Just Finished Reading: Thermopylae – The Battle that Changed the World by Paul Cartledge (FP: 2006) [220pp] 

Revenge – it was that simple. After Athens aided the rebellion of Greek cities at the edge of the Persian empire and then defeated his father Darius at Marathon it was time for payback. Xerxes, King of Kings, would make the Greeks pay and would add more provinces in his westward expansion into Europe. With millions of men to draw on the result was already ordained – the Greeks would fall and honour would be satisfied. As a vast army was assembling in Persia rumours of the forthcoming attack reaching the city-states on the Greek mainland. But even at this juncture the always argumentative Greeks could barely agree on a response, a plan or even whether to join forces at all. Some cities refused to fight alongside their enemies, others simply refused to fight at all against seemingly impossible odds. Two cities – Athens and Sparta who between them headed the best naval and land forces available – called for allies. After days of debate, it was decided that a stand would be taken but first the armies of Xerxes must be delayed in their advance. The most logical location to stem such an advance was at the ‘hot gates’ at Thermopylae. King Leonidas and his personal bodyguard of 300 Spartans would form the hard core of the defence, aided by units from allied cities across Greece. In all over 3000 Greeks would face up to 250,000 Persians. Although the Greeks ultimately lost the battle – rather inevitably given the disparity in numbers – both the delay caused to the Persian advance and the example of Greeks fighting together and holding back an avalanche of enemy forces, no matter how temporary, solidified the subsequent resistance to Persian domination and has echoed down the centuries as a classic and heroic ‘last stand’ against impossible, truly staggering, odds. 

To be honest, most of my ‘knowledge’ of Thermopylae up to this point was brief mentions in other history books, the novel by Steven Pressfield and the movie 300. So, it was good to finally read about the actual history of the event. Interestingly, Spartan sources are rather scarce as the Spartans themselves only practiced one ‘art’ above all others – war. So, any contemporary (or close contemporary) texts are generally Athenian. The author admits that the sources we do have can be problematic, especially for an event that happened at the very edge of history itself, but that there is general agreement on what happened during the battle itself as well as afterwards as the war with Persia progressed until the final encounter at Platea.  

I think it might be overstating things, at least a little, to say that Thermopylae was one of the most important battles in western history. Its importance is, and was, largely symbolic. But without that defeat and subsequent victories against the Persians the history of the West might have been very different. It would be a world without the example of Greek democracy and without the flowering of Greek culture that followed the rise of Athens after the defeat of Xerxes. If you’ve heard of the battle or maybe even seen 300 at the movies and wondered what all the fuss was about, this is the book for you. Recommended for all Ancient History buffs.