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Strategic analysis of the battle of thermopylae
Conclusion paragraph on the battle of thermopylae
Conclusion paragraph on the battle of thermopylae
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The battle of Thermopylae, the name of the battle does not ring a bell in most people's ears. Recent movies have portrayed the events of the battle is a Hollywood exaggerated movie that left out a few key points. A search commenced shortly to find out what had actually happened during the battle, also, how close was the movie's story to the actual one. In J.D. Miller's article “Thermopylae” the entire pre-history as well as post-history can be seen. In 525 B.C. The Persian empire had grown from a small kingdom to an immense empire stretching from Troy to modern day Russia. King Darius was their leader at the time, strangely enough Darius was an imposter to the throne. When the previous king had passed into the next life Darius had pretended to be his brother and they all believed him. By 490 B.C. the new leader was Xerxes the famed god king. Xerxes had just come a victory at marathon and his troops were eager for another, the sight of the narrow pass between two mountains being defended by over seven thousand Greeks and three hundred Spartans. Over the course of two days the Persian army through everything they had at the Greeks defence. Xerxes knew that he needed a swift victory or his army of over two hundred thousand men and fifty thousand cavalry would run out of supplies very quickly. It was not until a Greek traitor went to Xerxes, telling him of a secret goat path that would lead his army behind the Greeks position. On the third day the battle was ended quickly as the Persian army surrounded the three hundred Spartans and four hundred free Greeks that stayed to ensure the retreat of the other Greeks. Looking at this article it is safe to say that the movie did portray some aspects very well. All of the... ... middle of paper ... ...ed failure very early in the battle. As I read these articles further as well as many others I found more and more to call out from the movie. Though all of my sources of information I have come across seemed to follow each other very well. As I expanded my base knowledge of the topic I found an endless stream of background information. At this point I forced myself to stop my search and came to the conclusion that around sixty percent of the movie was historically accurate. In conclusion, all of the research garnered left one question to be asked. What would have happened had there not been a Greek traitor, with all of the advanced armor, tactics, and supplies it is conceivable that the Greeks could have defeated the Persian army. If that had happened the Persians would not have burned through Greece and the future of possibly the world might be different.
The Greeks, who were made up of only 300 Spartans under the rule of Leonidas and about 7000, allied Greeks these included; Arcadia, Mantineans, Arcadian Orchomenus, Orchomenians, Corinth, Phlius, Mycenae, Boeotia, Thespians and Thebans, noted by Herodotus. Persians waited 3 days to march up to the Greeks to start the battle; they opened the battle by shooting arrows. The Greeks took it in turn to be in the front line of their phalanx and fought off wave
(http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/text?lookup-trm+ov+8.5&vers=engligh&browse+1). In conclusion, the Greeks defeated the Persians in the Persian Wars aided by unforgettable acts of heroism, divine support, and most importantly, Greek unity.
When the Persian fleet had arrived at Aphetae, Eurybides, the commander of the small amount of ships that Sparta had sent, wished to turn tail, and return home. Themistocles used bribe of thirty talents to keep him, and his ships at the front. (Herodotus, 1954) Themistocles, seeing the overwhelming navy of the Persians conducted a plan: When the fighting broke out, the highly-trained Greeks would allow themselves to become encircled. At the first blow of the signal horn, the triremes would form a ‘close circle – bows outward, sterns to the centre.’ From this position, they had no mobility; the only direction in which they could move was forward, and that is exactly what they did. On the second signal blast, these lighter and faster Greek triremes rammed the Persian ships, and with their bronze-sheathed battering rams on the bow of the ships, caused great damage to the enemy ships. (Herodotus, 1954) Another tactic that Themistocles used was his discussion to initiate the battle in the mid to late afternoon. One cannot fight at sea when dark, and he knew that; making sure that this was done minimised casualties for the Greeks and tired out the Persian men, who had been ready to begin fighting since the very early morning. Overall, this decision made sure the battle had a fast conclusion. When they got word of the massacre at Thermopylae, however, Themistocles called a retreat, as they were only holding the pass to prevent Xerxes using his navy to assist his men at Thermopylae, and at this moment in time, there were no men at Thermopylae that were worth protecting, anymore. (Last Stand of the 300,
Before Xeones became a squire he tells of the agoge, which is the thirteen year training program for the Spartan youth. He tells about Alexandros and how they became close friends through the years of training. When Xeones becomes Dienekes squire all of his duties change and he started to see more of the battles. He tells of the many battles he was at and what they were like. Xeones explains the bravery of the Spartans when they were in battle and what the individual soldiers were like. Eventually the Spartans learn that the Persian army was coming to take over all of Greece. Xeones then explains what the Spartans did to prepare for the invasion. The Spartan army sent a group of three hundred highly trained soldiers to Thermopylae to defend the pass until the rest of Greece could prepare their armies.
The Spartans did not heed Archidamus’ warning that “unless we can either beat them at sea, or deprive them of the revenues which feed their navy, we shall meet with little but disaster.”8 From the beginning, Sparta should have developed an alternative course of action, a branch plan in modern American military terms, to execute if the invasion of Attica did not quickly end the war. There was little time for Sparta to build or develop a naval force to match Athenian naval power, but an alternative plan to erode away the Athenian empire, similar to the one employed by Brasidas in 424 BC, was possible much earlier in the war and could have eroded Athenian financial support from their empire. For as Thucydides tells us, “the strength of Athens being derived from the money brought in by their [allies] payments.”9 Conditions were present for Sparta to reduce the Athenian empire as many Greeks wanted or feared losing their independence from the Athenian empire.10 While not excusing Sparta’s initial failure as described above, it is understandable, based on the conservative Spartan culture, why they did not develop an alternative course of action for defeating
When examining the causes for the Peloponnesian War, which was between 431-404 B.C., there are a number of causes that factored into the cause of this war. However, one of the most important causes to this war was largely due to the fact that the Spartans feared the growing power and success of Athens. The Spartans were “particularly alarmed at the growing power of Athens” (Cartwright, “Peloponnesian War”). During the Persian war in 479 BC, Athens grew fiercely strong with power with help of its many allies and continued with their no mercy attacks on Persian territories. When the Persians left Greece, Athens further enraged Sparta when they built large and tall walls around its empire in the event of an attack, which was mostly thought to be from Sparta if it happened.
It could be argued that the movie took too much freedom in scription the movie, however, the events shown in the movie were all very accurate. Also, in coming up with the dialect and mindset of the characters it can only be inferred what was discussed as there was no one to give out a clear statement of the Bielski brothers except the brothers
Another accuracy in this movie was the concentration camps in this movie, they were portrayed very well. Just like history, immediately after arriving at a concentration camp, they were split up and divided by gender and age. As soon as they arrived people who the Nazis did not see fit to work were killed. Along with this people
The Greeks were able to continue living the way they had done so. Themistocles, though, let his ambitions overpower him. This then resulted in a rage of the assembly. He was banned from Greece and forced to flee to the country he once had fought, Persia. There he became a Persian, being able to speak Greece and also serving as one of the administrators for the Persian king. The Persian war has a significant importance because if they would have lost this war then the values that we know even till today would have been lost. They extraordinary values gave us what is known to be the Classical
The Persian wars were a series of battles between, the strong and unified Persian empire, and the weak unorganized Greek polis. The first war begin with the revolt by the Ionians against their Persian subjugators. The Ionians were, at first, able to capture the capital of sardis, with help of city states of Athens and Eretria. However, this did not last, as without the continued backing from the Athenians and Eretrians, the Ionians were soon completely defeated. Furthermore, The Ruler of Persia, Darius, was not contempt and dispatched his troops against, the upstart poleis of Athens and Eretria. Next followed, a complete destruction of Eretria polis, as Darius' forces enslaved its population and burned the city to the ground.
...is very historically accurate because the film incorporates, characters private lives, real film and speech, and great filming technuques that highlight the previous two examples.
There are times in history that something will happen and it will defy all logic. It was one of those times when a few Greek city/states joined together and defeated the invasion force of the massive Persian Empire. The Greeks were able to win the Greco-Persian War because of their naval victories over the Persians, a few key strategic victories on land, as well as the cause for which they were fighting. The naval victories were the most important contribution to the overall success against the Persians. The Persian fleet was protecting the land forces from being outflanked and after they were defeated the longer had that protection. While the Greeks had very few overall victories in battle they did have some strategic victories. The Battle of Thermopylae is an example of a strategic success for the Greeks. The morale of the Persian army was extremely affected by the stout resistance put up by King Leonidas and his fellow Spartans. The Greeks fought so hard against overwhelming odds because of what they were fighting for. They were fighting for their country and their freedom. They fought so hard because they did not want to let down the man next to them in the formation. Several things contributed to the Greeks success against the Persian invasion that happened during the Second Greco-Persian War.
It was a series of consequential events, spurred on by democratic failure, not one key turning point, that resulted in the decisive defeat of the Athenians by the Peloponnesians, with the aid of Persia. Because of democratic fickleness, with or without Pericles the Athenians were doomed for defeat, and therefore the death of Pericles was not the key turning point, rather it was only a factor which determined the length of the Peloponnesian War.
It turns out that the Persians were retreating for good, and the battle had concluded. The late September seas were too rough, the sailing season was coming to an end, and Xerxes did not want to take the risk of losing any more triremes, and, or, troops. The Greek underdogs had done it. Although they did not understand the significance of that day at the time, it was one of the most important days in history, and significantly changed the course of the world we live in today.
This all changed for the first time in 492 BC, when the Persians became envious of the Greek’s control over the Aegean sea and enraged at the Greek’s assistance in the Ionian revolt against their rule. The Greek city-states banded together for the first time when the Persians launched an invasion of Greece under the rule of Darius I. The first of what would be known as the Greco-Persian Wars ended with the Athenian victory at Marathon in 490 BC. The city-states became more closely allied with the second Persian invasion of 480 BC. The Athenians and Spartans led the defensive military movement against Persian forces of Darius’ son, Xerxes I, proving their superiority again through many more battles before moving to the offensive and eradicating Persian forces from Europe before the end of the second Persian War in 479