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