I first learned about the feat of the Spartans at the age of twelve, when I watched the American film "300 Spartans" directed by Rudolf Mate.

Then all the boys were inspired by this film and watched it several times. Spartans were played in every yard. They made spears, swords, shields with an inverted letter "V". The phrase "with a shield or on a shield" has become winged for us.

But I never even dreamed of seeing the site of the legendary battle of the Spartans with my own eyes.
And when I recently visited Greece, I visited the site of the battle between the Spartans and the Persians.
True, it did not survive. In 480 BC, when the Battle of Thermopylae took place, it was a narrow piece of land 20 meters wide on a cliff. Now the sea (Gulf of Malian) has receded, exposing large plot sushi.

Recently I am in again I enjoyed watching the movie "300 Spartans" in 1962. In my opinion, the old film is incomparably better than the new one - the computer comic "300" on the same topic, in which the scene of the battle is only more accurately reproduced.
In life, everything was of course much more complicated than it is shown in the film.

The only reliable primary source about the feat of 300 Spartans, on which later references are based, is Book VII of Herodotus.

At the end of the VI century BC. Persian power, having conquered by that time the Greek city-states of Asia Minor (Ionia), directed its expansion to the territory of Hellas. In 480 BC. e. A huge Persian army led by Xerxes made the transition from Asia Minor to Europe through the Hellespont.
Herodotus estimates the army of the Persians and dependent peoples at 1 million 700 thousand people. Modern historians estimate the number of Persians up to 200 thousand people, although these figures are being questioned as too high.

Representatives of the independent Greek city-states met in council in Corinth to decide how together to repel the Persian invasion.
The Spartans did not want to send a large army to Thermopylae, because they were going to defend only their own lands. The Athenians offered to send an army just to Thermopylae. At that time, the Thermopylae Passage was the only way from Northern Greece to Southern Greece.

The Greeks revered the gods and therefore, even during the Persian invasion, they were not going to anger the gods by refusing to celebrate. In Sparta, the festival of Karnei was celebrated, which also coincided with the 75th Olympic Games in 480 BC. And during Olympic Games no wars were fought.
However, the Spartans could not completely refuse to participate in the war against Xerxes, and therefore they sent small army led by King Leonidas. Leonid selected from the citizens 300 worthy husbands who already had children so that the family would not be cut off. The rest of the Spartans were going to join the army immediately after the end of the festivities.
When the detachment left Sparta, the Spartan leadership shed crocodile tears: take, they say, Leonid, at least a thousand, to which he reasonably remarked: "To win, a thousand is not enough to die, three hundred are enough."

The combined army of the Greeks at Thermopylae consisted of permanent city detachments of professional, heavily armed hoplite warriors sent as forward detachments while the cities were gathering militias.
In total, up to 6 thousand hoplites gathered at Thermopylae. The Spartan detachment of 300 soldiers was led by King Leonidas; then he was about 40 years old.

To the west of Thermopylae rises a steep and high mountain. In the east, the passage goes directly to the sea and marshes. There was a road for only one wagon, 20 meters wide and 1 km long.

A wall was built in the Thermopylae Gorge, and there was once a gate in it. The wall was a low barricade made of heavy stones. The Greeks now decided to rebuild the wall and thus block the Persians from entering Hellas. They set up camp behind a wall that blocked the narrow passage of Thermopylae.

The first two days, the Greeks successfully repelled the attacks of the Persians, thanks to the fact that they were armed with long spears and acted harmoniously in the phalanx, hiding behind big shields. The Persians could not turn around in a narrow passage and died en masse in a crush or being thrown from a steep bank.

Xerxes did not know what to do, and sent messengers to announce that he would reward whoever showed the way around the Thermopylae Gorge.
And then a certain local Ephialtes, who volunteered for a reward to lead the Persians along a mountain path around Thermopylae. The path was guarded by a detachment of Phokians (from Central Greece) in 1000 soldiers. A select Persian detachment of 20 thousand under the command of Gidarn went covertly all night, and in the morning it suddenly fell upon the Greeks. The Phokians sent runners to inform the Greeks of the Persians' detour; the Greeks were warned of the same thing at night by a defector named Tyrrastiades from the Persian camp.

The Greeks were surrounded. What was to be done?
Obeying the will of circumstances, most of the detachments from the united Greek army went to their hometowns. Only 300 Spartans of King Leonidas, 700 Thespians and 400 Thebans remained to cover the retreat. Thespia and Thebes are cities in Greece through which the path of the Persian army inevitably had to run, so that the detachments of these cities defended their native land at Thermopylae.

Xerox offered Leonid to surrender. To which King Leonidas replied succinctly: “Come and take it!”

The Thebans Leonid allegedly forced them to stay by force - so that they would not run over to the enemies. According to Herodotus, during the retreat, the Thebans separated and surrendered, thus saving their lives at the cost of branding into slavery.

Not counting on victory, but only on a glorious death, the Spartans and Thespians took the fight. The Spartans had broken spears, they slew the enemies with short swords. By the end of the battle, they didn’t even have weapons left - they became blunt, and then hand-to-hand combat began.
All the Spartans, of course, died. King Leonid fell in battle, the brothers of King Xerxes died among the Persians.

King Xerxes personally inspected the battlefield. Finding the body of Leonid, he ordered to cut off his head and put him on a stake. Under Thermopylae fell, according to Herodotus, up to 20 thousand Persians and 4 thousand Greeks, including Spartan helots (helots are state slaves).

Of the 300 Spartans, only Aristodemus survived, who was left sick by Leonidas in the village of Alpena. Upon his return to Sparta, Aristodemus expected dishonor and disgrace. No one spoke to him, he was given the nickname Aristodem the Coward. On the next year in the battle of Plataea, he fought like a frenzy, trying to atone for his guilt.

For the head of the traitor Ephialtes, Sparta announced a reward. But he was killed by a tribesman in a quarrel.

The fallen Hellenes were buried on the same hill where they took the last battle. The names of all those who died at Thermopylae were carved on the slab. A stone with the epitaph of the poet Simonides of Ceos was placed on the grave: “Wanderer, go erect to our citizens in Lacedaemon that, keeping their covenants, here we died with our bones.”

At the site of the death of the last Spartans, they subsequently placed an empty sarcophagus - a cenotaph (so that souls find peace), on which there was a statue of a stone lion (Leonid in Greek Leo). I guard here in a stone coffin.

The remains of King Leonidas were reburied in Sparta 40 years after his death. Residents of the city, 600 years after the battle, already in Roman times, held annual competitions in honor of the national hero.

A memorial was built on this site in 1955. Every year on August 26, the "Feast of Thermopylae" is held here - in memory of the heroism of 300 Spartans and 700 Thespians.

The death of a detachment under the command of King Leonidas in September 480 BC. e. became a legend. Although another similar detachment of 300 Spartans was also completely destroyed in the 3rd Messenian War (mid-5th century BC).

History is not fair. The feat of 300 Spartans was forgotten for a long time until Napoleon revived this story in the 19th century to inspire his soldiers.

Mussolini also made attempts to exploit history for the sake of his political goals, setting history ancient rome in the service of his fascist regime.
Hitler also used the spirit of the ancient Germans to create a thousand-year-old Third Reich.

Any ruler rapes history, turning well-known mythologemes into the ideologemes he needs.
In Russia, the well-known saying of the elder Philotheus was used in this way, to whom the words “Moscow is the third Rome, and there will never be a fourth” allegedly belong. The theory “Moscow is the third Rome”, as you know, served as the semantic basis of messianic ideas about the role of Russia and justification of the policy of gathering Russian lands around the Moscow principality, and later the creation of the Russian empire.

It was once thought that history belongs to kings. Then they thought that everything was decided populace. Now we see that to put your own man at the head of the state means to sway politics in your direction, even despite the protests of the masses.

Why do people always fight? Why can't they solve all their problems peacefully?
Maybe innate aggressiveness interferes?
None of the representatives species so they don't fight each other.

What pushed Xerxes to conquer a little free Greece, while Persian Empire was several times larger and more powerful?
Ambition? revenge for the defeat of Darius' father at the Battle of Marathon? Or the desire for conquest?

What can be opposed to the conquest paradigm?
War is in the mind!

In the last five thousand years, only two hundred and fifteen have been without war. The whole history of mankind is one incessant war. One continuous murder! The earth is soaked in blood.

Of course, you can not interfere when the ants are fighting among themselves. But when they are ready to blow up the planet in the heat of battle...

The wars are still the same, only they came to replace the bow and arrow atomic bomb and laser weapons.

Or maybe the Spartans died in vain if Xerxes burned and plundered Athens anyway?
Did their self-sacrifice make sense?

Why didn't the Spartans surrender?
Why did they die?

Not why, but why!
They couldn't help it!
Their slogan was the words: victory or death!

Of course, you can say that the Spartans had cruel morals: they led a semi-military lifestyle, threw sick children born into the abyss, drove out cowards and traitors. It is known that the mother killed her Spartan son, who returned from the war wounded in the back.
According to rumors, in the battle of Thermopylae, another Spartan named Pantite survived, sent as a messenger to Thessaly. Upon returning to Lacedaemon (the area where Sparta was located), dishonor awaited him, and he hanged himself.

Is it possible to sacrifice one to save many?
For military leaders, this issue has long been resolved. In order to cover the retreat of the main forces, the rearguard must be left to die in order to save the retreating.

Was there a feat?
Or was it just the rearguard who died, as usually happens during a retreat?
The Spartans, of course, were in stalemate. Someone had to cover the withdrawal of the main forces and die so that the rest could be saved.
What is this, heroism by necessity?

Could the Spartans have surrendered, as the Thebans did?
No, they couldn't. Because "either with a shield, or on a shield"!

Death was a necessity for them. They died doing their duty to their families and friends. After all, they defended their loved ones, they defended their love - Greece!

A similar feat was accomplished by 28 Panfilov heroes who blocked fascist tanks road to Moscow.
They saved us - the living ones.

Those who die for the sake of others want their death not to be in vain.
That is why it is so important to remember fallen heroes.
It's not for the dead, it's for the living!

Probably the legend 300 spartans who courageously resisted numerically superior army enemy to the last breath, everyone heard. Hollywood films dedicated to this story made a lot of noise, although one should not expect historical accuracy from them. How did the legendary battle of thermopylae?

Persian warriors from the *immortal* guard. Fragment of painting from royal palace

Persian Warriors. Palace bas-relief in Persepolis

King of the Persians Xerxes in the movie *300 Spartans*

Spartan formation

Hoplite - ancient Greek heavily armed foot warrior

Jacques-Louis David. Battle of Thermopylae, 1814

This story took place in 480 BC. The powerful ruler of Persia, Xerxes, having gathered an army of many thousands, went to war against a group of independent Greek states - the only island of freedom preserved on the continent. The Spartan scout observed the movement Persian troops seven days and nights. Returning to Sparta, he reported to King Leonid about the large number of Persian troops: "At night, when they light fires, there are more of them than there are stars in the sky." King Leonidas replied with a joke: “Great, when I was a child, I dreamed of reaching the stars with my sword”, “Ha ha ha,” the Spartans laughed. At a meeting of Greek independent states King Leonid gave his word to bring his army and fight the Persians. His decision inspired all the Greek leaders to fight against the invaders. The Spartans at that time were the strongest warriors in Greece. But King Leonid needed to get permission from the council of elders. At that time in Sparta, the king could not single-handedly start hostilities until his decision was approved by the council of elders. Unfortunately for the Greeks, the council of elders of Sparta decided not to participate in the war. King Leonid gave his word to come with an army. The only strength, which he could bring with him, was his personal guard, which consisted of three hundred Spartans.

Even having been refused by the elders, Tsar Leonid remained true to his word: “I gave my word to the Greeks to bring an army. But I didn’t talk about its numbers!” Having assessed the situation, Leonid decided to block the mountain gorge. By detaining the Persians in a narrow gorge, the Spartans made it possible for others Greek states gather a united army and save the independence of Greece. The Persians managed to conquer almost the whole world. Only the Greeks remained free.

Three hundred fearless Spartans walked for two days and two nights. Sparkling in the sun with large round shields, confident, strong, beautiful. Their bright red cloaks fluttered in the wind like torches of freedom. Passing by the Greek settlements, the Spartans inspired people with confidence in victory with only one look. Having reached the gorge, the Spartans, without rest, began to build a fortification. There was little time left before the battle. Tired warriors dragged huge stones, building a fortification out of them. Albeit a small one, but still a fortification. Knowing full well that his detachment did not have time to complete the construction before the Persian attack, Leonid makes a bold decision to attack the enemy at night and calls for volunteers - the best swimmers. Sailing along the coast, thirty brave men attacked the royal tent of Xerxes. Xerxes was lucky - at that moment he was in another place. But the entire Persian army was frightened by the night attack of the Spartans. Panic broke out in the Persian camp. This allowed the Spartans to win another day, and they finished building the fortification.

The Spartans knew that none of them would survive. Even knowing about my imminent death, the characters were in a great mood, constantly joking and laughing. At breakfast, Tsar Leonid joked: “Friends, eat as much as possible. Next time we will have dinner at realm of the dead". "Ha-ha-ha," came a friendly laugh.

Persian trumpeters sounded the signal to attack. The 20,000-strong Persian army rushed into battle. Three hundred Spartans stood on one side of the ravine. On the other hand, a 20,000-strong army was advancing. Seeing a small handful of brave men in front of them, the Persians immediately decided to take the Spartan fortifications. The battle began. A huge avalanche of Persians and a thin strip of Spartans in red cloaks collided. Persians - twenty thousand, Spartans - three hundred people. But the Persians perished by the hundreds under the blows of the spears and swords of the Spartans. They fell like cut grass. Spartan swords worked like lawn mower blades. The Spartans were not just holding the line, they were also advancing! The Persians did not understand what was happening. They were pressed by a small handful of brave men. The twenty thousandth army of selected warriors, or rather, what was left of it, retreated under the merciless blows of the Spartans, leaving mountains on the field dead bodies. The whole earth was saturated with the blood of the Persians, trickles of blood turned into puddles and streams.

The most main point battles. The Spartans have heard loud voice his king: "Spartans, forward!". The attack of the Spartans was the most powerful - the Persian army had nowhere to retreat. Behind the Persians was the sea. Surviving Persians drowned, blue sea ​​water turned red with blood. The battle was watched by the king of the Persians and his large army. Xerxes was amazed at the complete defeat of the twenty thousandth army.

The entire field in front of the Spartan fortification was littered with the bodies of the killed enemies. Xerxes, realizing that the Spartans had won an important moral victory, decided to intimidate them and sent his commander to negotiate. The Persian commander conveyed the will of his king: “Your decision is insane. You will be dead in a few minutes." To which Leonid calmly replied: "But we will not give up." “Lay down your arms,” the Persian commander did not cease to persuade, “and our great king will give you life." To which Leonid calmly and proudly replied: "Come and take it." Xerxes, enraged by the disobedience of a small detachment of Spartans, threw into battle elite troops, his personal guard of "immortals". And again the Spartans won a brilliant victory. More dead Persian warriors left on the ground. What the Persians did, trying to destroy a small detachment, but they did not succeed.

It is not known how many more days the fearless heroes would have held out if not for betrayal. The Persians, having learned from the traitor a secret bypass path, surrounded the Spartan detachment in a dense ring. It was not enough for Xerxes to destroy the Spartans physically, he needed to break their will, trample on their courage, so that all of Greece and its countless army of slaves would see that there are no heroes on earth, there is no freedom, but only fear and slavery.

The Spartans understood that their death hour had struck. Very few of them survived, and even those were bleeding, their strength was running out. But they stood in a tight circle with their heads held high. Their shields, battered by blows from swords and spears, stained with blood, still continued to sparkle, reflecting the rays of the bright southern sun. Xerxes again tried to intimidate recalcitrant heroes: “Look, madmen, you are surrounded. Our army is so numerous that if we shoot arrows, they will block the sun. “So much the better,” King Leonid said smiling, “we will fight in the shadows!”

Despite the huge numerical superiority, the Persians were afraid. A lot of them have died in the previous days. Xerxes ordered the archers to open fire. Thousands, thousands of arrows from all sides flew at the Spartans. The Spartans died, but did not give up. Several arrows hit King Leonidas. One arrow broke his carotid artery, he instantly lost consciousness and died. His warriors closed their ranks even tighter. But the arrows of the enemies continued to take the lives of the remaining heroes. Xerxes, seeing that the Spartans had survived forty people, did not stop trying to break their will. He again sends his ambassadors. "Give the body of King Leonid - and we will leave you alive." "Not! the Spartans answered proudly. We will stay with him. The surviving brave men raised the body of the king, and a handful of wounded brave men rushed to the attack, shouting "Spartans, forward!" Last words We hear heroes today, even after two and a half thousand years: "Spartans, forward!!!". People on Earth will always remember the feat of three hundred heroes. Dear reader! Weaklings and cowards will convince you that this story is a legend, a fiction, a myth, but this does not happen in real life. That there was and is no honor, no heroes, that everything in this world is bought and sold, everything has its price. Don't trust nonentities!

The feat of three hundred Spartans in the battle of Thermopylae, which happened back in 480 BC - a prime example courage and heroism. As many as 3 films were shot in Hollywood telling about this feat - the first in 1962, the second in 2006 (the most famous, directed by Zack Snyder) and the third in 2014. And this fact itself says that this is indeed a very exciting story. Of course, there are many inaccuracies, fantasies and fabrications in these films. But how was it in reality, in reality?

The battle of Thermopylae is one of the key battles of the Greco-Persian wars. The Persian king Xerxes gathered a huge army to invade Europe and conquer the Greek city-states. Estimated modern researchers, the size of the Persian army, which actually consisted of representatives of the multitude different peoples, was in the range from 80 to 250 thousand. At the same time, the ancient Greek historian Herodotus writes about a five million army, but this is clearly not true.

The historian Herodotus in his writings described in detail the Battle of Thermopylae, but in his assessments he was not always accurate.

In 481 BC. e. the ambitious Xerxes sent ambassadors to many Hellenic policies demanding "land and water", that is, he demanded recognition of his power. However, ambassadors were not sent to Athens and Sparta - past experience said that in these policies they could be dealt with very harshly (ten years ago, in Athens, the Persian ambassador, who came with a similar message, was executed, and in Sparta they threw him into a well, telling him to look for "land and water" there).

In the autumn of the same year, a pan-Greek meeting was held in Corinth. An alliance was concluded on it and an agreement was reached on ending internecine strife - this was the only way to counter the Persian threat. To the rulers Greek colonies ambassadors were sent to ask for help. This move, however, was not very successful.

The following year, it became clear that Xerxes was extremely determined and serious. He even came up with a very elegant way of transferring his troops from Europe to Asia. He created two pontoon passages from interconnected ships across the Hellespont ( modern name Strait - Dardanelles).

When this became known in Athens, the strategist Themistocles, who lived here, offered to give battle to Xerxes in the narrow Thermopylae passage (gorge) - to get into southern lands Greece (which Xerxes craved) was not possible in any other way by land. On the other hand, here the Greek army could somehow hold back the enemy, who was clearly outnumbered. So that the gorge could not be bypassed by sea, the ships of the Athenians and other allies were ordered to control the strait between the island of Euboea and the mainland of Hellas. There, almost simultaneously with the Battle of Thermopylae, a large-scale naval battle took place.

Preparing for battle

So, by mid-August 480 BC. e. Persian army ended up on the coast of the Malian Gulf in front of the entrance to Thermopylae. Xerxes sent an ambassador to the Hellenic army, who invited everyone to surrender and receive in exchange for freedom and the title of "friends of the Persians."

The united Greek army was led by spartan king Leonid. He rejected all the proposals of Xerxes. Then the ambassador transmitted the order of the Persian king to lay down his arms, to which the Greek king Leonidas replied "MOLON LABE", which means "Come and take it." This phrase has become legendary.

The average width of the Thermopylae passage was sixty paces. The Greeks built a wall here, more precisely, a low barricade of heavy stones, and set up a camp behind it, blocking the passage along the entire width.

The army of King Leonidas consisted of 7,000 hoplites (heavily armed warriors) and 2,000 archers. Although according to current estimates, the number of Greek soldiers defending the Thermopylae Passage could reach up to twenty thousand. And, of course, there could be no question of any hundredfold or thousandfold superiority of the Persians, which ancient historians spoke of.

Warriors of Sparta - the best in Ancient Greece

Of course, the personal guard of Leonidas, consisting of those same 300 Spartans, deserves a separate discussion. The number of soldiers in the guard was always constant, if one died, then another took over. The Spartans earned in Greece the glory of the most courageous and fearless warriors. "Together win or die together!" - that was their motto.

Leonid at that time was over forty years old (specialists could not establish his exact age at the time of the battle of Thermopylae) and it was believed that he was a descendant of the demigod Hercules in the twentieth generation. Before going to Thermopylae, he personally selected from the citizens 300 husbands who already had sons. The rest of the Spartans were ordered to join the army after the holidays were over. And although the elders of Sparta tried to persuade Leonidas to take more than 300 people, Leonidas was relentless.

An interesting fact: even the invasion of the Persians did not force the Spartans to abandon the sacred celebrations. In Sparta at that time they celebrated Karnei - a holiday in honor of Apollo Carney, which lasted for nine whole days.

In general, it must be said that in Sparta there was a very interesting political system. The main principle here was the principle of the unity of full citizens. And the state strictly regulated the life of the Spartans, prevented the emergence of property stratification. The Spartans were required to engage only in the art of war and sports. Agriculture and handicrafts were the lot of deprived citizens - Perieks and Helots.

The upbringing of youth was considered in classical Sparta public affairs. The whole system of education was subordinated to the goal of making a citizen-warrior out of a child. From the age of seven to twenty, the sons of the citizens of Sparta were obliged to live in a kind of military boarding schools. The young men were engaged in physical training and hardening, played war games. Also, future warriors developed the skill of concise and competent speech. Among personal qualities endurance, devotion and determination were considered the most important. In general, these boarding schools had a very harsh upbringing. And this is clearly one of the reasons why the Spartans were so good in battle.

The first days of the assault on Greek positions

Xerxes, approaching Thermopylae, waited four days, and on the fifth he sent the most combat-ready detachments from the Medes and Persians to the assault. According to the historian Diodorus, in the forefront there were warriors whose relatives fell in the Battle of Marathon. It happened ten years before the Battle of Thermopylae, and the Greeks were victorious.

The first attack of the Persians was quite straightforward - they hit strictly in the center. Having a clear numerical superiority, the Persians wanted to quickly decide the outcome of the battle in their favor, but the Greeks met them and survived. The tactics of the Greeks were as follows: they pretended to start retreating, but then they suddenly turned around sharply and counterattacked the scattered Persians - this was very effective. A unique situation arose: the largest army in the world at that time was not able to withstand a relatively small number of Hellenes. Moreover, some part of the Greek soldiers remained behind the wall.

The Battle of Thermopylae was indeed very fierce.

Then Persian king sent into battle the Kissians and Saks, who were famous for their brutality. But even here the soldiers of Xerxes could not make a breakthrough. They had light weapons and did not have good combat training. And therefore they were powerless against the disciplined phalanx of the enemy, hiding behind a continuous row of huge shields.

The day was already approaching evening, when a ten thousandth detachment of "immortals" went into battle (although, of course, they were mortal, it was just the name of the elite guard of the Persian troops). But they retreated after a short fight. 300 Spartans all this time took part in the battle, while their losses, according to the historian Ctesias, were negligible - only three people.

On the second day, the Persian king again sent his infantry to storm the Greek positions. He promised a generous reward for successful offensive and execution for escaping from the battlefield. But this did not help either: all the attacks of the second day also turned out to be fruitless. The detachments of Xerxes succeeded each other, but this did not lead to anything. The king of the Persians had to return back to the camp.

Ephialtes' betrayal

Xerxes did not understand how to proceed, until a man named Ephialtes approached him (it was still the same second day of the battle). For a generous reward, he volunteered to show the Persians a mountain path around the Thermopylae Gorge. In the 1962 film 300 Spartans, Ephialtes' motivation is presented as follows: he allegedly wanted to conquer the beautiful Spartan Ella, whom he really liked with his wealth. In the 2006 film, Ephialtes was a hunchback, whom Leonidas did not take into his guard because of this (he could not maintain a system consisting of tall and stately men). He harbored evil and became a traitor. However true motives The Ephialtes are shrouded in mystery. But it is known that in honor of the traitor, the Greeks subsequently named the demon ruling nightmares.

The secret path was guarded by the forces of the Phocians from Central Greece - there were about a thousand of them in total. A select detachment of Persians in 20,000 people, led by the commander Hydarn, walked without betraying himself all night, and at dawn attacked the unsuspecting Phokians. Phocians were driven to mountain peak, and Gidarn, taking advantage of this, simply continued to move to the rear of the Hellenes defending Thermopylae. The Phocians sent messengers to notify the Persians of the maneuver. But this information was already known: the Greeks, led by Leonidas, were told about this by Tyrrhastiades, a Persian warrior-defector, at night.

The death of the Spartans and other Greek warriors

By this time, Leonidas had about five thousand soldiers left. The news of the Persians coming from the rear made the defense of the wall useless. Wanting to save a significant part of the Greek army, Leonidas ordered them to retreat and join with other Hellenic forces, and, indeed, about 2000 soldiers moved south. Leonid himself remained with 300 fellow countrymen - in principle, their charter forbade the Spartans to retreat, regardless of the circumstances. However, detachments of the Theban (under the command of Demophilus) and Thespian (under the command of Leontiades) militias with a total number of approximately 2,000 people also refused to leave. As a result, at Thermopylae, they shared the fate of the Spartans.

Noticing the Persians approaching from the rear, led by Ephialtes, the Greeks retreated from their barricades and settled on a hill at the exit from Thermopylae. They no longer expect to win, only to die with dignity. Ultimately, a handful of brave Hellenes took the fight in a place where the passage was already widening significantly. But even there the Persians could not really turn around, many of them died as a result of a crush or a fall from a cliff.

The Persians fired on those who remained on the battlefield Greek heroes from bows, throwing stones at them. And the Spartans were still very courageous. When the spears of the warriors from Sparta broke, they fought with opponents with short swords, and sometimes they engaged in hand-to-hand combat. Herodotus testifies that the Spartans Alpheus, Dienek and Maron showed special valor. A certain Dithyramb from Thespia is also mentioned, who also proved himself to be a brave warrior. Almost no one survived the brutal slaughter. Leonidas died in battle, but the Persians also lost, for example, Abrokom and Hyperanthos, the brothers of Xerxes. Xerxes, by the way, when it was over, personally went to inspect the battlefield. Finding the body of Leonid, he ordered to cut off his head from his shoulders and put him on a stake.

Of the three hundred Spartans, only Aristodemus survived - due to illness, they were left in advance by Leonidas in Alpeny, a settlement not far from the gorge. When Aristodemus returned to Sparta, dishonor awaited him. Not a single person spoke to him, the nickname Aristodem the Coward was assigned to him. It is known that in the future Aristodemus tried to rehabilitate himself and died heroically in the battle of Plataea. According to some reports, a certain Spartan Pantite also survived, who was allegedly sent as a messenger to Thessaly. When he returned to Sparta, he too was in disgrace.

Paying tribute to their opponents, the Persians buried the fallen Hellenes with military honors on the same hill where the last battle took place. Soon a monument was made over their grave in the form of a statue of a lion (Leonid means in ancient Greek "like a lion") with a beautiful epitaph.

Fallen Spartans on native land revered as true heroes. And even after six centuries in Sparta, each of them was remembered by name.

Documentary " Last Stand 300 Spartans"

Probably, everyone heard the legend of 300 Spartans who courageously resisted the numerically superior enemy army to the last breath. Hollywood films dedicated to this story made a lot of noise, although one should not expect historical accuracy from them. How did the legendary Battle of Thermopylae actually take place?

The Battle of Thermopylae took place in 480 BC. e. during the Greco-Persian War. Persia at that time was a young aggressive superpower, seeking to expand its borders. Xerxes was a ruler endowed with great power, despotic and ambitious - he aspired to power over the world. He was feared, but not deified, as shown in the Hollywood movie. His appearance is also surprising - the king with piercings, hung with chains, looks, to put it mildly, strange.

Persian warriors from the guard of "immortals". Fragment of painting from the royal palace

The army of the attacking Persians was many times superior to the forces of the Greeks. According to various estimates, the number of Persians was from 80 to 250 thousand soldiers, the Greeks were from 5 to 7 thousand. Despite unequal forces, in the first two days the Greeks repulsed the attacks of the Persians in the Thermopylae gorge, but on the third day the course of the battle was broken. According to one version, the local resident Ephialtes told the Persians about the presence of a mountain bypass and showed him for a monetary reward, according to another, the Persians themselves discovered this path. Be that as it may, on the third day they were able to enter from the rear. The messenger warned the Spartans about this. Understanding the unsuccessful outcome of events, Leonid himself suggested that the Greeks disperse to their cities. He himself and his 300 Spartans remained.

Persian Warriors. Palace bas-relief in Persepolis

If we abandon the excessive romanticization and glorification of this decision, it becomes clear that Leonid had no other choice. Sparta had very strict laws - no one had the right to retreat from the battlefield without an order. If this happens, the Spartan will lose his civil rights, he will face shame and exile. Leonid understood that everyone would die, but he had no choice, retreat was impossible. The Spartan warrior was obliged to fight to the death, otherwise he would become an outcast in society and would himself wish for death, so as not to endure eternal insults and contempt.

King of the Persians Xerxes in the movie "300 Spartans"

Most of the questions are the size of the Greek army. Herodotus says the following about this: “The Hellenic forces that were waiting for the Persian king in this area consisted of 300 Spartan hoplites, 1000 Tegeans and Mantineans (500 of each); further, 120 people from Orchomenus in Arcadia and 1000 from the rest of Arcadia. There were so many Arcadians. Then from Corinth 400, from Phlius 200 and 80 from Mycenae. These people came from the Peloponnese. From Boeotia there were 700 Thespians and 400 Thebans. In addition, the Hellenes called to the aid of the Opuntian Locrians with all their militia and 1000 Phocians. That is, only 5200 soldiers. Still with them were servants - helots.

Xerxes in the movie "300"

There were indeed 300 Spartans - the number of soldiers in the guard was constant, if one died, another took his place. But besides the Spartans, there were hundreds of Greeks from other city-states, totaling up to 5,000, and in the first two days of the battle they fought together at Thermopylae. But about 1000 Greeks, in particular the Thespians, remained of their own free will and after the order of Leonidas to return home. No one detracts from the merits and courage of the Spartans, but not only they died in an unequal battle that day. The losses of the Greeks in three days amounted to about 4,000 people, the Persians - 5 times more.

Spartan formation

Frame from the film "300 Spartans", 2006

Hoplite - ancient Greek heavily armed foot warrior

Jacques-Louis David. Battle of Thermopylae, 1814

Monument dedicated to the feat of 300 Spartans

Monument to King Leonid and a detachment of 300 Spartans near the battlefield