Battle of Thermopylae

Everyone loves seeing an underdog upset a team that is heavily favored to win. Whether it is the number one team in college football losing to an unranked opponent, or a child rising above the social barriers in his life and making it big, these stories encourage and excite us. Of course, the Battle of Thermopylae is no exception to our desire for seeing a group defy the odds and come out victorious. When 300 Spartan soldiers, along with men from other Ionian city states, gazed at the sea of Persian men amassed in front of them, no doubt they knew they would be crushed by the waves of the enemy. King Xerxes overlooked the site of the battle from his throne with complete confidence. How could 80,000 of his great army lose to 5,000 Greeks? Finally…

The Battle of Thermopylae The battle of Thermopylae was the first battle between the Greeks and the Persians during the Greek and Persian war of 480 BC and 479 BC. The Greek force was dwarfed in comparison to the massive Persian army but they were devoted to protecting their homeland. The Greeks were very afraid of the Persian and Thessalian armies. Greece fought amongst itself for a while because no one could decide what to do about the massive armies that were coming their way. Eventually,…

After Aristagoras, the tyrant of Miletus, failed to add Naxos to his domain, he began a revolt against the Persian Empire. The revolt ended after six years in a major naval defeat near Miletus and the the rebels were punished severely; King Darius I desired to avenge the disrespect towards his Empire, thus began to spread his Empire across all of Greece (BHAG p. 139-141). A memorable moment in the history of the Persian army is The Battle of Thermopylae. Although this battle seemed to be in king…

Greek Battles The Battle of Thermopylae, was a battle between the Greeks and the Persians. Thermopylae was a mountain pass which led to many Greek cities. It was a part of the second invasion of the Persian Empire. The Persians invaded Greek cities to control more land. The Persian Empire was led by Xerxes, he ordered the attack. The Greeks cities fought against the Persians, the most know was Sparta. Sparta only had 300 solders called Spartans. The Spartans fought as a single unit, they were…

its military system, as it is crucial in protecting their land and keeping invaders and rebellions away. While most of the empires had similar military strategies and battle techniques, some of them progressed over time and advanced to newer, better technologies that would aid them during war. The pass of Thermopylae, a famous battle fought between the Greek polis Sparta versus the Persians shows how these new technologies and battle strategies, at that time, were advantageous or disadvantageous…

The purpose of this paper is to point out that the Greeks, during the Battle of Thermopylae, had resources at their disposal that would fall into today’s intelligence disciplines of Counter Intelligence and Human Intelligence (CI/HUMINT), Signals Intelligence (SIGINT), and even Geospatial Intelligence (GEOINT). The outcome at Thermopylae could have been altered had the Greeks taken complete advantage of their assets capabilities. This paper will go into detail about how the Spartans could…

Narrative essay: Battle of Thermopylae The earth was shivering because of the thousands and thousands of feet heading our way. Luckily for me, the leader of the Spartan army has not one ounce of fear in my body, I do understand that there are tens of thousands of persians heading our way but I remember the day that I Hand selected 300 of my best trained, bloodthirsty soldiers along with them we have 7,000 soldiers from the mighty Athens to fight with us. Over a hill in the distance I could…

The Movie 300 and the Real Battle of Thermopylae The Battle of Thermopylae. There may be some people who have never heard about it before, but it was the kind of battle that people made movies out of. The movie 300 was made in 2006 and is a retelling of this famous battle during the Persian Wars in 479 BC. This battle is of important significance due to the intensity of the battle itself and the outcome. This is the battle where 300 Spartans were lead into battle by King Leonidas of Sparta.…

Terrain As the battle of Thermopylae took place in the northern part of Greece, this naturally meant that the battle itself took place in the Spartan’s homeland. This therefore meant that the Spartans knew the terrain much better than what the Persian army would have. This is evident from Leonida’s battle which is featured within the film 300. This showed that the Spartans knew where would be best to lure the Persians in and where they would stand a better chance which is also evident due to…

Thermopylae was a natural choke point and had been the site of other battles like that of the 300 Spartans (Taylor 123). Antiochus’ army is formed of 14,500 men including 10,000 of his own infantry, 500 cavalry and, 4,000 of the Aetolian leagues’ and other allies (Taylor 124). The Roman army of 22,000 engaged the Seleucid one by initially driving Antiochus’ allies from the mountains bordering the pass (Appian, S.18). Then the Roman army properly attacked the phalanx but before long the fleeing…