Battle of Thermopylae

The Battle of Thermopylae (/θərˈmɒpᵻliː/ thər-MOP-i-lee; Greek: Μάχη τῶν Θερμοπυλῶν, Machē tōn Thermopylōn) was fought between an alliance of Greek city-states, led by King Leonidas of Sparta, and the Persian Empire of Xerxes I over the course of three days, during the second Persian invasion of Greece. It took place simultaneously with the naval battle at Artemisium, in August or September 480 BC, at the narrow coastal pass of Thermopylae ("The Hot Gates"). The Persian invasion was a delayed response to the defeat of the first Persian invasion of Greece, which had been ended by the Athenian victory at the Battle of Marathon in 490 BC. Xerxes had amassed a huge army and navy, and set out to conquer all of Greece. The Athenian general Themistocles had proposed that the allied Greeks block the advance of the Persian army at the pass of Thermopylae, and simultaneously block the Persian navy at the Straits of Artemisium.

A Greek force of approximately 7,000 men marched north to block the pass in the summer of 480 BC. The Persian army, alleged by the ancient sources to have numbered over one million, but today considered to have been much smaller (various figures are given by scholars, ranging between about 100,000 and 150,000), arrived at the pass in late August or early September. The vastly outnumbered Greeks held off the Persians for seven days (including three of battle) before the rear-guard was annihilated in one of history's most famous last stands. During two full days of battle, the small force led by Leonidas blocked the only road by which the massive Persian army could pass. After the second day, a local resident named Ephialtes betrayed the Greeks by revealing that a small path led behind the Greek lines. Leonidas, aware that his force was being outflanked, dismissed the bulk of the Greek army and remained to guard their retreat with 300 Spartans, 700 Thespians, 400 Thebans, and perhaps a few hundred others, most of whom were killed.

Battle of Thermopylae (323 BC)

The Battle of Thermopylae was fought in 323 BC between the Macedonians and a coalition of armies mostly from central Greece in the pass of Thermopylae during the Lamian War.

After Antipater received news of the Greek revolt, he sent messengers to Craterus and Philotas who were in Asia with an army of over 10,000 soldiers, to come to his aid. But receiving news of the progress of the rebellion and realizing that he couldn't wait for his reinforcements to arrive, he marched south to Thessaly with 13,000 foot soldiers and 600 horsemen, while he left Sippas in command of Macedon. But the Thessalians who in the beginning supported Macedon changed sides to the Greek alliance and Leosthenes forces, occupying the passes of Thermopylae, significantly outnumbered the Macedonians. Antipater was defeated and since he could not retreat because the Greeks had more cavalry than him, he shut himself in the city of Lamia where he was besieged.

References

Battle of Thermopylae (191 BC)

The Battle of Thermopylae was fought in 191 BC between a Roman army led by consul Manius Acilius Glabrio and a Seleucid force led by King Antiochus III the Great. The Romans were victorious, and as a result, Antiochus was forced to flee Greece. It was described by Appian (included below) and by Livy at 36.16-19.

Appian's account:

Notes

Coordinates: 38°48′00″N 22°32′00″E / 38.8000°N 22.5333°E / 38.8000; 22.5333

Battle (disambiguation)

Generally, a battle is a combat in warfare between two or more parties.

Battle or battles may also refer to:

Name

Fictional characters

In military

Places

In music

The Battle (1911 film)

The Battle is a 1911 American war film directed by D. W. Griffith. The film was set during the American Civil War. It was shot in Fort Lee, New Jersey, where many early film studios in America's first motion picture industry were based at the beginning of the 20th century. Prints of the film survive in several film archives around the world including the Museum of Modern Art, UCLA Film and Television Archive, George Eastman House and the Filmoteca Española. It was Lionel Barrymore's motion picture debut.

Cast

The Battle (Kluge novel)

Schlachtbeschreibung (English edition: The Battle) is a 1964 German novel by Alexander Kluge. The novel is a historical account of the battle of Stalingrad in the form of an experimental montage of materials, including diary entries, government reports, and interviews.

References

Battle of Thermopylae (267)

The Battle of Thermopylae in 267 was the unsuccessful defense of the pass by local forces during the great invasion of the Balkans by the Heruli.

The Heruls are first mentioned by Roman writers in the reign of Gallienus (260-268), when they accompanied the Goths ravaging the coasts of the Black Sea and the Aegean. The mixed warbands managed to sack Byzantium in 267, but their eastern contingent was virtually annihilated in the Balkans at the Battle of Naissus (Serbia) two years later, the battle that earned Marcus Aurelius Claudius his surname "Gothicus."

Further reading

Coordinates: 38°48′19″N 22°33′46″E / 38.80528°N 22.56278°E / 38.80528; 22.56278