SPARTAN Vs PERSI

7/30/2019 SPARTAN Vs PERSI

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/spartan-vs-persi 1/1

The 300 Spartans were not alone in thisbattle. On the first day, the Spartans took thefront line. On the second day, the other Greek

contingents were rotated into the front line, taking their turn beatingoff attack after attack.

A Greek traitor named Ephialtes did assist the Persians.When his treachery was discovered, Leonidas ordered the bulkof his army to escape so they could fight again. When Leonidasand his 300 stayed to cover their retreat, they were joined by700 men from Thespiae who considered it an honor to die fightingbeside Spartans.

What startedthe war?

In the movie, King Leonidas

of Sparta provokes the invasionof Greece. When asked by anenvoy of the Persian king Xerxesfor a small amount of Spartanearth and water as a token of submission, Leonidas tells himhe will find both at the bottomof a well — then pushes him in.This is said to have occurredabout a year before the Battleof Thermopylae in 480 B.C.

The Spartans actually did throw Persian diplomats down a well.

But they did it at least 10 years earlier, before the Persian kingDarius invaded Greece in 490 B.C. What provoked Xerxes’ invasionwas not Sparta but Athens, which supported the rebellion of Greek cities in Asia Minor against Persia in 499 B.C.

The rebellion was crushed, but according to the Greekhistorian Herodotus, Darius was furious that Athens had daredto assist the rebels. He sailed to Greece in 490 B.C. to punishAthens, but was defeated by the Athenians at the Battleof Marathon. Ten years later, when Darius’ son Xerxesresumed his father’s unfinished business with Greece,he didn’t bother to send envoys to Sparta and Athens.

Sure, it’s fun to watch 300 nearly naked Spartans — abandoned by the rest of Greece — ignoring their own battle tactics to fightoff a million i nvaders. But don’t mistake this for history. Here’s how Zack Snyder’s new movie “300” (based on Frank Miller’s

graphic novel) stacks up against the textbooks on what really happened 2,500 years ago at Thermopylae. (OK, 2,487 years.)

How big wasthe Persian

army?

The Persian messenger tellsLeonidas that Xerxes’ army is solarge that “it drinks rivers dry.”Leonidas says the Persians claimtheir forces number in themillions, but adds that theysurely exaggerate.

Why so few

Spartans?

The film says Leonidas cantake only 300 Spartans — hisbodyguards — to fight theinvaders because Persian agentshave bribed the high priests andSpartan council members to keepthe army at home. Leonidas’ wifespends much of the movie tryingto convince herfellow Spartansthat they mustfight for theirsurvival.

Did theSpartansfight and

die alone?

The 300Spartans takeon the entirePersian Empire by themselves,assisted only once by a few dozen

other Greeks. When the Greeksare betrayed by a Spartanhunchback named Ephialtes, whoshows the Persians a goat pathto circumvent the pass, the otherGreeks leave the 300 to their fate.

Xerxes spent more than four years gatheringsoldiers and supplies from every corner of the Persian Empire. Herodotus put thenumber at 2.6 million, but historians agreethat he exaggerated. Modern estimatesrange from 150,000 to 200,000 — stillan army of unprecedented size.

The real question for Sparta was not whether to fight, but where.Sparta and the other cities of the Peloponnesian Peninsula wanted toabandon northern Greece, and make their stand at the narrow Isthmusof Corinth. The Athenian leader Themistocles pushed for a defensefarther north, arguing that the key to defeating the Persian armywas destroying its fleet. The invading force was too large to liveoff the land, and would starve without thousands of supply ships.

The Spartan council of elders eventually supportedThemistocles’ plan, but onlyhalfheartedly. Citing the religiouscustom banning the use of the armyduring the festival of Carneia, thecouncil gave Leonidas only 300Spartans to join a force of about 7,000Greek soldiers that was to delay thePersian army at the narrow pass atThermopylae while a Greek navy fought thePersian fleet at nearby Artemisium. The Greeknavy fought ferociously but could not defeatthe much larger Persian flotilla.

How didthe Greeks

finallydefeat thePersians?

Before the 300 aresurrounded, Leonidas sends oneof his soldiers back to Spartato tell the story and to rally allof Greece to the cause of fighting for its freedom. A yearlater, a unified Greek a rmy of 30,000 — led by 10,000

Spartans — defeats thePersians at the Battle of Plataea.

After the defeat at Thermopylae, the Greek fleet withdrew andthe Greek army retreated to the Isthmus of Corinth for its last stand.Athens, which had been evacuated, was burned by the Persians. Afew weeks later, Themistocles managed to lure the huge Persian fleetinto the narrow channel between the Island of Salamis and the Greekmainland. Here the Persians couldn’t take advantage of their superiornumbers, and half their fleet was destroyed by the Greeks.

Knowing his army would starve without his supply ships, Xerxes took

most of his army back to Asia. The much smaller Persian force that stayedin Greece was destroyed the following year at Plataea. Most historiansagree that the turning point in the Greek-Persian War was the naval victoryat Salamis. It was also a turning point in Western civilization, for apartfrom their contributions to literature, architecture, philosophy and the arts,the ancient Greeks were in the process of inventing democracy.

In the movie, theking of Sparta isplayed by theScottish-bornactor GerardButler.

Leonidas

In the movie, only theking’s helmet has a

decorative crest on top.

Greek helmets in this era all had crests,frequently of horsehair, to make the

soldier look taller and more imposing.

Primarily, they fight witha spear, usually thrustingit, and occasionallythrowing it. Shortswords also are used.

The primary weapon of the Spartan wasthe thrusting spear. It was never thrown(although javelins were). Normally, he usedhis sword only if his spear broke.

HELMET

WEAPONS

BODY ARMOR

VS.

The Athenianleader andarchitect of theGreek victoryover Persia.

Themistocles

The Spartans of “300”fight bare-chested,with metal protection

only below the knees.

Although Spartans exercised and competedin games naked, it is unlikely that theywent into battle that way. Chest armorwas used, as were bronze shin protectors.Strips of leather hanging from the waistgave some protection to the groin.

 A  e     g    

e    a     n    S      e      a      

 I           o       n       i         a      n     

S     e    a    

Sparta

CorinthPELOPONNESUS

ThermopylaeArtemisium

Salamis I  sland Salamis Island 

Plataea

Persian army Persian navy

0

Miles

50

Athens

HELMET

WEAPONS

BODY ARMOR

Hollywood Spartan Historic Spartan

Did thePersian

army havesoldiers called“Immortals”?

The film depicts gruesome,deformed men with sharpenedteeth wearing silver masks whoare Xerxes’ much-feared,undefeated elite troops. Leonidastells the Spartans that they willput the names of these“Immortals” to the test.

The Persian army did have a division of 10,000 elite soldiersthat Herodotus called the Immortals because if any died inbattle, they were immediately replaced — never a llowing theirnumber to drop below 10,000. According to relief sculptures inthe ruins of Persepolis (the capital of ancient Persia), they werearmed with a spear, a bow and a quiver of arrows. They servedas the king’s bodyguards and the core of the army. Used againstthe Greeks at Thermopylae after lesser units failed, they alsowere repulsed with heavy casualties.

DOES THE FILM MATCH THE FACTS?

HISTORYHISTORY

Sources: Andrew B. Jordan and Jonathon W. Jordan, “Triumphot the Trireme” (The Quarterly Journal of Military History);David Frye, “Spartan Stand at Thermopylae” (Military History);John Keegan, “A History of Warfare”

Story and illustrations by Doug Griswold — Mercury News

Did the Spartans fight like that?

In the movie, Leonidas explains that the strengthof the Spartans comes from the phalanx — theformation of men in a row with overlapping shields,forming a single impenetrable unit. Though theSpartans in “300” start the battle this way, beforelong they are rushing forward to fight as individuals.

In reality, the phalanx had to stay together. Themen in the phalanx, bearing 70 pounds of armorand weapons, would push against the enemy line,thrusting their long spears over their shields at anypatch of unprotected flesh, while the ranks of theircomrades pushed at their backs. If the phalanxbroke, defeat was inevitable.