Battle of Thermopylae (Persian Wars)

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First battle of Thermopylae
Part of: Persian Wars
Thermopylae today (in ancient times the sea stretched beyond the road)
Thermopylae today (in ancient times the sea stretched beyond the road)
date Late summer 480 BC Chr.
place Thermopylae , central Greece
output Victory of the Persians
Parties to the conflict

Members of the Hellenic League : Spartians, Arcadians, other Peloponnesians, Phocians, Lokrians, Thespians, Thebans

Persians and vassals

Commander

Leonidas I †

Xerxes I.

Troop strength
6,200 heavily armed men plus auxiliary troops unknown, modern estimates: below 50,000 to 250,000
losses

by 1,000 heavily armed men (300 Spartians and 700 Thespians), a total of 4,000

unknown and contentious

The battle of Thermopylae took place at the beginning of the Second Persian War in late summer 480 BC. Instead of.

The Thermopylae , the bottleneck between Callidromus -Gebirge and the Gulf of Malia were, has always been of great strategic importance. In ancient times, the average width of 15 meters was only a few meters at the two narrowest points. As a result of siltation , it has expanded to several kilometers to this day.

480 BC A large Persian army under King Xerxes I stood in front of this passage. The far more numerous Persians were able to force the breakthrough and wear out the remaining Greek forces. Most of the Greeks withdrew in time.

background

Thermopylae location

After a first position in the northern Greek Tempe valley had been evacuated without a fight, there were major differences of opinion within the Greek alliance about the defensive positions to be built against the advancing Persians. Some of the members of the Hellenic League apparently wanted to meet the Persians only at the Isthmus of Corinth . Since Herodotus avoids naming the members who voted for a defense at the isthmus, we can only speculate about this. It is conceivable that some of Sparta's allies voted in favor of largely abandoning Greece; According to Plutarch's account, Sparta itself is said to have pleaded for the defense against Thermopylae. Above all, this would have avoided the loss of important allies from central Greece, especially Athens . In addition, there were the topographical conditions. Due to the narrow extent of the pass, it was not possible for the Persians to use their numerical superiority efficiently (see the following section). In addition, the proximity to home and the fact that it needed a relatively small contingent for defense played a decisive role.

From this information it can be concluded that the federal government had in-depth knowledge of Thermopylae and therefore made a conscious decision in favor of this location. However, then the lack of knowledge about the bypass path, which the Persians used to outmaneuver the defenders later, appears surprising. Another research suggests that local knowledge may not have been sufficient after all and that there was no time for more intensive educational work. Herodotus and Diodorus report that the Bund was so surprised by the interim whereabouts of Xerxes that its own troops were quickly sent to Thermopylae.

Troop strengths

According to the account of Herodotus, the only source from the 5th century BC. Chr., Xerxes' army is said to have looked like this:

Fleet: 517,610, infantry : 1,700,000 (VII, 60), cavalry : 80,000 (VII, 87), Arabs and Libyans: 20,000 (VII, 184), Greek allies: 324,000.

Herodotus still assumes an equally large number of support troops and thus comes to over 5 million (VII, 186). Due to the military system and the logistical abilities of the Persians, especially the supply, but also due to the tendency of many ancient historians to give exaggerated figures, these figures are considered to be far exaggerated. The military historian Hans Delbrück calculated in a low estimate the number of fighting troops deployed by Xerxes in Greece at 40,000 to 50,000 soldiers. The military historian Hans-Joachim Diesner also estimated the Persian superiority at barely more than 50,000 warriors, while the American military historian Victor Davis Hanson assumes more than a quarter of a million soldiers.

On the part of the Hellenic alliance, according to Herodotus (VII, 202 f.), A hoplite army with the following contingents is said to have taken up position at the pass:

300 Spartan hoplites, 1000 Tegeates and Mantineers , 120 from Orchomenos , 1000 from the rest of Arcadia , 400 from Corinth , 200 from Phleius , 80 from Mycenae , 700 from Boeotia and Thespiai , 1000 from Phocis , an unknown (but probably rather small) number of men from the Opuntian Lokris and 400 Thebans .

This report leaves some room for speculation, also because Herodotus contradicts himself within his narrative. This fact becomes particularly clear when looking at the Peloponnesian contingent. Herodotus puts this at 3,100 men. This number includes 300 Spartians who were taken by Leonidas. The funerary inscription handed down by him, however, counts 4,000 Peloponnesians. Either Herodotus forgot to mention 900 helots who were drawn along as arms bearers, etc., or 900 emancipated helots equipped as hoplites. However, these are only for the year 424 BC. BC literarily tangible in Thucydides . The most likely omission of 900 perioces .

Diodor's report does not provide any clear information either. In the course of his listing, he reports of 1,000 Lacedaimonians. It remains to be seen whether this number has to be added to the 300 Spartians already in existence or whether there were a total of 1,000 Lacedaimonians (300 Spartians and 700 Periöks). This information is supported by the fact that Leonidas, according to Diodor's report, decided to take 1,000 Lacedaemonians with him to Thermopylae. In addition there were 3,000 other Peloponnesians, which would have reached the number of epitaphs. In this context, Marcus Iunianus Iustinus reports only 4,000 soldiers, which is why it can be assumed that he only listed the soldiers from the Peloponnese.

While the Polis Thebes pursued more or less openly propersian politics, Thebans are said to have fought on the side of the Greek alliance - it remains unclear whether they were exiled opponents of the regime or a contingent enforced by the Hellenic League. With Herodotus, the 400 Thebans are said to have been taken hostage by Leonidas, whereas Diodor's statements indicate volunteers. It is also noteworthy that no Athenian hoplites have joined the land contingent.

Because of the relatively small number of participants, an open field battle was not up for discussion; rather, the point of positioning the troops was to stop a rapid advance by Xerxes. Herodotus found the reason for the low number of troops in religious festivals. However, Leonida's request for reinforcements seems to be revealing. If you follow the tradition of Herodotus and there were really religious restrictions, then the request for reinforcement does not seem understandable. Leonidas must have known that a potential reinforcement could only be mobilized after the end of the Carneia , which made his early request superfluous. It can therefore be assumed that the religious festivals were not responsible for the low number of soldiers, but an overly optimistic assessment by the Spartan king. For, according to Diodor’s report, it seemed to be up to Leonidas how many troops should accompany him to Thermopylae.

Course of the battle

Battle of Thermopylae and its consequences
Location of Thermopylae 480 BC Chr.

course

The command of the troops was the Spartan King Leonidas . Most of the Spartan troops had not left. Xerxes was the first to send the Medes and Kissians against the Spartans (Herodotus VII 211). After these were unsuccessful after a battle that lasted a whole day, the immortals followed . According to Herodotus, the Greeks did not leave their position for days and inflicted heavy losses on the Persians.

Only the betrayal by Ephialtes of Trachis (Herodotus VII 213f.) Allowed the Persians to bypass the Greek lines over the mountains, the Anopaiapfad south of the coastal ridge , and to encircle the Greek troops. Leonidas had considered this maneuver and assigned some of his troops to guard the bypass pass. When they saw the Persians approaching, they withdrew to a nearby fortification. Regardless of this, the Persians continued their evasion maneuver.

On the morning of the third day, spotters reached Leonidas' camp and told him that they had been bypassed. Leonidas acted from now on knowing that a complete retreat would result in the annihilation by the Persian cavalry. He decided to hold the bottleneck with his 300 Spartans to cover the withdrawal of the main Greek army. Other troops, whose home countries were directly behind the pass and would therefore be directly exposed to pillage by the Persians, joined Leonidas. In total, around 1000 Greeks seem to have stayed to cover the retreat - according to Herodotus, the Thespians and the Thebans.

losses

According to Herodotus, the Persians suffered "heavy losses" of around 20,000 soldiers. According to his list, two of Xerxes' brothers and two of his half-brothers were among the dead.

After Leonidas fell, all the remaining Spartians and Thespians were killed. The Thebans had surrendered in time. Herodotus reports a total of 4,000 dead Greeks, with the losses of heavily armed men probably amounting to well over 1,000: the 300 Spartians, the 700 Thespians, some of the Thebans and the losses of the first two days, which, however, seem to have been rather small.

Modern authors relativize the numbers of Herodotus. In particular, the number of fallen Persians seems to them to be very high. Even Herodotus reports that "only" 1000 dead from Xerxes' army were to be found on the battlefield, the rest of which he had quickly buried so that no one could see his real losses. This not only raises the question of the accuracy of Herodotus' report and figures, but also of the trustworthiness of his sources.

Consequences of the battle

Xerxes I could now march unhindered to Athens, which, however, had been evacuated at the request of Themistocles . With the victorious battles at Salamis and Plataiai , the Greek states were able to successfully defend their independence against the Persian Empire .

This battle established Sparta's later fame that its soldiers would never give way in battle.

reception

Leonidas I at Thermopylae (idealizing representation, Jacques-Louis David , 1814)

Contemporary

While the Thermopylae Battle of Sparta was later presented and celebrated as an example of singular heroism, authors from Athens, especially in the annual speeches about the fallen , clearly different assessments: With Thermopylae, Sparta was responsible for one of the terrible defeats against the Persians, while Athens in Marathon and won brilliant victories on Salamis .

Modern

Even in modern times, the Thermopylae battle was repeatedly used as an example of heroic sacrificial death:

  • With direct reference to the scene, the propaganda of the Anglo-American sphere of power made use of symbolic content in the Second World War , when German troops faced the defeat of Greece in April 1941. Thomas Mann said in his BBC address - on the assumption that the Greeks were defending themselves - about the Thermopylae battle of 1941 : “ A Greek stands against six or seven of you. That he dares to cover the bottleneck of freedom with his body is astonishing - not that you win. Are you quite comfortable with the role that the game of history is pushing you into - if now the Thermopylae symbol of mankind is repeated on the spot? It's the Greeks again - and who are you? "
  • On the German side, Hermann Göring drew a comparison at the end of January 1943 with the ongoing battle of Stalingrad in order to legitimize Hitler's orders to fight without surrender ideologically and historically.
  • Wanderer, are you coming to Spa ... is a short story by Heinrich Böll , first published in 1950.
  • In 1962, Rudolph Maté filmed the battle in the USA under the title The Lion of Sparta (The 300 Spartans) .
  • In 2007, the Warner Bros. Studios directed the feature film 300 under the direction of Zack Snyder , based on the graphic novel 300 by Frank Miller .

Inscription on the Thermopylae monument

Plaque

In this place there is a monument often referred to as the “Tomb of Leonidas”; Leonidas, however, was buried in Sparta. Rather, it is a victory stele . According to tradition, it bore a distich of Simonides von Keos as an inscription ( epigram ) :

Greek (see list of Greek phrases ):

“Ὦ ξεῖν᾿, ἀγγέλλειν Λακεδαιμονίοις ὅτι τῇδε
κείμεθα τοῖς κείνων ῥήμασι πειθόμενοι.”

"Ō xeîn angéllein Lakedaimoníois hóti tēde
keímetha toîs keínōn rhēmasi peithómenoi."

"Stranger, report to the Lacedaemonians that we are here
, obeying the words of those."

- Simonides

Latin:

Dic hospes Spartae nos te hic vidisse iacentes,
dum sanctis patriae legibus obsequimur.

"Say, stranger, to Sparta, you saw us lying here,
observing the sacred laws of the fatherland."

- Marcus Tullius Cicero : Conversations in Tusculum 1, 101.

German:

"Wanderer, if you come to Sparta, proclaim there that you saw
us lying here as the law ordered."

- Friedrich Schiller : The Walk , 1795.

See also

literature

  • Anuschka Albertz: Exemplary heroism. The history of reception of the Battle of Thermopylae from antiquity to the present. Oldenbourg, Munich 2006, ISBN 3-486-57985-1 (also: dissertation, University of Trier, 2004).
  • C. Hignett: Xerxes Invasion of Greece . Oxford 1963.
  • Ernle Bradford : Leonidas. Hero of Thermopylae. Ullstein, Frankfurt am Main / Berlin 1991, ISBN 3-548-34764-9 .
  • JF Lazenby: The defense of Greece 490-479 BC Warminster 1993.
  • JF Lazenby: The Spartan Army . Warminster 1985.
  • Karl-Wilhelm Welwei : Sparta. The rise and fall of an ancient great power. Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 2004, ISBN 3-608-94016-2 .
  • NGL Hammond: Sparta at Thermopylae , in Historia 45 (1996), pp. 1-20.
  • Paul Anthony Rahe: The grand strategy of classical Sparta. The Persian challenge. New Haven 2015.
  • Paul Cartledge: Sparta and Lakonia. A regional history 1300-362 BC . London 2002.
  • Paul Cartledge: Thermopylae. The battle that changed the world . New York 2007.
  • Peter Green: The Greco-Persian War . Berkeley 1996.
  • R. Hope Simpson: Leonidas Decision. In: Phoenix. Volume 26, 1972, pp. 1-11.

Web links

Commons : First Battle of Thermopylae  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Herodotus , Historien VII 202 f.
  2. ↑ Herodotus: Historien VIII 25.
  3. ↑ a b Herodotus, Historien VII 175.
  4. ↑ Plutarch, Themistocles 7,61.
  5. ^ JF Lazenby: The defense of Greece 490-479 BC Warminster, p. 118 .
  6. ^ R. Hope Simpson: Leonidas Decision . In: Phoenix 26 . 1972, p. 3 .
  7. ^ NGL Hammond: Sparta at Thermopylae . In: Historia 45 . 1996, p. 12 .
  8. ↑ Herodotus, Historien VII 175.2.
  9. ↑ Herodotus, Historien VII 177; see. on this Diodor, Bibliotheca historica 11,4,1.
  10. ↑ Hans Delbrück : History of the art of war in the context of political history , in general: Volume 1: Das Altertum, 1st book: The Persian Wars. Concrete back calculation in the ninth chapter about the battle of Plataia: "From the strength of Mardonius we can now conclude retrospectively that Xerxes had about as many warriors a year earlier." (Www.zeno.org)
  11. ^ Hans-Joachim Diesner: Wars of antiquity. Military Publishing House of the GDR, Berlin 1984, p. 32.
  12. ↑ Victor Davis Hanson: The Wars of Ancient Greece. Brandenburgisches Verlagshaus, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-89488-140-2 .
  13. ↑ Herodotus, Historien VII 202.
  14. ↑ Herodotus, Historien VII 205.2.
  15. ^ Herodotus, Historien VII 228,1.
  16. ^ Peter Green: The Greco-Persian War . Berkeley 1996, p. 111 .
  17. ↑ Andrew Robert Burns: Persia and the Greeks. The defense of the West 546-478 BC London 1990, p. 379 .
  18. ^ Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War 4.80.
  19. ^ Paul Cartledge: Sparta and Lakonia. A regional history 1300–362 BC London 2002, p. 175 .
  20. ^ JF Lazenby: The defense of Greece 490-479 BC Warminster 1993, p. 134 .
  21. ↑ Diodor, Bibliotheca historica 11,4,5.
  22. ↑ a b Michael A. Flowers: Simonides, Ephorus, and Herodotus on the Battle of Thermopylae . In: The Classical Quarterly . tape 48 , no. 2 , 1998, p. 367-368 .
  23. ↑ Diodor, Bibliotheca historica 11,4,2.
  24. ↑ Diodor, Bibliotheca historica 11,4,5–6.
  25. ↑ Marcus Iunianus Iustinus, Römische Weltgeschichte 2,11,2.
  26. ^ Herodotus, Historien VII 205.
  27. ↑ Diodor, Bibliotheca historica 11,4,7.
  28. ^ Herodotus, Historien VII 206.
  29. ^ Herodotus, Historien VII 207.
  30. ↑ Herodotus, Historien VII 206.2.
  31. ↑ Diodor, Bibliotheca historica 11.4.
  32. ↑ Herodotus, Historien VIII 24.
  33. ↑ Herodotus, Historien VII 224 f.
  34. ↑ Herodotus, Historien VIII 25.
  35. ↑ Herodotus, Historien VIII 24 f.
  36. ↑ Thomas Mann: German listeners! Radio broadcasts to Germany from 1940–1945. 5th edition. Fischer-Verlag, 2013, p. 25.
  37. ↑ Anuschka Albertz: Exemplary heroism. The history of reception of the Battle of Thermopylae from antiquity to the present. Oldenbourg Verlag, Munich 2006, ISBN 3-486-57985-1 . In particular now: Loretana de Libero: Leonidas in Stalingrad. Use, effect and perception of ancient motifs and myths in the 6th Army. In: Thersites. Journal for Trancultural Presences & Diachronic Identities from Antiquity to Date. Volume 10, 2019, pp. 1-49 ( online ).

Coordinates: 38 ° 47 ′ 48 ″  N , 22 ° 32 ′ 12 ″  E