Preview

Why were the greeks defeated at Thermoplyae

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
423 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Why were the greeks defeated at Thermoplyae
Why were the Greeks defeated at Thermopylae?
The battle of Thermopylae was the first between the Persians and Greeks during the Persian invasion of 480-479 BC. The Greek force was very small but was determined to make a stand against the huge Persian army. The battle of Thermopylae resulted in a massive loss to the Greeks as the Persian army heavily defeating them.
According to Herodotus, the Greek army did not have enough troops to maintain the Persians troops so they were heavily outnumbered this lead to the Persians surround the Greek Force. A major factor on the defeat of the defeat of the Greeks was of the disunity of the Greek states.
The Greeks had chosen to defend a narrow pass, or gap, between the mountains of central Greece and the sea, called Thermopylae. This pass was part of the route into Greece from the north. King Leonidas of Sparta rounded up 300 of Sparta’s most elite soldiers with the help of 7000 Greek soldiers from other states marched for an attempt to block the only road by which the massive Persian army could pass, while the small army knew they would face a large army which would end up to be over 100,000 Persians.
Two days of battle passed, with the Persians unable to defeat the much smaller army of Greeks. The Persians had lost many men until Greek traitor came to the Persian king with information of huge importance. A local resident named Ephialtes betrayed the Greeks by revealing a small path that led behind the Greek lines. Above the pass of Thermopylae was another path that was known to local people only. It would allow the Persians to come secretly through the mountains and round behind the Greek army guarding the pass below. The Greeks would then be trapped with the Persians in front of and behind them.
On the third day of battle, the Greeks discovered that they had been betrayed. Leonidas, the Spartan leader, chose to fight to the end, knowing that his men could never win this battle, Leonidas allowed soldiers who didn’t

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    The Battle of Thermopylae started out in the late summer of 480 B.C, the Spartan King Leonidas 1 held out for three days with a mere 300 hoplites against thousands upon thousands of the best Great King’s troops. Under thirty-five Persian generals, were assembled for the invasion of Greece, five whom where sons of the royal house. On the arrival of Xerxes at Thermopylae, he saw the that place was defended by a large of number of Spartans, and about seven thousand hoplites from other states, commanded by the Spartan King Leonidas.…

    • 1358 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    He was the Spartan king responsible for defending the pass at Thermopylae during the second Persian invasion.…

    • 1565 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The pass was about 330 feet in width. Leonities tactics helped him defend the large Persian fleet by creating a battle formation called Phalanx formation in which the men formed a wall of overlapping shields and protruded their spears out from the sides of the shields. This war tactic helped defend the persian attack because since the pass was only 330 feet wide Xerxes couldn't call his army to all attack at once they had to attack in waves so that made it easier for the spartans to hold off the massive persian army. Xerxes attacked greece because Darius originally attacked Greece because the Athenians gave support to the "Ionian Revolt" against Persian rule in Asia Minor. Darius's army was decisively defeated at the Battle of Marathon in the first attempt to invade Greece. After Darius died his son, Xerxes, vowed revenge for his father's defeat at the Battle of…

    • 597 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The Persian army then sailed to Attica landing near the town of marathon The Athenians and their allies the Plataea marched to marathon. At first, there plan was to contain the Persians in marathon by blocking the exits. After five days of using this tactic, the Athenians decided to attack.…

    • 408 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    While strongest at the front, the phalanx's main weakness was on the right flank and to the rear. Once engaged in battle the heavy armor and close quarters did not allow the phalanx to easily address attacks from either of those directions. Although the battle of Thermopylae was a decisive Persian victory, the employment of the phalanx formation proved to be a useful and superior strategy there as roughly fourteen hundred Hoplite led by King Leonidas and three hundred Spartans held their ground for a week (three spent fighting) halting Persian advancement and causing numerous casualties. Were it not for a traitor exposing a path to the rear of the Greek positionallowing the Persian forces to surround the Greek position, there's no way of knowing how long this small force could have fought or whether or not they could have been victorious.…

    • 762 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Final Study Guide

    • 495 Words
    • 2 Pages

    1. The great Persian invasion under Xerxes was a crucial factor in cementing the ties of Greek ethnicity and a sense of separation from other peoples. It is no accident that the great playwright Aeschylus asked that his tombstone be engraved only with a mention of participation in the war and was content to omit his dramatic victories. What were the causes of this invasion? What was the Persian strategy? How did the Greeks respond to the threat? What were the crucial battles in the war and finally why did the Persians fail?…

    • 495 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The reasons for the Greek victory against the Persians in 490 to 480/479 BC was a mixture of exceptional leadership, skilful tactics and strategy, superior weapons and soldiers, and Greek unity. Strong leadership was the most important aspect of the Greek defence, as without the intelligence and bravery of the leaders, the Greeks would have been easily defeated. As a result of the excellent leadership; Greek tactics, strategy, and unity were greatly strengthened. Combined with their better weapons and soldiers, the Greeks held the advantage and seized opportunities at the perfect moment. Also, with each victory the Greeks grew more confident of success and defiant of the Persian attempts to invade. The poor organisation and disarray of their enemy led to an undermining of the Persian might and further improved Greece's chances of success.…

    • 2672 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Battle Of Thermoplyae

    • 555 Words
    • 3 Pages

    King Leonides started his march to Thermopylae with 300 men from the Royal Body Guard. As he passed through the various cities he added to the army and was almost 7,000 strong by the time they reached the Thermopylae pass. King Leonides and his army chose to defend the ‘middle gate’ which is the narrowest part of the pass at Thermopylae. This area of Thermopylae also had a great wall that offered additional protection for this small army.…

    • 555 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Athens and Sparta, were the strongest cities , Athens and Sparta competed with the supreme political influence of Greece . Athens and Sparta's men always trained to be ready for war. Sparta's main strength lay in its ground troops, while Athens's powerful navy controlled the seas. The tide was turned in the Persian Wars when the legendary 300 Spartans led by King Leonidas slowed Xerxes' advance at Thermopylae. The Persians were later ultimately defeated at the Battle of Salamis by the superior strategy of…

    • 141 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Can you imagine four-thousand spartans charging down a hill while three-thousand Athenians ready their bows and release them all simultaneously while the string whips in the hard rain? The Peloponnesian War was one of the most fierce wars in Greece because many people fell in battle. From the South were the Spartans. Their forces had never been stronger with a reformed, military-based government. From the North was the Athenians who had just been through a war that had been won, and were still armed and battle ready, holding fortresses across Greece. The interactions that these two city states made against, with, and without them were so intense that even the fierce kings, Leonidas of Sparta and King Pericles Cleon Nicias of Athens, fell to each other's armies.…

    • 1309 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Gates of Fire Summary

    • 390 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Gates of fire is a story about Xeones, a Greek boy who is a survivor of the Battle…

    • 390 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Spartans sacrifice Yesterday, three hundred Spartans lost their lives. They were fighting against the Persian army. They held out for three days before one of them told the Persians how to defeat them. No word yet on who it was. Whoever it was died anyway though.…

    • 490 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The Persian Wars were a series of conflicts fought between the Greek states and the Persian Empire from 500-449 BC. It started in 500 BC, when a few Greek city-states on the coast of Asia Minor, who were under the control of the Persian Empire, revolted against the despotic rule of the Persian king Darius. Athens and Eretria in Euboea gave aid to these Greek cities but not enough, and they were subdued by the Persians. The Persians became determined to conquer Hellas and make Athens and Eretria pay for helping the Ionian cities. In 492 BC, the first Persian invasion had its fleet crippled by a storm before it could do any damage. King Darius sent another Persian expedition in 490 which destroyed Eretria and then faced the Athenians at the battle of Marathon. The Persian were defeated and forced to return home. Darius died before his preparations for a third invasion were completed, but they were continued by Xerxes I, his son and successor. In 480, Xerxes reached Greece with a tremendous army and navy. The Persian land forces had to pass through the narrow pass of Thermopylae, which was defended by the Spartan Leonidas. His small contingent held back the Persians but were eventually defeated. The Persians continued on to Athens, which had been abandoned, and burned it. The Athenians had fled with their fleet to the island of Salamis where they met up with other Greek forces. Shortly afterward, the Persians followed and were defeated in a sea battle off of Salamis. Xerxes returned to Persian but left a military force in Greece which was defeated in 479 BC at Plataea by a Greek army under the Spartan Pausanias, ending the threat of the Persians once and for all. (1)…

    • 1693 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Despite their huge differences, both Sparta and Athens united to fight the Persians together. In the book The Portable Greek Historians by M. I. Finley, Herodotus records, “The Greeks who at this spott awaited the coming of Xerxes were the following: from Sparta, three hundred men-at-arms; from Arcadia, a thousand Tegeans and Mantineans, five hundred of people; a hundred and twenty Orchomenians, from the Arcadian Orchomenus’ and a thousand from other cities,” (Herodotus, The Persian Wars 7.202)....Herodotus continues, “The sea was in good keeping, watched by the Athenians, the Aeginetans, and the rest of the fleet,” (Herodotus, The Persian Wars 7.203). In addition, Herodotus says, “The various nations had each captains of their own under whom they served; but the one to whom all especially looked up, and who had the command of the entire force, was the Lacedaemonian, Leonidas,” (Herodotus, The Persian Wars 7.204). Based off Herodotus’ statements, all the Greeks were waiting upon Xerxes’ arrival. They included Sparta, the strongest military, Arcadia, Tegeans, Mantineans, and more. Also, the Athenians, who had the strongest navy were also accompanied by other Greeks while awaiting the arrival of the Persian navy. These records by Herodotus show the concept of Greek unity or panhellenism as Greeks from all different poleis come together to fight the stronger Persian army who were considered barbarians or outsiders. The Persians were coming to conquer Athen but all other Greek poleis refused to let Athens battle alone. Even having significant differences the Greeks appointed Spartan king Leonidas as head of command. They recognized that Sparta had the best army at the time and Leonidas was the best choice for command. Athenians and Spartans have very significant differences but in this battle they united…

    • 836 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The cause of the Battle of Thermopylae happened when the Ancient Persians wanted to take over the land of Greece. Knowing that the Persian Empire Xerxes, had begun its invasion of Greece, The Ancient Spartans were ready to fight back for what was theirs. Already the Thessalonians had gone over to the Persian side, but some Greek cities had come together and forgotten their usual rivalries, determining to stop the Persian invasion.…

    • 72 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays

Related Topics