne, king of the Francs, was expanding his kingdom and adding to
his future legend. Looking for territory in the Iberian peninsula, the governor of Barcelona,
Sulayman Ibn al-Arabi, offered Charlemagne an alliance. He would submit to Charlemagne's
superior force and even aid him in conquering much of Spain, and in exchange for his loyalty
he asked Charlemagne to aid in their defense from an invasion by Abd ar-Rahman.
Charlemagne saw this as an opportunity to expand Christianity and add to his power,
and thus agreed. He crossed the Pyrenees and sacked the city of Pamplona, then headed to
Zaragoza, a major economic and cultural hub. Zaragoza however did not submit as expected,
and Charlemagne was forced to put it under a lengthy siege.
While he was in Iberia though, a Saxon rebellion sprung up back home in France and Charlemagne
sought to conclude his adventures in the peninsula as quickly as possible. In exchange for leaving
the city alone, Charlemagne was given several political prisoners and a large payment of gold.
On his way back home Charlemagne sought to secure his gains by building several forts
and more importantly, preventing the local Basque from mounting a military challenge
against him. This included the destruction of the defensive works of the city of Pamplona,
the Basque capital, though some accounts state that he razed the city to the ground.
Whatever the truth of it was, it angered the Basque to the point that they were
determined to destroy Charlemagne and his men- and they knew exactly when to strike.
As Charlemagne began to cross the Pyrenees, the Basque forces overtook his own thanks to their
superior knowledge of the region. This allowed them to set up an ambush at the narrow crossing
of the Roncevaux Pass. The Basque had inferior equipment compared to the professional French
forces, but they had the high ground and superior knowledge of the terrain. As night began to fall,
they launched an attack against Charlemagne's rear guard, throwing the entire army into disarray.
The front of the army was pressured to push further into the pass so as to allow the rest
of the army to escape, but the narrow pass made quickly moving large amounts of troops
impossible. The tight confines also made it difficult to establish an organized defense.
If the Basque could break through the rearguard of the army, they would be able
to slaughter the rest of it as it tried to desperately push the bottleneck ahead of it.
But Charlemagne's rearguard was led by one of Charlemagne's best commanders,
Roland. Roland organized a defense of the rear and beat back the Basque assault. However,
their superior numbers and tactical position led them to eventually overwhelm Roland and
his knights- but not before he had bought enough time for the army to escape to safety.
Charlemagne ended up losing his entire baggage train, to include much of the gold plundered in
Spain, as well as some of his best knights and commanders. Roland would go on to be
immortalized in song and poem for his brave last stand, and the conduct of his men against
impossible odds would become the standard expected of knights during the Middle Ages.
The soldier in our next greatest last stand resorted to breaking people's
necks with his bare hands when his weapons were lost.
Dian Wei
Dian Wei was a commander in the army of the Kingdom of Wei,
very much a soldier's soldier who often took watch along with the rest of his men.
While on the move, Wei would often retire to a tent alongside his soldiers rather
than the lavish personal quarters appointed to a man of his position.
Dian Wei was also apparently a very large man, said to have strength far in excess that of an
ordinary man. This is apparently true, as he is also recorded as wielding two forty pound axes in
battle, with a sword at his belt for backup. Favored by Emperor Cao Cao, Wei was made his
personal bodyguard as well as commander in his army as he invaded the kingdom of Jing Zhou.
But the king, Zhang Xiu, had a cunning plan of his own. He feigned surrender
to Cao Cao, and to celebrate, Cao Cao invited Zhang Xiu to a great banquet.
Ten days after the banquet though, Zhang Xiu rebelled, and with Cao Cao's defenses down,
sent a force of assassins to kill Cao Cao in his camp.
Dian Wei, along with ten men, stood their ground at the entrance to the camp as the
emperor made his getaway on a fast horse. Dian Wei set about destroying anyone foolish enough
to approach the camp, his twin forty-pound axes carving up assassins left and right.
Though he was grievously wounded numerous times, he refused to give up any ground . Slowly though
Dian Wei's men began to fall one by one, until eventually only he remained.
By now the assassins had overrun the camp and now attacked Dian Wei from all sides. Still
he fought on with his massive axes, until at one point he grabbed two traitors and,
according to historians, killed them by breaking their necks. Eventually though,
the giant man was brought down, but not before letting off one more terrifying battlecry.
The survivors refused to approach his body for a long time, until finally they
celebrated their victory by decapitating Dian Wei. When Emperor Cao Cao heard of his death,
he wept and threw a lavish funeral for his favorite bodyguard and commander,
elevating Dian Wei's son to a position of prestige.
Our next greatest last stand shows what happens when you push people too far.
Siege of the Warsaw Ghetto
During Hitler's reign of terror he enacted the 'Final Solution',
a plan to exterminate the Jews and other undesirables from Europe
and thus leave only the pureblooded German aryans behind. As part of this final solution,
Jewish communities that fell under German control were forced to live in local ghettos,
from which they would be slowly but surely removed to be sent to work and extermination camps.
When Poland fell to the Nazis, the Jewish quarter of the city was surrounded by barbed wire.
Later a ten foot wall would be built, all with the purpose of keeping the Jews in and everyone
else out. The living conditions were horrible as an approximately half a million Jews were confined
to a tiny area. This led to people living as much as nine to a single room, with plenty more living
in alleys, stairwells, and hallways. Starvation from the meager rations afforded them by the
Germans was frequent, as was death by disease which swept through the packed ghetto with ease.
In July of 1942 the Nazis began to ship 5,000 Jews a day to the Treblinka concentration camp,
where most would be killed. Others who were lucky could be expected to live a bit longer,
sent instead to work camps where they would engage in backbreaking labor on
behalf of the Nazis. By the end of September the Germans had removed most of the population,
with only about 55,000 Jews left in the Warsaw ghetto.
In January of 1943, Heinrich Himmler accelerated plans to exterminate the Warsaw Jews,
and ordered the deportation of another 8,000. This announcement took the population by surprise,
and instead of reporting as ordered the Jews hid all across the ghetto. Having formed into
a resistance movement, the population began for what would certainly be an attack on the
ghetto by German forces. To this end they had either created or sourced hundreds of pistols,
some rifles, one machine gun, and homemade bombs.
To honor Hitler's birthday on April 20th, Himmler sent the German military into the ghetto with
orders to completely clear it out by the next day. Clearly not expecting much resistance,
the Germans entered the ghetto with about 2,000 troops accompanied by a few tanks.
Almost immediately they came under fire from the resistance, resulting in a massive firefight
as the Germans tried to push deeper into the Ghetto. Unable to advance even with
the help of their tanks, the Germans were forced to retreat as night fell.
The next day they returned with flamethrowers, smoke bombs, and attack dogs, but the battle
for the Warsaw ghetto would take up three days as the Jews fought back fiercely. In the end,
the Jewish resistance had killed several hundred Germans, and in revenge the Germans immediately
killed 7,000 Jews, sending another 22,000 to extermination camps and the rest to labor camps.
Our next greatest last stand saw a single man hold up an entire army.
Battle of Stamford Bridge
It was the battle that signified the end of the Viking age,
but in true Viking fashion it would include a deed so legendary it's hardly believable.
With the death of King Edward the Confessor, England's throne was up for grabs and several
would-be kings quickly gathered their armies to claim it for themselves.
Among these was the King of Norway, Harald Hardrada. With a force of 300 ships,
Hardrada set sail for England, landing on its northeast coast. Upon landing,
he was further reinforced by forces from Tostig Godwinson, who had been passed up for
the crown and instead had his older brother Harold elected king by the king's council.
Harald took his time sacking several English cities when news reached King Harold of the
Norwegian invasion. Expecting an invasion from France by William,
Duke of Normandy and another contender for the throne, King Harold had moved his forces to the
southern border of England. Now he needed to move quickly to neutralize the Viking threat,
and in an incredible feat of endurance his army marched 185 miles (298 km) in just four days.
This took the Vikings completely by surprise,
so much so that as the English soldiers crested a nearby hill, Harald and his men
rushed to put on their armor and grab weapons. But there was a single obstacle standing in
the way of the English army- a narrow bridge, and upon that bridge one massive Norse axeman.
History doesn't record the axeman's name, probably because he was too busy killing
Englishmen to give it to anyone. What is known is that he killed as many as 40 english soldiers
who tried to cross that bridge, and forced the army to halt in its tracks. Eventually,
an english soldier got the idea to cut a barrel in half and use it to float under the bridge,
thrusting his spear up in between the cracks and delivering a fatal wound to the axeman.
The rest of the Viking army would fail to live up to the example set by this lone warrior,
and after a bloody clash with the English would break and run for their ships. The
invasion of England was ended with the killing of King Hardrada via an arrow to his throat
and with Tostig slain in battle, and with their deaths the age of the Viking also came to an end.
Our next greatest last stand would once more see a single man stop an entire army in its tracks.
Saito Susashibo Benkei
Little is known about the man whom would be known simply as 'Benkei'. It's said that he
was the offspring of a temple god, while others say he was a half-demon. He was an imposing
figure no matter his background, standing about 6 feet 6 inches tall (2 meters), and
was said to be a monstrously ugly man- hence the rumors of his half-demon origin.
Benkei joined several Buddhist monasteries in Japan at an early age, traveling between each
and gaining an education in various traditional Japanese weapons. In 12th century Japan,
Buddhist monasteries were less places of peaceful soul-searching, and more centers
of military power similar to the Roman legions- only typically up for grabs to the highest bidder.
Benkei eventually left the monasteries behind and joined the yamagushi, or mountain hermits.
At some point though he returned to civilization and had a serious
bone to pick with the samurai warrior caste. It's said that he wandered the
streets of Kyoto every night on a personal quest to kill 1,000 samurai and take their
swords as trophies, as he found the samurai to be arrogant and unworthy.
Eventually Benkei collected 999 swords and went in search of his final sword when he came across
a young man playing the flute at Gojotenjin Shrine in Kyoto. The man was much smaller than Benkei and
carried a fancy, gilded sword at his waist. Benkei saw an easy opportunity to get his 1,000th sword,
and challenged the young samurai to a duel. To his astonishment,
Benkei lost the duel and the mystery samurai spared his life.
Benkei would learn that the samurai who defeated him was none other than Minamoto no Yoshitsune,
son of Minamoto no Yoshitomo, head of the Minamoto clan. A few days later,
Benkei went looking for revenge and waited for Yoshitsune at the Buddhist temple of Kiyomizu.
Once more the smaller samurai defeated the hulking Benkei though.
This time Benkei pledged an oath of loyalty to the only man to ever best him in battle,
and he became Yoshitsune's retainer.
Benkei joined Yoshitsune in several battles, but then Yoshitsune's brother took power for himself
and established Japan's first shogunate. To prevent any challenge to his authority,
he declared Yoshitsune an outlaw, and the duo were hunted for over four years.
The two were eventually cornered in the castle of Koromogawa no tate,
and knowing that there could be no escape, Yoshitsune made one final request of Benkei-
buy him enough time to commit sepukku, or ritual suicide. The act of sepukku
would deny his traitorous brother his victory, and allow Yoshitsune to die with full honor.
But sepukku is an elaborate ritual, and Benkei needed to buy enough time for his lord to complete
it. Armed with his giant naginata, a form of Japanese polearm, Benkei took up position
at the other end of the bridge leading to the main gate, and dared the soldiers to approach.
At least 300 of them did, and history records that they were all killed by Benkei and his
massive naginata. The mountain of a man had taken numerous wounds in the battle,
but still stood firm. Believing that the man was unbeatable,
the besieging army instead opted to fill him with as many arrows as they could fire.
Much to their shock as they looked across the bridge after their storm of arrows,
Benkei was still standing, his armor covered with arrows so he looked like a porcupine.
Eventually several soldiers were ordered forward, and to their surprise discovered
that Benkei had died standing up- likely because some of the arrows had helped
keep him propped up. This would become known as the “Standing Death of Benkei”,
and is remembered to this day by a statue of Benkei holding his ground in his final stand.
Now go check out Battle of Thermopylae, Spartans vs Persians, or click this other video instead!