History Channel Decisive Battles E02, The stand of the 300 Spartans against the Persians hordes, Thermopylae, Greek (August/September 480 BC)

Belligerents
Athens, Sparta and Greek city-states aliies	Persian Empire
Commanders and leaders
Themistocles, King Leonidas I †,, Demophilus †	King Xerxes I of Persia, Mardonius, Hydarnes
Strength of the armies
Total 5,200+ (Herodotus), 7,400+ (Diodorus), 11,200 (Pausanias)	Total 2,600,000 (Herodotus) ~800,000 (Ctesias) 70,000–300,000 (modern estimates)
Casualties and losses
4,000 (Herodotus)	~20,000 (Herodotus)

The Greek city-states of Athens and her allies had supported the failed Ionian Revolt against the Persian Empire of Darius in 499–494 BC. The Persian Empire was still relatively young, and prone to revolts amongst its subject peoples. Darius, moreover, was a usurper, and had spent considerable time extinguishing revolts against his rule. The Ionian revolt threatened the integrity of his empire, and Darius thus vowed to punish those involved (especially those not already part of the empire). Darius also saw the opportunity to expand his empire into the fractious world of Ancient Greece. A preliminary expedition under Mardonius in 492 BC to secure the land approaches to Greece re-conquered Thrace, and forced Macedon to become a client kingdom of Persia.

Darius sent emissaries to all the Greek city-states in 491 BC asking for a gift of 'earth and water' in token of their submission to him. Having had a demonstration of his power the previous year, the majority of Greek cities duly obliged. In Athens, however, the ambassadors were put on trial and then executed by throwing them in a pit; in Sparta, they were simply thrown down a well. This meant that Sparta was also effectively at war with Persia.

Darius therefore began raising a huge new army with which he meant to completely subjugate Greece; however, in 486 BC, his Egyptian subjects revolted, indefinitely postponing any Greek expedition. Darius then died whilst preparing to march on Egypt, and the throne of Persia passed to his son Xerxes I (518-465 BC). Xerxes crushed the Egyptian revolt, and very quickly restarted the preparations for the invasion of Greece. Since this was to be a full scale invasion, it required long-term planning, stock-piling and conscription. Xerxes decided that the Hellespont would be bridged to allow his army to cross to Europe, and that a canal should be dug across the isthmus of Mount Athos (rounding which headland, a Persian fleet had been destroyed in 492 BC). These were both feats of exceptional ambition, which would have been beyond any other contemporary state. By early 480 BC, the preparations were complete, and the army which Xerxes had assembled in Sardis (Asian Greek) into Europe, crossing the Hellespont (between Istambul and Northwestern Turkey) upon two floating bridges.

The Athenians had also been preparing for war with the Persians since the mid-480s BC, and in 482 BC the decision was taken, under the guidance of the Athenian politician Themistocles, to build a massive fleet of triremes that would be necessary for the Greeks to fight the Persians. However, the Athenians did not have the manpower to fight on land and sea; and therefore combating the Persians would require an alliance of Greek city states. In 481 BC, Xerxes sent ambassadors around Greece asking for 'earth and water' — a traditional token of submission — but making the very deliberate omission of Athens and Sparta. Support thus began to coalesce around these two leading states. A congress of city states met at Corinth in late autumn of 481 BC, and a confederate alliance of Greek city-states was formed. It had the power to send envoys asking for assistance and to dispatch troops from the member states to defensive points after joint consultation. This was remarkable for the disjointed Greek world, especially since many of the city-states in attendance were still technically at war with each other.

The 'congress' met again in the spring of 480 BC. A Thessalian delegation suggested that the Greeks could muster in the narrow Vale of Tempe, on the borders of Thessaly, and over there would block the Xerxes' advance. A force of 10,000 hoplites it was sent to the Vale of Tempe (east north-east, a riven going to Aegean Sea), through which they believed the Persian army would have to pass. However, once there, they were warned by Alexander I of Macedon (498 – 454 BC) that the vale could be by passed through the Sarantoporo Pass (main route from Larisa through the mountains to the coast), and that the army of Xerxes was overwhelming, the Greeks retreated. Shortly afterwards, they received the news that Xerxes had crossed the Hellespont.

A second strategy was therefore suggested by Themistocles to the Greeks. The route to southern Greece (Boeotia, Attica and the Peloponnesus) would require the army of Xerxes to travel through the very narrow pass of Thermopylae, "the hot gateways" (eastern central Greece on the only land route large enough to bear any significant traffic between Lokris [north of Tebas lands] and Thessaly). This could easily be blocked by the Greek hoplites, despite the overwhelming numbers of Persians. Furthermore, to prevent the Persians by passing Thermopylae by sea, the Athenian and allied navies could block the straits of Artemisium. This dual strategy was adopted by the congress.

Now you are about to see the view that the generals wish to have, and see the stronghold of few heavily armed greek soldiers against the overwhelming army for different provinces submitted by Persia, fight will decide the future of Sparta and the rest of city-states of Greek, and the world will not be the same before!