Battle of Thermopylae Overview

 For many reasons, it took more than a decade for Persia to resume its war to avenge its defeat in the marathon. In the meantime, King Darius died, and his successor Xerxes intended to prepare for a large-scale invasion of Greece and to occupy and annex the Greek mainland after suppressing the rebellion in the empire. However, the southern city-states formed the Hellenic Federation against foreigners in 418 B.C. The idea of countering the Persian invasion in Athens was swift and almost voluntary. It was obvious that the Persian revenge would be concentrated in Athens. B.C. A large-scale plan to build warships in the late 480s allowed Athens to deploy 200 ships.  In B.C.481, the Athenians passed the Edict of Temistocles, based on Temistocles' claim that they thought they would look into the future. A lithographic engraving of this was discovered in 1598. Temistocles knew that it was difficult to stop the Persian Army, so he insisted that the focus should be on maritime warfare. The Edict of Temistocles appealed to focus all-out efforts on the introduction of Athenian citizens and the defense of the sea. Athens, which routinely focused so much on revolutionary maritime defense strategies in the era of dense armored infantry wars, not only tells how desperate the situation was at the time, but also shows Temistocles' ability to predict the strategic nature of the future war. The Persian threat made a dramatic alternative necessary. Religion also played an important role in making Athenian resolutions. The adoption of the maritime strategy was also a response to Apollo's trust in Delphi. When Xerxes' invasion became certain, the Athenians consulted him. Trusts are as follows.   The wooden walls will be safe for you and your descendants. Don't wait for the horse's hooves to step on. Don't expect any infantry coming on land. Turn your backs against your enemies and retreat.             Delphi's trust was sometimes ambiguous, but Temistocles persuaded the Athenians to be the warships of the fleet called wooden walls. The decision to introduce the city and rely on the fleet was made before the first meeting of the Hellenic Federation. The Athenians were able to delay the introduction when other Greek countries agreed to block the Persian army from the north. However, they did not give up their belief in the navy. The new allies - including Athens, Sparta and Corinth - pledged to cooperate under Sparta's overall command. Sparta's reputation for its commercial spirit and strong military power made Sparta the only option. After the unification of command and control, mainland Greeks were able to benefit from the weaknesses of the Ionian rebels in the past. In the spring of 480 B.C., Xerxes, who prepared 200,000 or more troops, began marching toward Greece. He rushed to Hellespont, connected the bridge with a warship, and crossed it. The Greeks would have had no choice but to admire the Persian Army's engineering skills far beyond what they had ever known. The Persian strategy was to push into mainland Greece with a huge army that the Greeks could not possibly think of as successful. Such an invasion was impossible to land everyone. The interdependence between the Persian Army and the fleet allowed Temistocles and the Athenians to have the idea that victory could be achieved in maritime battles. If the Persian fleet was defeated, it would force the army to retreat. However, Athens could not convince Sparta and other city-states of the wisdom of this strategy. From the outset, the Spartans were convinced that the best strategy was to build a wall across Corinth's East Moose, and to prevent the invasion of the Persian army by placing Greek allies behind it. Sparta had to put this plan aside, particularly by the city-states, who had not forgotten that some of their allies were further north than the line, and because of some remarkable political complexities. Sparta's enthusiasm for attack and its Northern strategy were limited, and Sparta, a master of armored infantry, could not agree with Athens to risk all its fate in the naval battle. However, Sparta agreed to send an army to the northern border of Thessaly. It was also a decision made because of the possibility of continuing to secure Thessaly's loyalty by doing so. However, when the troops reached Tempe, the position proved to be defenseless, and the allies retreated. After that, the allies decided to prevent the cruel advance of Xerxes' army by deploying an army to Thermopylae. There was a small passage connecting the mountains and the sea in Thermopylae, a path that was likely to be invaded by the Persian army. In the sea outside Artemisium, the Greek navy was able to stop the Persian navy, and this strategy was just to stop the giant of Persia from advancing. If the Greeks were able to stop Xerxes' attack, the Greeks could reasonably assume that Xerxes might give up the invasion. for it was strategically impossible for King Xerxes to keep the Persian forces and fleet in northern Greece for a long time. If the invasion had been delayed, it would have caused great problems for Persia. Looking back later, it was undoubtedly too naive of the Greeks to think that they could stop a powerful Persian attack from Thermopylae. However, in many ways, Thermopylae and Artemisium were the most ideal places for the Hellenic Federation countries to choose. The path of Thermopylae was in some parts only enough for a wagon to pass through. The Persians were unable to expand their combat ships in such areas, and in such areas, the long-term presidential election would lead to waste of manpower. Similarly, in the narrow sea outside Artemisium, light, fast, and more numerous Persian fleet warships (1,200 three-stage routes) could be blocked by Greek warships (325 three-stage routes). The 7,000 Greek troops, led by Leonidas, king of Sparta, camped on the road. It was not until Leonidas got there that he noticed a plan that the Persian army would use to encircle him and attack his rear. (The translation was strange, meaning he was concerned that the Persian might enter there.) Leonidas had 1,000 troops guard the path. When Xerxes' army reached the main aisle, Xerxes could not believe that so few troops were coming to block the way, and waited for four days, expecting the Greek army to step down on its own rather than fight. The Confederate army of southern Greece was terrified and urged to retreat to Istmus, but Leonidas knew that if Sparta did not show genuine efforts to block this passage, the Greeks in the north might surrender to Persia or Medize, which the Greeks referred to as Persia. So he kept his troops quiet, asked for support, and prepared to defend his position. Unable to endure the delay in time, Xerxes decided to break the way with troops. On the fifth day, the Persian army began marching down a narrow aisle, and in this narrow area, they found that they could not encircle the Greeks and that they could not withstand the battle of the heavily armed Greek armored infantry. The Greek army had a longer spear and was well trained in how to use it.  On the first day of the battle, Xerxes lost 10,000 troops and was unable to push Leonidas and his troops out despite the Persian forces with whips pushing them from behind. Herodotus describes Leonidas as using deceptive tactics to attract the Persian army to a more disadvantageous terrain.    The Spartan soldiers fought well in a way that was worth recording, and they showed that they had a much better battle record than the enemy. Sometimes by turning their backs, they seemed to escape all of them, and by making the barbarians scream loudly and follow along, the Spartans rounded up as they approached and destroyed many of their enemies by attacking them head-on. The next day, Xerxes thought that the Greek Army would be very tired of the previous day's battle, and that he would be able to send in troops that had not suffered from the battle.  However, Leonidas was able to subdue the Persian army on the first day because he allowed his troops to rest at regular intervals by sending the expeditionaries supported by the allies into battle one after another.   At this point, the Greek deception worked. That night a traitor of the Greek soldiers appeared and fled to the camp of Xerxes with the ambition to receive compensation from Xerxes, telling him of a secret passage to where he could attack the rear of the Greek position. Xerxes moved his troops through this road during the night. At dawn, the Persian soldiers could reach the top of the mountain, and when Leonidas, who was stationed there first, detected the poison of the Persian arrow, they retreated to a higher place to defend their position.The Persian army ignored it completely and instead attacked the Greek soldiers stationed on the coast. The scouts told Leonidas about the Persian maneuvers, and Leonidas decided to retreat most of the other troops elsewhere and remained heroically there with 300 Spartans and hundreds of reinforcements to protect the rear of the retreating troops. It was his duty, and he fulfilled his duty faithfully.

In the famous battle of the third day Leonidas fell, and the two younger brothers of Xerxes were also killed. In the attack from both the front and the rear, the Greek soldiers were wiped out, and later, in honor of their honor, monuments were erected there. The tombstone was engraved in the following inscription. "Go to Sparta and say, Gilded Son," "We lie here to be loyal to Sparta's orders," the battle of Thermopylae was worthy of Sparta's legend. Soldiers surrounded by enemy forces without a chance sometimes fight tough battles. However, this is an exception. In general, they are destroyed. The last battle of Spartan soldiers is unusual because the best soldiers fought for their lives in suicide-like situations to protect the retreating soldiers under Leonidas' orders and did not disperse their formation.  This battle is a perfect testimony to the training and discipline of the Spartan military system. This is what most Greeks admit, and is sometimes ignored as a fanciful and romantic event by rationalist historians. Most of the troops would collapse even if Spartan troops faced a much weaker threat than they faced in Thermopylae. Meanwhile, according to Herodotus, the Greek Navy challenged the Persian Navy in the Artemisium Sea for three days, as in the Battle of Thermopylae... and then omitted... Arthur Ferrill, where the "Door of Fire" was introduced below, so I moved on to the Battle of Thermopylae.   In a way, it seems similar to the Japanese Invasion of Korea in 1592. The difference is whether the king takes the lead or fights.