Covering with a small detachment the retreat of the main part of the Greek army.
Soviet historical encyclopedia. In 16 volumes. - M.: Soviet Encyclopedia. 1973-1982. Volume 8, KOSHALA - MALTA. 1965.
Leonid (? -480 BC) - son of Anaxandrid, Spartan king from the dynasty Agiadov. After the death of his two older brothers Cleomenes I and Doriaeus, he assumed royal power. In 480, with a detachment of 300 Spartan hoplites and allies, he defended Thermopylae, a narrow gorge connecting Thessaly with Central Greece, from the hordes of the Persian king Xerxes. For four days, the Persians failed to break the resistance of the Spartans, who put up to 20 thousand enemy soldiers on the battlefield. However, the Persians, taking advantage of the betrayal, went around the Thermopylae Gorge along a mountain path and went to the rear of the Greeks. Upon learning of this, Leonidas sent his allies home, while he himself and his Spartans remained to defend Thermopylae. In an unequal battle that lasted a whole day, the Spartans died one and all along with their king, but did not leave their positions.
Yiannis Miliadis on Leonidas:
"Thousands of kings died and are long forgotten. But everyone knows and honors Tsar Leonid. No, not because he was a king. But because Tsar Leonid fulfilled his duty to his homeland to the end."
Used materials of the book: Tikhanovich Yu.N., Kozlenko A.V. 350 great. A brief biography of the rulers and generals of antiquity. The Ancient East; Ancient Greece; Ancient Rome. Minsk, 2005.
Leonidas, king of Sparta (reigned c. 490–480 BC), commanded the Greeks during their legendary confrontation with the Persians at Thermopylae in 480 BC. When the Persians, led by Xerxes, invaded Greece, the united Greeks decided to hold the narrow passage of Thermopylae, which opened the way to central Greece. Here, Leonidas with 300 Spartans (with his personal guard; only warriors who had sons were selected for the detachment) and approximately 6,000 Greek allies fought off the attacks of the Persians for two days. On the third day, the Persians, using an abandoned mountain path, made a detour, as a result of which part of their army went to the rear of the Greeks. Leonid, having waited in vain for reinforcements, gave the opportunity to his entire army, except for the Spartans, to leave. After a bloody battle, the defenders of the passage, the Spartans, and with them several hundred warriors from Thespiae (a city in Boeotia near Thebes) who refused to leave them, were destroyed. Leonidas and his warriors were honored with a monument on the battlefield, on which an epitaph composed by Simonides of Ceos was engraved: “Wanderer, tell the Spartans that we were killed in this place, Keeping loyalty to the end to the will of our fellow citizens.”
Materials of the encyclopedia "The World Around Us" are used
Leonidas I - Spartan king from the Agids clan, who ruled in 491-480. BC Rod in 508 BC + 480 B.C. Son of Anaxandrides.
Leonidas was the younger brother of Cleomenes I and ascended the throne after Cleomenes went mad and died without male offspring (Herodotus: 7; 205).
During the first ten years of his reign, Leonidas did nothing remarkable, but on the other hand immortalized himself forever with the last battle of Thermopylae in his life.
According to Herodotus, Xerxes invaded Hellas in 480 BC, when the Hellenes were having the Olympic Games and the Spartans had the eve of Carnea. Both holidays obligated to a sacred truce, and this was one of the reasons that only a small detachment met the Persians at Thermopylae. The Spartans sent towards the huge army of Xerxes Leonidas with a detachment of 300 Spartans, moreover, those who already had children. On the way, Leonidas was joined by 1,000 Tegeans and Mantineans, 120 from Orchomenus in Arcadia, and 1,000 other Arcadians. There were 400 people from Corinth, 200 from Phlius, and 80 from Mycenae. These people came from the Peloponnese. From Boeotia came 700 Thespians and 400 Thebans. In addition, the Spartans called to the aid of the Opuntian cover with all their militia and 1000 Phocians.
When this small army arrived at the Thermopylae Pass, fear fell upon the soldiers, and many began to think about retreat. The Peloponnesians offered to retreat to the peninsula and guard the Isthmus. The Phocians and Locrians were indignant at this decision, and therefore Leonidas ordered to remain in place, and sent messengers to the cities asking for help, since they had too few troops to repel the attack of the Persian hordes.
For four days Xerxes did not start the battle, hoping that the Spartans would take flight. Finally, on the fifth day, the king, in a rage, sent the Medes and Cassians against them with orders to take them alive and bring them before his eyes. The Medes quickly rushed to the Hellenes. With each onslaught, many Medes fell, others took the place of the fallen, but the Medes did not retreat, despite the heavy damage. It can be said that then it became clear to everyone, and especially to the king himself, that the Persians had many people, and few husbands among them. This fight lasted all day.
Having received a severe rebuff, the Medes were forced to retreat. They were replaced by the Persians, led by Gidarn (the king called them "immortals"). They thought it was easy to finish off the enemies. But when it came to hand-to-hand combat, the Persians had no more success than the Medes. They had to fight in close quarters with shorter spears than the Hellenes. At the same time, their numerical superiority did not help the Persians. The Hellenes, on the other hand, courageously fought against the enemies and showed their prowess in military affairs in front of an inept enemy. From time to time they made a turn, and then all at once, for the sake of appearance, took flight. At the sight of this, the barbarians, with a battle cry and a cry, began to crowd them. The Greeks, overtaken by the enemy, turned to face the enemy and struck a myriad of Persians. At the same time, however, some of the Greeks also died. The Persians also had to retreat.
The king, as they say, watched the course of the battle and, in fear for his army, jumped up from his throne three times. So they fought that day. But the next day did not bring good luck to the barbarians. The Persians attacked incessantly in the expectation that the few Hellenes would soon be all wounded and would no longer be able to resist; The Hellenes, on the other hand, stood in battle formation according to tribes and types of weapons, and everyone fought, replacing each other, except for the Phocians. The Phokians were sent to the mountain to guard the mountain path leading around the position of the Hellenes. The Persians, seeing that things were no better than yesterday, retreated again.
Xerxes accepted the proposal of Epialtes and, extremely delighted, immediately sent Hydarnes with his detachment. Having crossed the Asop, the Persians marched all night. On the right, the Eteian mountains rose, and on the left, the Trachinian ones. The dawn was already breaking when the Persians reached the top of the mountain. It was at this place that 1000 Phokian hoplites stood guard to protect their land and guard the path.
Despite this protection, the Persians climbed the mountain imperceptibly, since it was all densely overgrown with oak forests. Only by the rustling of the leaves did the Phokians guess the approach of a large detachment and rushed to their weapons. At that moment, the barbarians appeared at the top. With amazement, they saw before them people putting on armor. But when Hydarnes learned from Epialtes that these were not the Lacedaemonians, but the Phocians, he formed the warriors into battle order. And the Phokians, under a hail of arrows, immediately fled, letting the enemy through the Lacedaemonians.
At night, a defector arrived at Leonid with a message about a roundabout maneuver. Then the Greeks began to hold council, and their opinions were divided. Some were in favor of not retreating from their post, while others objected. After this, the army was divided: part of it left and scattered, and each returned to his city; others, and Leonidas with them, decided to stay.
It is also said that Leonidas himself sent the allies away to save them from destruction. It was not proper for him and his Spartans, he thought, to leave the place they had been sent to protect.
Only the Phocians and Thebans remained with the Lacedaemonians. Meanwhile, Xerxes launched an offensive, and the Spartans, led by Leonidas, came out to meet him from the gorge to the place where the passage widened. In this battle, the barbarians died by the thousands. Moreover, most of them were crushed by their own. The Hellenes knew about certain death threatening them at the hands of the enemy who bypassed the mountain. Therefore, they showed the greatest military prowess and fought the barbarians desperately and with insane courage. Most of the Spartans, having broken their spears, began to strike the Persians with their swords. In this battle, Leonidas himself fell after a valiant resistance, and many other noble Spartans fell with him. A heated hand-to-hand fight began for the body of Leonid, until, finally, the brave Hellenes pulled out; whether it is from the hands of enemies. The battle continued until the Persians, led by Gidarnes, approached. Noticing them, the Spartans retreated into the gorge and all the survivors - except for the Thebans, who hastened to surrender - took over. position on the hill. This hill was at the entrance to the passage. Here the Spartans defended themselves with swords, and then with their hands and teeth, until the barbarians bombarded them with a hail of arrows.
After that, Xerxes went between the dead bodies to inspect the battlefield. Seeing the body of Leonid, he ordered to cut off his head and put him on a stake. The servants carried out the order of the king (Herodotus: 7; 201-207, 210-213, 215, 217-220, 222-225, 233.238).
All the monarchs of the world. Greece, Rome, Byzantium. Konstantin Ryzhov. Moscow, 2001
Read further:
Historical figures of Greece(biographical guide).
| Leonid I other Greek Λεωνίδας Α΄ | |
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| 491 BC e. - 480 BC e. | |
|---|---|
| Predecessor: | Cleomenes I |
| Successor: | plistarch |
| Religion: | Greek |
| Birth: | before 520 BC e. (when his father Anaxandride died) Sparta (Laconia), Greece |
| Death: | 480 BC e.(-480
)
Thermopylae (Thessaly), Greece |
| Place of burial: | Lua error in Module:Wikidata on line 170: attempt to index field "wikibase" (a nil value). |
| Genus: | Agiades |
| Name at birth: | Lua error in Module:Wikidata on line 170: attempt to index field "wikibase" (a nil value). |
| Father: | Anaxandride II |
| Mother: | Lua error in Module:Wikidata on line 170: attempt to index field "wikibase" (a nil value). |
| Spouse: | Gorgo |
| Children: | son of Plistarch |
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| Education: | Lua error in Module:Wikidata on line 170: attempt to index field "wikibase" (a nil value). |
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Biography
Origin
Battle of Thermopylae
During the ten years of his reign, Leonid I did nothing significant, but immortalized his name with the battle of Thermopylae (Warm Gates). He defended with 6 thousand soldiers (including a personal guard of 300 Spartans) the Thermopylae Pass during the offensive of the Persian troops and died in battle.
The ruler of Achaemenid Persia, Xerxes I, attacked Greece in the summer of 480 BC. e. Leonid I came out to meet him with a detachment of 300 Spartans and 5620 soldiers from other cities. The Greeks entrenched themselves in the gorge of Thermopylae with the intention of defending this narrow passage for as long as possible.
200,000 Persians unsuccessfully stormed Thermopylae for two days. However, the traitor Ephialtes led a detachment of "immortals" (Persian guards) at night along a mountain path around the positions of Leonid I in order to strike at the Greeks from the rear. Having received a message about this, Leonidas saved most of the army by sending him inland, while he himself remained at Thermopylae with 300 Spartans. Of their own free will, 700 Thespians also remained under the command of Demophilus and 400 Thebans under the command of Leontiades. To cover the retreat, the warriors of Leonidas rushed towards the Persians and held back their advance until everyone was killed on the battlefield. Enraged by the heavy losses and desperate resistance of the Spartans, Xerxes I ordered to find the body of Leonidas, cut off his head and put it on a stake, and nail the body to the side of his personal ship.
Leonidas I in art
Literature
- King Leonidas is a character in Valerio Manfredi's novel The Spartan (original title - The Shield of Talos, Italian: Lo scudo di Talos).
Cinema
Movies- The role of Leonidas I is the main role of two films about the Battle of Thermopylae and the events preceding it: "300 Spartans" in 1962 and "300 Spartans" in 2006. In the 1962 film he is portrayed by Richard Egan, and in the 2006 film by Gerard Butler.
- Forbidden Fruit: A History of Luxury. Part 1: Luxury in Ancient Greece ( ; UK).
see also
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King of Sparta Leonid I - from the kind of Agids, ruled in 491-480 BC. e. Member, died in . Leonidas was the son of Anaxandrid II. It is considered a descendant of Hercules in the twentieth generation. He was the third of four sons, but after the death of Cleomenes I and Dorieus he became king of Sparta: "Leonidas was the younger brother of Cleomenes I and ascended the throne after Cleomenes died without male offspring"
Leonidas ascended the throne at the age of seventeen and did nothing outstanding in the first decade of his reign, but over the centuries immortalized his name at the last battle of Thermopylae. The Persian king Xerxes, wanting to conquer Greece, invaded Hellas in 480 BC. e., when the Hellenes held the Olympic Games, and the Spartans had the eve of the sacred holiday of Carnea. These holidays obligated to a sacred truce, and this was one of the reasons why only a small Greek army met the huge Persian army at Thermopylae.
The king of the Persians decided to end the independence of Greece. Preparations for the campaign were unprecedented: 56 peoples subject to Xerxes were removed from their places on his orders. Militias moved from the most remote countries to assembly points, to the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates. The whole of Asia seemed to be in motion.
Win together or die together!
Thermopylae (“Warm Gates”) is so named because of the hot sulfur springs that still exist today. The general council of Greek leaders decided to take this place. Leonidas moved to Thermopylae with a small detachment of 300 Spartans, who became famous throughout Greece as the most fearless and strong warriors. "Together win or die together!" - said the law of the Spartans.
Looking at how few people the King of Sparta Leonid I took with him, even the battered hearts of the Spartan elders trembled. They said to the Spartan king: "Take at least a thousand." To which Leonid I replied: "To win, and thousands are not enough to die, three hundred are enough." On the way, about 5,500 more people from various cities and regions of Greece joined the detachment. Thus, the total number of his troops was no more than 6 thousand people.
The Greeks camped behind a wall blocking the narrow Thermopylae pass.
Xerxes was absolutely sure of victory. When Greek scouts were seized in the Persian camp and they wanted to execute them, the Persian king accidentally found out about this. He canceled the execution, ordering the Greeks to be led through the entire Persian camp and shown everything they wanted to see. After inviting them to his place, he asked if they all saw what they wanted, and let them go.
Such a gesture must have made a strong impression on the Greeks. The king of the Persians hoped that now, convinced of his power and determination, the Greeks would eventually come to their senses, stop holding on to some kind of their own, incomprehensible to the Persians, freedom and voluntarily submit to his will.
One of the local residents, telling the Hellenes about the large army of barbarians, added that "if the barbarians release their arrows, then an eclipse of the sun will occur from a cloud of arrows." In response, the Spartan Dienek joked lightheartedly: “Our friend from Trakhin brought great news: if the Medes darken the sun, then it will be possible to fight in the shade” (in some sources, this statement is attributed to the king of Sparta, Leonidas I).
Xerxes waited four days in the hope that the Greeks would be frightened and retreat, but when the Persians, on behalf of their king, offered the Spartans to hand over their weapons, the Spartan king boldly replied: “Come and take it!”. The deadline passed, and Xerxes ordered to storm the gorge. "The enemy is coming!" shouted the Greek guard. "Fine! Leonid said. “And we are approaching the enemy.”
The king of the Persians sent to the assault the most combat-ready detachments from the native Medes. Having received a stiff rebuff, the Medes retreated. After that, the king replaced the Medes with the Kissians and Saks, who were famous for their militancy. The more lightly armed barbarians could not break through the dense phalanx of Spartans, who had taken cover behind a solid wall of large shields.
Xerxes sent the bravest of his troops, the "immortals", but they could not break the Spartans.
Xerxes did not know what to do next, at that time a local resident, a certain Ephialtes, came to him, who volunteered for a reward to lead the Persians along a mountain path around Thermopylae. A select Persian detachment of 20 thousand people under the command of Gidarn walked covertly all night, and in the morning suddenly attacked the Phocian barrage detachment. Having driven them to the top of the mountain, Hydarn continued to move to the rear of the Hellenes guarding Thermopylae.
The Phocians sent runners to inform the Greeks of the Persians' detour, and the Greeks were warned of the same night by a defector from the Persian camp. Then the Greeks began to hold a common council. The opinions of the allies were divided - the majority, obeying the will of circumstances, went to their cities, preferring a retreat to inevitable death. Only 300 Spartans of King Leonid, 700 Phokians and 400 Thebans remained, who did not count on victory, but only on a glorious death.
Last Stand
Morning came, the last morning for the defenders - it was the 7th day that a handful of Greeks held off the Persian army. The king of Sparta, Leonid, dressed in royal clothes and, according to the customs of his people, made a sacrifice to the gods. With this rite, he celebrated a feast for himself and his comrades.
The soothsayer Megistius, on the insides of a sacrificial animal, prophesied death to the wars of Leonidas I. The king said: "Let's have breakfast, friends, because we will have to dine already in Hades." A war cry was heard in the camp of the Persians, at this signal they struck from the front. The Spartans were able to steadfastly beat off the first blow, and, closing even closer, pushing their long peaks even further, they moved forward in a formidable formation.
The Persians fell off the cliff into the sea, climbed the rocks, fled - everything was swept away by the phalanx, advancing with the usual measured step. Many noble Persians were killed in the battle, two brothers of the king were killed one after another. When the spears of the Greeks broke, they grabbed swords and stones. They are stepped on, trampled on, crushed; enemy strikes intensified. Many Persians accepted death from the Spartan king, but he also fell, slain in an unequal battle.
The Persians wanted to take his body and bring it "as a gift" to their king. But the Spartans could not allow this. Around the body of Leonidas, a whole battle unfolded. The Greeks won! They won the time needed by their compatriots to go further. The Hellenes learned that the Persians, led by a traitor, had descended from the mountain path, and were about to hit them in the rear. Having learned about this, they picked up the body of the king and retreated behind the wall. There was their last fight. They all fell as one over the body of the Spartan king Leonid, did not give it to the enemy, covered it with themselves ...
When the battle subsided, Xerxes, surrounded by his retinue, went among the dead bodies to look for Leonidas. Long searched. Finally found. And "ordered to cut off the Spartan king's head and planted it on a stake." Never before and never after did a Persian king show such hatred towards his enemies.
The detachment of King Leonidas of Sparta died, and this legendary battle is known as one of the oldest heroic pages in the history of mankind. Under Thermopylae fell, according to Herodotus, up to 20 thousand Persians and 4 thousand Greeks. The fallen Hellenes were buried on the same hill where they took the last battle. A stone was placed on the grave with the epitaph of the poet Simonides of Ceos: “Wanderer, tell the Spartans that we died in this place. Keeping loyalty to the end to the will of his fellow citizens.
The next year, 479 B.C. e. The Persian army was completely defeated at the Battle of Plataea in Boeotia. In that battle, the Spartan Aristodemus distinguished himself, the only survivor of 300 Spartans, left by the king before the last battle in a neighboring village due to a wound.
For the head of the traitor Ephialtes, Sparta announced a reward, and later he was killed. The remains of the Spartan king were reburied in Sparta 40 years after his death. Residents of the city, 600 years after the legendary battle, already in Roman times, every year held competitions in honor of the national hero. The names of all those who fell at Thermopylae were carved on the slab.
(508/507-480 BC)
Spartan king. Hero of Thermopylae.
The Persian king Xerxes decided to continue the attempts of his predecessors to conquer Greece. He gathered a huge army for those times and a numerous fleet from all the satrapies (regions) subject to him - from the banks of the Indus to Egypt. Herodotus gives truly fantastic figures, naming the size of the invading army: 1,700,000 foot soldiers, 80,000 horsemen and 20,000 camels (that is, 100,000 cavalry).
However, researchers determine the number of troops of Xerxes, who went on a campaign against the European part of Ancient Greece, at 100-150 thousand people (together with the fleet) and even less. In that era, it was a huge military force. The fleet of Persia, collected from all over the Eastern Mediterranean, consisted of up to 500-600 ships. Some of them were built specifically for the invasion of mainland Greece from the sea.
The third Greco-Persian war began with the fact that the army of Xerxes, on a floating bridge arranged across the Hellespont (Dardanelles) strait, freely crossed to its European coast. The multinational army of the Persian state through South Thrace and Macedonia entered Northern Greece.
The enemy of Persia in that war was the military-defensive alliance of the Greek states, led by Sparta and Athens. It was created in 481 BC. It included a smaller part of the Greek communities that had their own statehood - 31. Most of Ancient Greece wanted to stay away from the big war.
Allies in the summer of 480 BC left the territory of Northern Greece without a fight, since the protection of the passes here required large ground forces. However, the passage to the south - the gorge at Thermopylae, was believed to be held by a small army. This passage connected Northern and Central Greece.
The Spartan king Leonid, who had a detachment of approximately 7 thousand Greek soldiers: Thebans, Thespians and others, came out to defend the Thermopylae Pass. These were foot warriors-hoplites (spearmen) and a small number of archers. There were only 300 Spartans of them. It is believed that they were the royal bodyguards.
The Greek city-states could allocate more troops to hold the Thermopylae Passage. But they were not going to seriously defend it, concentrating all their forces for the defense of the Isthmus of Corinth. This was the plan of the Greek side in the outbreak of the war.
At Thermopylae, the first combat clash in that war took place. The Greeks, having built their usual phalanx, successfully repelled all attempts by the huge Persian army to take possession of the Thermopylae Gorge and break through the mountain pass into the central part of Greece. The Persians unsuccessfully attacked the army of King Leonid for two days, but could not win.
But among the Greeks there was a traitor named Ephialtes, who showed the Persians a path in the wooded mountains that led around Thermopylae. Xerxes immediately sent around his personal guard - 10 thousand "immortals". The traitor Ephialtes led them through the mountains at night to the rear of the defenders of the Thermopylae Gorge. The "Immortals", moving along the path, shot down the Greek outpost, which guarded it from the enemy in case of a bypass.
King Leonidas, having learned that he was in danger of complete encirclement, immediately sent his allies to defend the rear entrance to the gorge, and he himself, at the head of 300 Spartans, remained in place, ready to the last to defend the narrowest point of the Thermopylae passage. It was a decision of high masculinity and dedication.
The Immortals attacked the Greek detachment that stood in their way (some of its soldiers surrendered) and closed the encirclement of the last defenders of the gorge near the village of Thermopylae. In the ensuing battle, the Spartan warriors, led by their king Leonidas, died to the last man. They did not retreat from where their small phalanx stood. None of them wanted to surrender to the Persians. All of them, unknown to history, together with their military leader Leonidas, became true heroes of the ancient Greek world.
The Battle of Thermopylae took place in the summer of 480 BC. e. between Greeks and Persians. This event is presented to the general public in the feature films 300 Spartans (1962) and 300 (2006).
In fact, initially about 6,000 Greeks participated in the battle on the part of the Greeks, among whom were 300 Spartans.
The king of Sparta, Leonid I of the Agid family, was a descendant of Hercules in the twentieth generation. He led Sparta from 491-480. BC e., however, as a ruler, he did not particularly show himself. But in Sparta, first of all, warriors were trained, and Tsar Leonid, participating in the Battle of Thermopylae, created the image of an ideal warrior and immortalized his name.
Thermopylae is a narrow and short passage in the Aegean mountains. “So, near the village of Alpeny behind Thermopylae there is a road for only one wagon ... In the west of Thermopylae, an inaccessible, steep and high mountain rises, stretching to Eta. In the east, the passage goes directly to the sea and swamps... A wall was built in this gorge, and there was once a gate in it... The ancient wall was built in ancient times and has mostly collapsed from time to time. The Greeks now decided to restore the wall and thus block the barbarian's path to Hellas. There is one village there very close to the road called Alpen, ”Herodotus described this place. Now this space is several kilometers long. It was to this passage that the Persian king Xerxes led his land army.
The size of his army is estimated from several tens to several hundred thousand fighters of various levels. For this huge mass, the Thermopylae Pass became a real traffic jam. The Greeks fought masterfully for two days - as I heard from the guide, they did it almost naked, hiding behind only small cloaks. Warriors constantly replaced each other on the battlefield - about the same as it happens during a hockey match. However, this notion is hardly true.
Greek hoplites (heavily armed warriors) fought both in close formation and in groups. The hoplite was armed with a spear two to three meters long, a short sword, a large round shield, a helmet, armor and leggings to protect the front of the lower leg. Hoplites in battle lined up in several ranks, which made up the phalanx. The first rank fought effectively for a short time, after which they retreated. The Persians in their armor ran out of steam rather quickly. It seemed to them that more and more fresh fighters were fighting against them. “It is precisely in the rotation of fighters, which made it possible to maintain a high intensity of the battle, that the advantage of building a deep phalanx lies. The crowd, which did not observe the rows, could not organize such a rotation. Rotation here could only occur spontaneously, and as the fierceness of the battle grew, there were fewer and fewer people who wanted to get ahead, as a result, the crowd was simply obliged to take flight, ”explains a modern author. In addition, the Greeks (and especially the Spartans) demonstrated mastery of weapons. Three hundred Spartans made up the personal guard of King Leonidas. In modern terms, these were elite soldiers, real special forces. The Greeks in the Thermopylae passage skillfully used a dilapidated wall, which was something like a barricade.
But Xerxes also had his own guard. With the help of the traitor Ephialtes, a rather large detachment (up to 20 thousand people) passed at night along a mountain path, bypassing the “cork”, pushing aside a small barrage detachment, and went to the rear of the Greeks. The situation became hopeless. Leonid sent most of his warriors into the interior of the country, as the war was just beginning. 300 Spartans remained with Leonidas, 700 Thespians under the command of Demophilus, son of Diadrom, and 400 Thebans under the command of Leontides, son of Eurymachus. This rearguard hit the Persians and held back their advance, covering the withdrawal of the main forces. All these heroes fell on the battlefield.
The famous laconic maxims of the Spartans deserve attention. The fact is that in 480 BC. e. the 75th Olympic Games were held, accompanied by festive events. They were not interrupted, and Leonid took with him the most selective warriors who had children. Spartan elders suggested to Leonidas to increase the number of warriors. “Take at least a thousand,” they told him. Leonid calmly replied: "To win - and thousands are not enough to die - three hundred are enough."
Before the battle, the Persians carried out a certain "psychic attack". Local residents who appeared in the camp of the Greeks said that "if the barbarians release their arrows, then an eclipse of the sun will occur from a cloud of arrows." In response, one of the Spartans joked lightheartedly: "Our friend brought good news: if the Medes darken the sun, then it will be possible to fight in the shade."
But the most famous was the answer of Leonid himself to the offer to surrender and lay down his arms: "Come and take it."
The fate of the heroes of the battle, which lasted a week, was different. Tsar Leonid fell in battle. After the battle, Xerxes cut off his head and impaled him. Subsequently, the Spartans managed to rebury their leader with honors. All three hundred Spartans, adhering to their motto "Together win or die together!", died and were buried in a common grave. There are reports of two surviving Spartans. One of them was sick, did not participate in the final stage of the battle, and upon returning to his homeland was insulted. In the battle of Plataea, he sought death, killed a bunch of Persians, but could not restore his reputation. Another of the surviving Spartans could not bear the ridicule of his fellow tribesmen and hanged himself.
A peculiar historiographic trail stretches for thousands of Thebans, Thespians and representatives of other Hellenic cities, which amounted to 6 or even 7 thousand defenders of Thermopylae. In Sparta itself, it was believed that they either fled from the battlefield, or even went over to the side of the Persians. Modern authors believe that this version is very offensive to ordinary Hellenes, who were not Leonid's "special forces", but fought bravely and, for the most part, also fell heroically.
The war for the Persians was very unsuccessful. In 480 BC. e. they were defeated in a naval battle off the island of Salamis, and a year later they were defeated at the battle of Plataea. At Thermopylae, two brothers of Xerxes died, and at Plataea, the chief commander of the Persians and the son-in-law of Darius I, the Greek Mardonius. The Persians barely took their feet from Hellas, and the Greeks moved the fighting to Asia Minor. The situation in Persia was constantly deteriorating - uprisings in the satrapies, an empty treasury, famine, etc. In August 465 BC. e. the head of the royal guard Artaban and the beloved eunuch Aspamitra (possibly with the participation of Artaxerxes, the youngest son of Xerxes) killed the king at night in his bedroom (the murder of Paul I is recalled). Xerxes (translated as "hero of heroes") was in power for twenty years and eight months and was killed in the fifty-fifth year of his life.
Three hundred Spartans showed that you can fight not by numbers, but by skill. The patriotism of the ancient Greeks turned out to be stronger than the greed of the Asian conquerors.
