The Battle of Thermopylae

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Recommended: strategic analysis of the battle of thermopylae

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.

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