Western Democracy traces its roots to ancient Greece, a land of squabbling city-states.
Amongst these warring city-states arose Athens, and a group of men who had a funny idea: citizens
should get a say in who exactly got to rule them.
Though initially imperfect in its implementation, that idea has since evolved to the free Democratic
nations most of us live in today- but it could all have been lost to a single moment in history.
Hello and welcome to another episode of The Infographics Show- today we're taking a look
at another of the Greatest Battles in History: the battle of Thermopylae.
In 499 BC Greek cities which had been captured by the Persians in Asia Minor revolted against
the brutal tyrants that had been placed to oversee them.
In support of their conquered brethren, Athens and Eretria sent troops.
Despite some major gains, several strategic mistakes cost the Greeks of Asia Minor their
ultimate victory and the rebellion was put down.
With Asia Minor back in the fold of the Persian Empire, the Persian king Darius I vowed to
punish Athens and Eretria for their involvement, and saw the rest of the free cities of Greece
as a threat to his empire.
In 492 BC he launched an invasion of Thrace and Macedon, then sent heralds to the remaining
Greek city-states demanding they accept Persian rule.
Seeking to save themselves, many agreed- with the notable exceptions of Athens and Sparta.
The Persian heralds in Athens were thrown into a pit, and their Spartan brethren followed
suit by tossing theirs into a well.
Enraged, Darius launched his invasion of mainland Greece and met with further success until
an encounter against 10,000 Athenians in Marathon.
Outnumbering the Greeks by 2.5 to 1, Darius saw an easy win- only for the Athenians to
achieve a dramatic victory and force Darius to retreat.
Nursing a very wounded ego, Darius planned an imminent re-invasion, with plans to raze
Athens to the ground- but internal politics delayed these plans and Darius died of old
age.
Seeking to avenge the pride of his dead father, Xerxes prepared for a decisive campaign to
end Greek independence forever.
Remembering well the lessons at Marathon, Xerxes took his time to build a sizable force.
Though some historical accounts tell of a force up to 2.5 million strong- these are
almost certainly gross exaggeration, and it's more likely that Xerxes marched with 200,000
to 250,000, though for the ancient world this would certainly have been an incredible and
mind-boggling number.
Xerxes plan was simple: march into Greece through the north, and outflank any Greek
defenders by landing his navy behind them along the Greek coast.
Many Greeks feared Xerxes' invasion force and remembered well the fate of Eretria in
the first invasion which was razed to the ground and all of its people enslaved.
Thus many Greek cities bid for peace, but Athens and Sparta along with some key allies
would hear nothing of it.
Spartan King Leonidas marshaled a force of 300 of his personal bodyguards and helots
and took command of the briefly unified Greek forces numbering at 7,000.
Despite the way the battle was popularized by popular culture in entertainment such as
the film 300, the bulk of the Spartan army did not march in support of its king because
the Spartans greatly feared that the helots they held as slaves might break into all-out
revolt if the army left and didn't take them with them.
Knowing victory would be impossible if the Persian forces simply outflanked them by sea,
Athens marshaled a force of 271 triremes to sail into battle against 1,207 Persian ships.
Outnumbered both on land and at sea, the Greeks stood little chance of victory- a collapse
of the Spartan position at Thermopylae would allow the fleet to be flanked, and a defeat
at sea would place the ground defense in jeopardy.
Outnumbered by incredible ratios, victory was unlikely- a fact Athens knew well as it
had already begun the evacuation of its city.
The Combatants:
The Persian army at the time was equipped for battle on the plains of Asia, and as such
wore mostly leather and cloth armor and shields made of wicker.
They carried short spears and wielded large daggers and swords.
Most notably, the Persians- likely accustomed to fighting less well-armored opponents than
the Greeks- made extensive use of archers, which was part of the reason for their defeat
at Marathon: the lightly armed Persian archers could not penetrate the armor of the Athenian
forces, and when closed to melee range were made short work of.
Leading the Persian troops was a force of 10,000 Immortals- a cadre of elite soldiers
famed for always maintaining a standing force of exactly 10,000, hence the name Immortals.
When any member was killed, wounded, or became sick, they were immediately replaced, thus
leaving the Immortals a cohesive unit through any conflict.
The Immortals were Persia's elite heavy infantry, and often served as guards to the God-Kings
themselves.
At sea the Persians fielded the war ship of the day: the Trireme.
Powered by a combination of sails and oars, Triremes were equipped with a bronze-sheathed
battering ram which it used to ram enemy vessels.
However it's unlikely that these violent crashes would actually sink an enemy ship, and most
of the fighting was done in hand-to-hand combat by the marines and slaves who manned the ships.
Formidable for their time, Triremes were also notoriously poor sea-going vessels and had
to stick close to shore and operate only during relatively calm seas.
A series of storms prior to the battle would see nearly a third of the Persian fleet sunk,
severely lowering their naval power.
To complicate matters, a great deal of the Persian fleet was also made of supply and
support vessels, not dedicated war ships, as opposed to the military vessels and crews
of the Athenians and their allies.
Greek ground forces were far better equipped for combat than their Persian counterparts.
A greek hoplites' primary weapon was a two-three meter spear with a leaf-shaped blade at one
end and a short spike at the other.
This allowed Greek troops to fight in the famed phalanx formation, and presented any
would-be attackers with a unified front of long spears to contend with.
Armed as they were with shorter spears and swords, the Persians found this difficult
to overcome.
Greek infantry was also equipped with large bronze-layered shields called hoplons, which
offered unparallelled protection versus the wicker shields in use by the Persians.
On their bodies, Greek soldiers wore heavy bronze breastplates, bronze greaves, and helmets
also made of bronze.
The use of bronze and heavy armor would prove to be a decisive advantage for the Greeks.
At sea the mostly-Athenian fleet was also equipped with the Trireme- however unlike
the Persian forces nearly all of Greek ships were military vessels.
Having become rich from their silver mines, the Athenians had decided to invest heavily
into a formidable fleet, which in turn made them undisputed masters of the Aegean.
The Battle:
As Persian forces marched south into Greece, Leonidas led his small army for the pass at
Thermopylae, which at the time was no more than 50 feet across (15 meters) and bordered
on one side by tall cliffs, and the ocean on the other.
The pass allowed Greek forces to make best use of their formidable phalanx formation,
while completely denying the Persians the advantage of their overwhelming numbers.
Massing his forces before the Greek position, Xerxes dispatched a spy to ascertain what
the Greeks were up to- only for the astonished spy to return and report that the Greeks were
stripping nude for exercise and fixing each other's hair, a common tradition especially
amongst the Spartans.
Sending a formal messenger, Xerxes offered the assembled Greeks a truce: the defenders
should surrender and become allies to Xerxes in exchange for being allowed to retreat unharmed
and being granted some of the lands of those who resisted.
The offer was debated amongst the assembled Greeks, with many wanting to accept it- including
a number of Spartans- but in the end it was Leonidas' leadership that kept the alliance
together.
Infuriated by the rejection, Xerxes ordered his troops forward into battle.
Funneled into the narrow pass, the Persian forces ran into the shields and spears of
the Greek defenders, not making so much as a dent.
Armed with short spears and swords, Persian forces could not penetrate the layers of the
Greek Phalanx, and thousands died while the Greeks suffered few losses.
Enraged, Xerxes ordered his famous Immortals into the fray, confident of their victory-
yet even the Immortals met with the same fate: death on the spear points and shields of the
Greek phalanx.
Meanwhile at sea, a storm had scattered and decimated the Persian fleet, allowing the
smaller and much more mobile Greek fleet to target small scattered groups of Persian ships
and destroy them.
On the first day alone the Greeks captured 30 ships and destroyed many more, and on the
second day of battle the Greek navy completely destroyed the flotilla of the Cilicians, a
vassal of the Persian empire.
Despite all odds, it seemed victory may just have been possible.
Yet at night of the second day, fate turned against the Greek defenders- or perhaps the
inevitability of facing off against such overwhelming numbers.
Though legend states that a Greek defector known as Ephialtes contacted Xerxes and offered
to show the Persians a route around the Greek position, in all likelihood it was simply
a matter of time that Persian scouts discover the hidden path.
Knowing of the secret path, Leonidas stationed a force of 100 to defend it- but caught by
surprise the defenders were quickly scattered by advancing Persian forces.
Receiving news of the imminent encirclement, Leonidas considered his options and chose
to order the majority of his forces into retreat, while making one last stand against the advancing
Persians.
Death was certain, and history has long debated why Leonidas chose to stay and fight.
Some accounts state that an oracle had declared that Sparta would only be saved by the death
of one of its kings, and thus Leonidas was prompted by prophecy.
However in all likelihood Leonidas chose to stay and fight as a matter of sheer military
necessity- without a rearguard to protect the Greek retreat, retreating forces would
be decimated by the advancing Persians.
Prudent, but given the character of Leonidas and his agreement to ally with Athens and
other former enemies, it is also likely that Leonidas' choice was based on some level of
idealism as well.
For centuries Greece had been divided, and in fact many historians agree that if Greece
had ever unified and remained unified, it could have conquered the ancient world and
then resisted the future advances of the Macedonians and Romans.
Sadly though Greece remained a fractured land of warring city-states, and only in this time
of great need had the bitterest of rivals allied together for their shared defense.
If Leonidas could ensure the retreat of a unified Greek force, and then make one last,
valiant stand against these foreign invaders, perhaps his sacrifice could rally the rest
of Greece and show them what they were capable of standing side by side as free Greeks, and
not enemies.
Holding his ground with his remaining Spartans, a force of Thespians and Thebans, the Greeks
reformed into a compact phalanx- with the exception of the Thebans who surrendered to
Xerxes without a fight.
Flanked on both sides, a final battle raged with terrible violence, and yet despite being
outnumbered, superior Greek training and equipment took a heavy toll on the Persians.
Leonidas was eventually killed, though his surviving Spartans viciously fought back Persian
forces four times to retrieve his body.
Eventually even these Spartans were overcome, and Leonidas' body was crucified, his head
placed on a stake to serve as a warning against further insurrection.
At sea the battle also took a turn for the worst.
Despite two days of stunning successes, Persian naval forces regrouped on the third day and
won a decisive victory against the Greek fleet.
Knowing that the battle at Thermopylae had been lost, Greek forces retreated to assist
in the final evacuation of Athens.
The Battle of Thermopylae would come to be known as a pyrrhic victory- or a victory where
the cost is so high, that it can hardly be considered a victory at all.
Xerxes had his revenge against Athens, yet as his troops arrived the city had already
been evacuated of all but the most stubborn of elders.
Razing the city to the ground, Athens was nevertheless preserved in spirit as its population
had already fled.
Though the ground battle at Thermopylae is the engagement that history remembers best,
it was actually the battle waged by the mostly Athenian fleets at Artemisium that would inevitably
lead to the defeat of Persian forces.
A minor military victory at the time, the battles at Artemisium nevertheless gave Greek
forces an insight into how the Persian fleet operated and allowed them to devise plans
to defeat them in future battles.
It also weakened the Persian fleet, losses which combined with those suffered at sea
during freak storms that preceded the battle, were hard to replace.
Despite their recent defeat, the Athenian general Themistocles persuaded the Greek allies
into one decisive engagement against the Persians, knowing that if they could be defeated at
sea Xerxes' ground forces would be forced to retreat as well.
Lured into the narrow Straits of Salamis by a cunning ploy on Themistocles’ behalf,
the Persian fleet- bottled up and unable to maneuver- was handily defeated.
With supply lines cut off and his navy decimated, Xerxes retreated to Asia with most of his
army, but left a sizable portion to continue the conquest of Greece.
One year later though a unified Greek force engaged the Persian army at the Battle of
Plataea and secured a decisive victory, effectively ending the Persian threat to the Greek mainland.
The importance of Thermopylae was manifold for the Greek people, yet of greatest import
may perhaps have been the evacuation of the Athenian people- bought and paid for by the
blood of the brave men who defended that narrow pass for three days.
This preserved Athenian culture, and with so many of our modern values tracing their
roots to ancient Greece, who can know what our world might look like today had Athens
been eradicated as planned.
Though perhaps, we would have barely noticed the difference.
Demonized as they have been in popular media by films such as 300, the Persians actually
made many contributions to the development of democracy and were a fairly progressive
people.
In the end, the failed conquest of Greece and the great sacrifices at the battle of
Thermopylae may all have been nothing more significant than the failed ambitions of human
ego.
What do you think was the real reason for Greek success at Thermopylae and Artemisium-
superior training and equipment, luck, or some sort of divine providence?
What other great battles in history would you like to see us tackle?
Let us know in the comments.
Also, be sure to check out our other video How To Survive Inside Prison?.
Thanks for watching, and as always, please don’t forget to like, share and subscribe.