This year is the 2,500th anniversary of the Battle of Thermopylae, when the Spartan king Leonidas and around 5,000 Greek warriors stood boldly against hundreds of thousands of invaders led by the Persian king Xerxes. For two whole days, Leonidas and his men held off the Persians at a narrow pass in central Greece, killing tens of thousands of Xerxesā men. When Leonidas learned that Xerxes had found a way to circumvent his position he dismissed most of his men,...
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In early June of 480 B.C., a mighty Persian army crossed the Dardanelles strait on two pontoon bridges to continue a brutal advance into Greece. Led by the great king Xerxes, the troops were bound for Thermopylae, a narrow mountain pass named for the areaās hot sulphur springs (Thermopylae means āhot gatesā). Seated on the east coast of Greece, between the Malian Gulf and the Kallidromo massif, some 85 miles (136 km) northwest of Athens, it is a rugged, craggy...
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The theory of the Spartan Mirage was first coined by Francois Ollier in the 1930s. Francois Ollier was a French historian who published a book titled āLe Mirage Spartiateā. The book outlined the effect of distortion of Sparta found in ancient writers like Xenophon, Plutarch, and Herodotus. These books have created a picture that the Spartan society was equal and united. The theory states that the perception of Sparta is distorted by sources written by non-Spartans. These writers either idealized...
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The battle of Thermopylae, under the king Xerxes (486-456 BC) the Great son of Darius the Great, was another victory for Persians in the fifth century. The Persians were advancing on the battleground with their full might. Five million, two hundred and eighty-three thousand, two hundred and twenty men excluding the cooks, women, and concubines were ready for an assault on Greeks who were led by Leonidas I (Herodotus VII, 186). The Greeks were less than half of the total...
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Ancient Greek warfare and conflict was a common reoccurrence during archaic and classical periods due to the fact that the city states were quarrelsome whether it be because of religious difference ( the worshiping of different Greek gods) , political and philosophical differences. The common soldiery of ancient Greece were free citizens primary consisted of farmers or members of society with low social standing (not like those of mathematicians and philosophers whom had high statuses). Many of the solidary and...
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The great Battle of Thermopylae and the valiant fight of 300 fearless Spartans under the command of warrior King Leonidas against 10,000 elite Persian soldiers is one of the most brilliant moments in ancient Greeceās history. And in retrospect, it proved to be no less than a fight for the defense of Western Civilization itself. Although the battle itself was lost, the war was won. The Battle of Thermopylae also provided great tales of bravery and patriotism for many Greek...
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