Hot Gates of Thermopylae
Listen to "Hot Gates of Thermopylae"
The battle of Thermopylae was fought between 7000 Greeks under Leonidas (including 300 Spartans) and 500,000-2.5 million Persian troops under Xerxes. Xerxes had marched across the Hellespont towards Greece because he wanted Greece to become a satrapy of his and submit to his divine will by giving him earth and water. The two armies met at a 50-foot-wide pass in Northern Greece and here, a small phalanx of Greek hoplites held off wave after wave of Persian infantrymen, cavalrymen, and Immortals. The Spartans demonstrated their bravery again and again, and their lifelong devotion to military training proved to pay off.
Eventually, Ephialtes (a Greek traitor) led the Persians around the pass to the rear of the Greek defenders. Surrounded, the Spartans and Thespians were killed by a volley of arrows. Leonidas, himself, looked forward to dying because the oracle at Delphi prophesized that his death would save Sparta.
For more information:
300 (Movie)
http://www.iranchamber.com/history/articles/persian_wars5.php
Histories by Herodotus
http://www.greektexts.com/library/Herodotus/Polymnia/eng/242.html
Extreme War by Terrence Poulos
Military Anecdotes by Max Hastings
Military History Magazine (January 2006): Spartan Stand atThermopylae
Military History Podcast is sponsored by Armchair General Magazine and the International Research and Publishing Corporation
The battle of Thermopylae was fought between 7000 Greeks under Leonidas (including 300 Spartans) and 500,000-2.5 million Persian troops under Xerxes. Xerxes had marched across the Hellespont towards Greece because he wanted Greece to become a satrapy of his and submit to his divine will by giving him earth and water. The two armies met at a 50-foot-wide pass in Northern Greece and here, a small phalanx of Greek hoplites held off wave after wave of Persian infantrymen, cavalrymen, and Immortals. The Spartans demonstrated their bravery again and again, and their lifelong devotion to military training proved to pay off.
Eventually, Ephialtes (a Greek traitor) led the Persians around the pass to the rear of the Greek defenders. Surrounded, the Spartans and Thespians were killed by a volley of arrows. Leonidas, himself, looked forward to dying because the oracle at Delphi prophesized that his death would save Sparta.
For more information:
300 (Movie)
http://www.iranchamber.com/history/articles/persian_wars5.php
Histories by Herodotus
http://www.greektexts.com/library/Herodotus/Polymnia/eng/242.html
Extreme War by Terrence Poulos
Military Anecdotes by Max Hastings
Military History Magazine (January 2006): Spartan Stand at
Military History Podcast is sponsored by Armchair General Magazine and the International Research and Publishing Corporation
posted by George Hageman at 12:13 PM
9 Comments:
300 is the best film i seen by far!
:)
Nice podcast but the one think I noticed....
The quote is "Eat hardy for tonight we dine in Hades.
There was no concept of Hell for Greece, that was a Christian theme.
Hades was were all the Greek dead went. It would be like a Viking saying tonight we dine in Heaven instead of Valhalla.
Otherwise, fantastic. Thank you.
I would love to see a podcast on Billy Mitchell and his prediction of plane usage in WWII.
Very good blog, however, I don't know about recommending a movie that is blatantly false, and ultra graphically violent.
However, you make a lot of assumptions based on the ONLY account of this from Herodotus. Greeks were blatantly self serving and were masters at rhetoric and propaganda.
So, in fact, the battle may not have even taken place, and may in fact have been the reverse of what happened. We have no persian records of it. That's an overriding concern with the podcast, we are talking about history, sometimes ancient history, so the idea that any of these are 'facts' is pretty ludicrous.
In this case, as you say, we should be suspicious whenever somebody says "this was told by one guy who got away". That's always a first clue that something is up. Whenever that 'one guy who got away' seems to know an awful lot about virtually everything the leader of the opposition did, that's definitely clue number two.
Another factor not mentioned is that most historians now agree that it was NOT a case of persians attempting to take over the world, that in fact there were border disputes that went on all the time and that it was greek aggression into persia that brought on the persian wars.
I really enjoy these podcasts, but you have to get past the old textbook propaganda when dealing with these issues. Especially in the ancient world where virtually the only records we have are written by one side.
As you mention in the propaganda episodes, this kind of storytelling goes way back. Perhaps the spartans ran away and were cut down as they fled. Perhaps they outnumbered the persians. Clue number three should have been when you claim there were over a MILLION soldiers in the persian army, and yet they 'lived off the land'. Do you have any idea how impossible it is for a million people to live off the land as they go?
Virtually every battle story begins with "they were hopelessly outnumbered". And herodotus didn't exactly have 'peer review' to worry about when he was publishing.
i agree with you when you say it is a one sided story,but you have to consider that all stories of war ancient and modern are told from one essential viewpoint,and in history we cannot be one hundred percent accurate.I do not agree with your idea that the spartans could have fled,it seems unlikely that they would have fled when spartans were trained there entire lives to accept fear and that dying by an enemy of sparta is a beautiful death.
Just a comment in response to anonymous. While you make a valid point, and certainly we will probably never know the exact truth of what occured, we can safely say that the battle did take place. There have been excavations at the hill where most people believe the last stand took place and those excavations found a multitude of persian arrowheads. Certainly we rely on may oral traditions for our ancient history, but this was a battle that the greeks and many historians, aside from Herodotus were talking about, and the story is always pretty similiar. Also, while 300 is not as factual as it could be, obviously, it is still a movie that has a message worth seeing--especially in todays troubling times. That message is that there are things worth sacrificing for, and that freedom comes at a cost.
In regards to the number of persians that were on the land, the numbers could be anywhere from 50,000-300,000. There is some wide open speculation there, and most historians tend to be in the camp of either 100,000 men or 300,000 men.
Actually, anonymous, there were two men that did make it out of the battle. One was a messenger that had been sent out by Leonidas who did not make it back in time for the battle. According to records, he committed suicide from his shame. The other man suffered some kind of eye injury and went back to Sparta and was basically ostracized by the spartan community for his cowardice. He killed himself as well. I don't know what either man knew about the actual battle or how much information they had. It is just kind of interesting to note.
I dont think you should recommend the movie 300 as a "historic source" It is too bias and contain a lot of fantasy.
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