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Thread: What went wrong? The real story of the Battle of Thermopyle

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    What went wrong? The real story of the Battle of Thermopyle

    What went wrong? The real story of the Battle of Thermopyle

    This is an interesting article into the famous battle, but goes future and pokes holes in the official story. I always wondered by the Greeks did not defend the Anopea atrapos (the mountain path used to encircle the Greeks).

    In 480 BC, an enormous Persian army under the chief command of Emperor Xerxes (son of Darius the Great) campaigned against Thessaly in central Greece. Mainly they fought against the southern mostly democratic and independent city/states. The army numbered more than 300,000 men.

    The Hellenes initially decided to defend themselves in Tempe valley (next to Mount Olympus) by sending about 10,000 fighters. Yet, a couple of months later they concluded that it was better to stand at the Thermopylae straits (about 150 km (93 miles) to the north of Athens), where, however, only a total of 7,000 hoplites could gather.
    Encirclement could not be avoided by the 4th day. It occurred on the Kallidromon Mountain, via the so-called Anopea atrapos (a very rough and narrow path about 20 km (12.43 miles) long). This path runs parallel to the south of the Thermopylae straits.

    Herodotus wrote that this path was revealed to Xerxes by a local shepherd named Ephialtes, the son of Eurydemos (to be distinguished from the democratic politician Ephialtes son of Sofonides and Pericles’ mentor). Even today, blame is still focused on the shepherd Ephialtes (as a scapegoat).


    It is also known that the path was defended by another 1,000 hoplites in Leonidas’ command from Phocis (Φωκίς) - a city that was under the surveillance of the Delphic oracle. The oracle had already “advised” the Athenians to “flee to the world’s end” - φεῦγ᾽ ἔσχατα γαίης δώματα - to escape the imperial troops.
    Questions left

    Examining the above events, some further questions and observations may arise:

    1) Why did Xerxes send “The Immortals” to start their march into the path a little before nightfall?


    2) Did he know that the atrapos was practically undefended?


    3) Did he somehow make an agreement with the Delphic oracle?


    4) Why did Leonidas have to be convinced by Locrians (Λοκροί) to stay and fight at Thermopylae instead of Corinth Isthmus (the so called “entrance” to Peloponnese), as he had initially planned?


    5) Did Xerxes come to any arrangement with the rulers of Phocis?


    6) Was the sacrifice at Thermopylae necessary according to Lacedaemon laws or did Leonidas feel responsible for not guarding the Anopea path?


    7) Why were only 300 Spartans sent to Thermopylae?


    8) Several times Leonidas asked for reinforcements, but without any result. Is it possible that the Sparta Ephores ordered him (as was written in the famous Thermopylae inscription: “…convinced by their orders… τοις κείνων ρήμασι πειθόμενοι) to die at Thermopylae?


    9) Could it be that the five Ephores planned Leonidas’ sacrifice due to political antagonism between Attica and Lacedaemon, perhaps also keeping in mind another Delphic saying about the necessity of a Sparta king’s death so their city could be saved? In such a case, the Thespians were sacrificed while defending their nearby city in order to delay Xerxes (even though it was just for a few hours to provide their relatives the necessary time to escape enslavement). On the other hand, Leonidas’ sacrifice was devoted entirely to the glory of Sparta.


    10) Besides rehabilitating their reputation from the late arrival of Spartans to the fight at the Marathon battle ten years earlier, did they also try imperceptibly to punish not only the “arrogant” but also “exceedingly” democratic Athenians at Thermopylae? (In this case Lacedaemon’s Ephores may have taken the deliberate risk to attain the Asian Empire’s regime, which was probably considered even closer than that of Athens).


    11) Could it have been due to a kind of political egoism that the Athenians trusted their political antagonists and did not send some hoplites to the straits of Kallidromon Mountain as well? Perhaps to not submit themselves to a Spartan king?


    12) Was Thermopylae a “lesson” that forced Athenians to follow the Spartans not only in their land forces but also in naval affairs a few weeks later?
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