War-memorial inscription in the pass of Thermopyplai:
Against three million men fought in this place
Four thousand Peloponnesians, face to face. (322)Tell them in Lakedaimon, passer by:
Carrying out their orders, here we lie.
Aeschylus present at Salamis, numbers Xerxes fleet at a round thousand.
1,700,000 infantry, 80,000 cavalry, 20,000 camel-corps and chariots,
300,000 the Thracians and Greeks picked up in Europe 200,000 men
Leonidas tried to send Megistias south with the retreating column,
but he declined to leave Leonidas. However, he sent away his only son,
who was serving with the army.’
Simonides of Keos inscribed these lines for his friend:
Here great Megistias lies, whom Median men
Killed when they crossed Spercheios; who that day,
Seer as he was, with Sparta’s captains then
Knew what was coming, and preferred to stay. (422)
Herodotus enumerates 46 nations, under thirty Persian generals, 6 marshals
Xerxes – the foolish tyrant, who waits four days for the enemy to run
away, who ‘leaps from his throne in terror for his army’, whose troops
are not better than he deserves… slaves driven with whips to the
slaughter “many bodies, but few men”. On the Greek side, the allies,
except the Thespians, are fainthearted or worse.
The Medes swept forward; but when they clashed with the Hellenes,
they fell fast; but more came on after them, and they did not draw off,
though they were losing heavily; and the made it clear to all, and more
especially to the King, that there were not many men in all that mass of
humanity. (Heordotus, 210, 412)
The Medes withdrew and in their place advanced the Persians, whom the
king called ‘The Immortals’. These were under the command of
Hydarnes. But they fared no better against the Spartans.
Spartans were masters of war – pretended flights, all at once; –
“when just being overtaken, they would turn and face them; and in these
about-turns they cut down Persians beyond counting.
“During these attacks it is said that the king, as he watched, three
times sprang up from his throne in fear for his army.” (412)
The Spartans were finally overcome when Ephialtes of Malis showed the
persians a secret path. This path, says Herodotus, ”begins from the
River Asopos’ and stretches along the spine of the mountains, although
there is some debate about its exact route. After an all-night march
the crack troops of the Persian guard happened upon… whom Leoniadas
posted. They were cut down by Persian arrows and retreated, leaving the
way open for the Persians to continue.
War-memorial inscription in the pass of Thermopyplai:
Against three million men fought in this place
Four thousand Peloponnesians, face to face. (322)Tell them in Lakedaimon, passer by:
Carrying out their orders, here we lie.
Aeschylus present at Salamis, numbers Xerxes fleet at a round thousand.
1,700,000 infantry, 80,000 cavalry, 20,000 camel-corps and chariots,
300,000 the Thracians and Greeks picked up in Europe 200,000 men
Leonidas tried to send Megistias south with the retreating column,
but he declined to leave Leonidas. However, he sent away his only son,
who was serving with the army.’
Simonides of Keos inscribed these lines for his friend:
Here great Megistias lies, whom Median men
Killed when they crossed Spercheios; who that day,
Seer as he was, with Sparta’s captains then
Knew what was coming, and preferred to stay. (422)
Herodotus enumerates 46 nations, under thirty Persian generals, 6 marshals
Xerxes – the foolish tyrant, who waits four days for the enemy to run
away, who ‘leaps from his throne in terror for his army’, whose troops
are not better than he deserves… slaves driven with whips to the
slaughter “many bodies, but few men”. On the Greek side, the allies,
except the Thespians, are fainthearted or worse.
The Medes swept forward; but when they clashed with the Hellenes,
they fell fast; but more came on after them, and they did not draw off,
though they were losing heavily; and the made it clear to all, and more
especially to the King, that there were not many men in all that mass of
humanity. (Heordotus, 210, 412)
The Medes withdrew and in their place advanced the Persians, whom the
king called ‘The Immortals’. These were under the command of
Hydarnes. But they fared no better against the Spartans.
Spartans were masters of war – pretended flights, all at once; –
“when just being overtaken, they would turn and face them; and in these
about-turns they cut down Persians beyond counting.
“During these attacks it is said that the king, as he watched, three
times sprang up from his throne in fear for his army.” (412)
The Spartans were finally overcome when Ephialtes of Malis showed the
persians a secret path. This path, says Herodotus, ”begins from the
River Asopos’ and stretches along the spine of the mountains, although
there is some debate about its exact route. After an all-night march
the crack troops of the Persian guard happened upon… whom Leoniadas
posted. They were cut down by Persian arrows and retreated, leaving the
way open for the Persians to continue.