Thermopylae defenders: the Greek alliance beyond the 300
The Thermopylae defenders were an alliance of Greeks, with Leonidas's 300 Spartans forming one contingent within a force of several thousand. The Hellenic Ministry of Culture gives a modern estimate of about 7,000 Greeks facing Xerxes in 480 BCE. The coastal landscape differed from today's broad plain: the route lay between steep mountain slopes and the Malian Gulf. Its confined space limited the Persian army's numerical advantage and restricted cavalry. Leonidas commanded the land defense while a Greek fleet confronted Persian ships near Cape Artemisium. The Greek effort joined a coastal roadblock with resistance at sea.
Herodotus names communities from across Greece among the Thermopylae defenders. His list includes 500 men each from Tegea and Mantinea, 120 from Arcadian Orchomenus, and another 1,000 Arcadians. Corinth supplied 400, Phlius 200, and Mycenae 80. From Boeotia came 700 Thespians and 400 Thebans. A thousand Phocians and the available Opuntian Locrian force joined them. Each city had its own commanders, although Leonidas held overall leadership. The Locrians and Phocians had been told this army was an advance guard, with further allied support expected. The 300 were never the whole force assembled at the pass.
The invasion followed the Persian defeat at Marathon in 490 BCE. After Darius's death, Xerxes made extensive preparations for a new expedition, gathering supplies, building bridges across the Hellespont, and cutting a canal through the Athos peninsula. Greek states initially considered a defensive position in the Vale of Tempe before withdrawing from it. Agreement on Thermopylae required cooperation among cities suspicious of one another. Religious observances also affected mobilization: the Olympic Games and Sparta's Carneia festival coincided with the crisis. The small Spartan contingent was an advance force selected from men who had living male heirs.
The road and the fleet had linked purposes. By holding the pass, the Thermopylae defenders could prevent the Persian army from reaching the rear of the Greek ships at Artemisium. The Persian forces depended on their fleet's support as they moved south. Livius describes the first assaults as attacks by Median and Elamite contingents, followed by the elite Immortals. Neither wave opened the narrow road. Greek armor and longer spears helped the defense at close quarters, while the constricted terrain prevented the attackers from bringing their greater numbers into action at once.
Herodotus describes the Spartans feigning retreat, drawing opponents forward, and then turning to fight again. Other Greek contingents took their turns in the line, organized by community. The Phocians had a different assignment: they guarded the mountain path above the pass. On the second day, the Persian attacks again failed to break the defense. Xerxes then received information from Ephialtes about a route around the position. Hydarnes and his troops set off after nightfall, crossed the Asopus, and marched through the mountains. At dawn they reached the Phocian guard, threatening the main force from behind.
The Thermopylae defenders could no longer depend on the protection of the narrow coastal approach once the Persian detachment crossed the Anopaia path. The Ministry of Culture describes Leonidas sending away most of the army and retaining 300 Spartans, 700 Thespians, and 400 Thebans. Their presence gives the final fighting its wider Greek composition. The ministry also associates the pass with the remembered challenge to the Persians to come and take the defenders' weapons, attributing that saying to Plutarch. The defense had lasted through two successful days before the mountain route made encirclement possible.
The precise reasons for remaining are uncertain. Livius notes that Herodotus preserves both departure without Leonidas's permission and dismissal on his orders. Herodotus also offers his own judgment that an oracle influenced the king's decision. The portrayal of the Thebans is particularly disputed: their later collaboration with Persia may have colored the hostile description of their conduct at Thermopylae. Leonidas died during the fighting. The surviving Spartans and Thespians eventually withdrew to a small hill, where Persian archers overwhelmed them. Arrowheads found on and around that hill supply material evidence connected with the final stage of resistance.
The Persian victory opened the route south and prompted the Greek fleet to leave Artemisium. Athens was subsequently sacked, but the invasion did not end in a Persian conquest of all Greece. The Greek fleet won at Salamis later in 480 BCE, and a Greek land victory at Plataea followed in 479 BCE. Thermopylae's position continued to matter in later wars. Greeks confronted invading Gauls there in 279 BCE; a Roman army defeated Antiochus III in 191 BCE. In 1941, New Zealand forces again defended the area during Germany's invasion, centuries after Leonidas and the allied Greek contingents had fought there.
- Hellenic Ministry of Culture, The Battle of Thermopylae — 2500years.culture.gov.gr
- Herodotus, Histories 7.175–239, Loeb translation (1922), LacusCurtius — penelope.uchicago.edu
- Jona Lendering, Thermopylae (480 BCE), Livius — www.livius.org
- Mark Cartwright, Battle of Thermopylae, World History Encyclopedia — www.worldhistory.org