Battle of Thermopylae

Question 1

What was the date?

Answer 1

August 480 BC

Question 2

Where was it located?

Answer 2

• The Pass of Thermopylae
• On the Malian Gulf in Mainland Greece

Question 3

Side 1:

Answer 3

• Resistance force made up of soldiers from around 30 allied Greek city states
• Approx. 7000 soldiers
• Led by the Spartan King Leonidas and 300 Spartan warriors

Question 4

Side 2:

Answer 4

• Invading Persian force
• Led by Xerxes, the King of the Persian Empire
• Estimates of the army range from 30,000-700,000 men

Question 5

Who are the key individuals?

Answer 5

Xerxes
Demaratus
Leonidas
Ephialtes
Dienekes

Question 6

What are the main causes for this battles?

Answer 6

• Greeks wanting to protect their culture from barbarians
• Persians wanting to expand their Empire for economic purposes
• Xerxes wanting to prove himself, and take revenge on Greeks after they fought off his father’s attempts at invasion
• Greeks wanted to defend their cities by delaying advance of Persian army

Question 7

What happened in 499 BCE?

Answer 7

• Greeks in the Ionia region, who were a part of the Persian Empire rose up against Persian rule
• Known as the Ionian revolt
• Athens and other Greek city states went to help them, but the revolt was put down in 494 BCE

Question 8

Why was the Ionian revolt significant?

Answer 8

• It was the first major conflict between the Greeks and the Persians
• King Darius vowed to get revenge on Athens and developed a plan to conquer all Greeks in an attempt to ensure the stability of his Empire

Question 9

What did King Darius do?

Answer 9

• Waged the first Greco-Persian war from 492-90 BC
• His invasion of Greece was turned back after a significant victory at the Battle of Marathon

Question 10

What did the Persian empire not want to do to the Greeks?

Answer 10

• They didn’t want to enslave them or destroy their clture

Question 11

What was the Battle of Thermopylae an attempt to do and why?

Answer 11

• Attempted to delay the advance of the Persian army
• Xerxes’ army had supplies brought to them by ship, which they wouldn’t be able to do in winter due to stormy conditions
• By holding the Persian’s back, the Greeks wanted to make a swift conquest impossible so they had time to evacuate their cities

Question 12

What did the Greeks do whilst they waited for the Persians?

Answer 12

• Built a wall across the Thermopylae pass
• Xerxes expected the Greeks to run in fear when they arrived, but they didn’t, which resulted in a 4 day standoff
• During this standoff, the Spartans exercised and combed one another’s hair, to prepare for a beautiful death

Question 13

What happened after Xerxes sent a herald to the Spartans to demand their surrender?

Answer 13

• Xerxes warned that the Greeks couldn’t resist, and that his army was so vast that their arrows would block out the sun
• Dienekes, a Spartan officer told the herald ‘All the better. Then we shall fight in the shade!’

Question 14

What happened on the first day of fighting?

Answer 14

• The Persians didn’t fight in any particular formation, so suffered great losses at the hands of the Greek phalanxes
• In the afternoon, Xerxes ordered his elite troops, called the Immortals to attack, but they also were no match for the Greeks

Question 15

What happened on the second day of fighting?

Answer 15

• The Greeks continued being able to hold the Persians back
• However, a local Greek man called Ephialtes went to Xerxes and told him about another mountain pass that he could use to get around the Greeks
• Xerxes sent a large number of his troops through the mountain pass, and the Greek scouts were forced to retreat to warn Leonidas

Question 16

What happened after the scouts warned Leonidas of the incoming Persians?

Answer 16

• Leonidas sent the majority of the Greek soldiers away
• He stayed behind with 300 Spartans
• 700 Thespians, 400 Thebans and some perioikoi and helots also stayed behind

Question 17

What happened on the third day of fighting?

Answer 17

• The Persians reached the Greek camp
• The Thebans surrendered, but the Spartans fought to the death

Question 18

How did the choice of battlefield help the Greeks

Answer 18

• It was a natural bottle neck, which meant the Persians couldn’t all get through at once, so couldn’t outflank the Phalanxes

Question 19

What tactics did the Greeks use in battle?

Answer 19

• On day 2, they pretended to run away to lure the Persians after them, then turned around suddenly in Phalanx formation
• They rotated the lines of the Phalanx, giving those at the front a chance to rest, and the ones behind a chance to prove themselves in battle

Question 20

What did Leonidas do during the battle?

Answer 20

• Fought from the front, with his men in the Phalanx
• Eventually, he fought to the death

Question 21

What motivations could Leonidas have had to fight to the death?

Answer 21

• He wanted a beautiful death in battle
• If he didn’t stay with the rest of the Spartans, he would been seen a coward
• Helped to keep the alliance intact between all the different Greek city states by proving his dedication to their cause, as the Spartans didn’t fight at Marathon

Question 22

What were the outcomes of the battle?

Answer 22

• All 300 spartans were killed
• Xerxes was so angry at the delay that he ordered Leonidas’ body to be mutilated
• The Persians were delayed by a week
• Athens was abandoned and the population was moved to safety on the island of Salamis

Question 23

How was the battle commemorated?

Answer 23

• Herodotus’ Histories (Pro-Greek bias)

Question 24

What do Herodotus’ Histories show?

Answer 24

• Greek bravery (Delphic Oracle gave Greeks no positive outcome for battle yet they still fought’
• Greek’s duty to their state and Gods (Leonidas willing to go into battle even though he knows he must die, and Greeks conferring with Delphic oracle for opinion)
• Greeks made to seem more dutiful than Perisians (Said that they revered the law more than the Persians revered their leader)
• Sense of pride surrounding war and the sacrifices made (Inscription set up0

Question 25

What were the short-term consequences of the battle?

Answer 25

• Athens rebuilt
• Gave the Greeks confidence to fight at Salamis
• Pressed their advantage at the Battle of Plataea, which ended the Persian invasion

Question 26

What were the long-term consequences?

Answer 26

• Motivated young Spartan warriors to train hard
• Proved that Lycurgus’ rules were effective
• Spartan warriors became heroes