SPARTA - Sabaton // Historian Reaction
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- Опубликовано: 14 фев 2021
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Once Leonidas was killed, the Persians offered the remaining Spartans, their lives if they gave up the body of their King. I can't remember who said or its attributed to, but one Spartan said "how can we holds our heads high after giving up our King". And so they stayed to defend their Kings body, what honour and loyalty is that.
Useless and dumb is that.
The king was dead, the battle lost. Dying for that gives them a place in the "Hall of Dumb Dead Men"
@@TheFirestar2323 You Sir have no sense of honour or loyalty to your Sovereign or leader. During my time in the British Army I meet 4 officers that I would fight to the death to defend and I never left any fallen behind for the enemy to do with as they want.
@@TheFirestar2323 Your insolence and incompetence puts you right up there with Ephialtes.
@@Ewen6177 I swear no loyalty to anyone. Why would I? Only dumb people follow orders out of loyalty
@@TheFirestar2323 And that is why you have no sense of honour or loyalty and none have to you.
Sparta: we throwed him down a well.
Athen: you barbarians!
Sparte: then what did you do?
Athen: we put him through trial... *quieter* and trowed him down a well
i do not want a body in my well. I dont think it is good for my water /s
Damn I was to late to write this!!😂🤘
Ha true very true Lol.
hahahahahahahaha
@@erikdahlgren6656 yea bro same here
"Come and take them" is still the motto of the 1 Greek Army Corps and "In the shade" is the motto of the Greek 20th Armored Division
That’s awesome.
Actually the Spartans gave time for the Athenians to evacuate their City
The Athenian Navy was also instrumental in wrecking Xerxes plans, almost simultaneously to Thermopylae IIRC!
@@francesbadger3401 actually they were super lucky that the Persians lost so many ships due to storms and that the fog rolled in just as themistocles attacked. They would probably have lost otherwise. No doubt tho they would cause significant damage to the Persian navy.
@@francesbadger3401 also was it that athens had the navu and sparta had the infantry
@@TheAlphatitan that’s true
@@TheAlphatitan Almost like Poseidon himself threw his lot in with the Greeks!
This song is a BLAST to sing on concerts, makes you pumped AF when a couple of thousand people starts "ooh"ing and "aaah"ing in unison xD can understand why it would be terrifying for the enemy.
Now I imagine it a bit like All Blacks New Zealand national rugby team Haka :-)
Did it in an empty hockey arena with about 3k people, it was great.
@@kazzzerusss swedish pagans in sweden or denmark with the danish pagans is a blast to
Voices in battle are quite intimidating. The rebel yell in the American Civil War was said to be terrifying by Union veterans.
The Greek traitors name was Ephialtes, which in local Greek still means turncoat/traitor.
Actually Ephialtes means nightmare in greek like it was a nightmare for the Greeks when he betrayed them!
@@yiannithegodslayer I think he mean more like how an american might call a traitor a Benedict Arnold
@@samfodrey6662 I see
This is heresy! Non shall speak about that cowards name
@@yiannithegodslayer Which in reality makes no sense since the greeks were fully aware of that pass and had it defended, the only reason it fell was the fact Leonidas didn't spare any spartan officers to hold the pass so Phocians retreated to a nearby hill to defend instead of holding their ground at the pass thus allowing the persian army to advance unopposed
One Spartan king visited a city in Athens and he was shown the city’s walls and he just exclaimed “what fine women’s quarters” then the Athens king said “where are Sparta’s walls” then in response the Spartan king just motioned to his men and said “these are Sparta’s walls”
Blood for the blood god!
@@jbo22fly skulls for the skull thrown
Yet when the Thebans invaded Sparta all the Spartans ran away because they had no walls.
Badass
Athens is a city, it could be a city in Athenian territory but not in Athens
The battle lasted 3 days. Also Hellas is how we greeks call our country. We dont call it Greece. Still though, great reaction. One of my favourite songs is Last Dying Breath.
Thanks for correcting that. I looked it up afterwards...I was thinking of the number of days the Persians had been in Thermopylae. They attacked on the 5th day.
Late, but in Norway we also call your country Hellas with the same spelling.
The Romans were the ones to give the name Greek though it was spelt Graecus.
Dienekes, one of the Spartans was told that the Persian archers were so numerous that when they shot their volleys, their arrows would blot out the sun. He responded, "So much the better, we'll fight in the shade".
When I saw a video explaining the full battle in full detail. I was so moved when I heard that when Leonidas told the others to go home some of them were so inspired by the Spartans' actions that they stayed and fought when they didn't have to.
Do you know what video it was?
It was specifically the Thespians who stayed, roughly 1,000 of them. Which is kinda funny, since "thespian" is now a term used to refer to stage actors. So in essence, it was the 300 Spartans and Broadway's finest against the Persians.
@@anzaca1 Tough to dodge a spear when you're being mesmerized by Jazz Hands! THAT'S some teamwork! Haha
When I was in Army BCT, our platoon was nicknamed the "Spartans", and our slogan was "Come and take them", so I do feel a certain connection to this song.
the thing i love most about that movie is that almost every scene has a painting-like image that just gets burned into your retina, atleast that's what it was for me
Too true! It really IS like watching a graphic novel
Xerces sent his cavalry and most of his archers back to Persia, fearing he would lose them.
With no cavalry and archers, the Persians were crushed at platea.
That's what the Spartans accomplished.
another historical note here, the spartans were equiped with very heavy armor and the did not fight naked which is a major factor that they actually slowed down the persians which they had little or no armor and their main weapon was the bow, not the spear or the sword
8:43 can we talk about how smooth that was with the song
I just watched like 15 videos of you reacting to the greatest band for history. And just noticed that I wasnt subscribed yet! God damn.
This is madness!
Madness?
THIS IS SPARTA!
And i kick the subscribe button down the pit.
Better late than never! Thanks for the sub
Fun fact, some(if not all) greeks still refere to Greece as Hellas (or something alike)
greece is just the commonly used name for the country, its official name is the hellenic republic
@@Deilwynna oh, thank you for informing me, I genuinly didnt know that :D
Actually thing is that the name in Greek is Ελλάδα (helada) and it just changes to Greece when it's translated to English, just like Germany is called Deutschland in german
@@fanisvoutsinas7888 very intresting to know, thank you! 😄
Anytime ^_^ i happen to be greek that's why i know
I think the Voice, who was singing along Joakim in the first Part was Pär Sundström, their bassist/Manager
He often does the secondary singing voices
This movie is NOT based off of the historical event but THE GRAPHIC NOVEL, and it is literally a perfect representation of it.
6:56 It's generally believed that the Thermopylae pass was only 200 yards (182 metres) wide at the time. That only allows for roughly 433 men standing shoulder to shoulder at most. Allowing for some spacing, it was probably more like 300 men side by side.
Well as far as I know. The effort of the Spartans supported the city states of Greece to muster more men.
Leonidas on land and Themistocles on sea. Those two were great commanders.
Leonidas managed to hold the Persian back so that the supply line for the insane battle on sea wasn't interrupted.
So basically the Insane battle that the Spartans fought in managed to raise the moral of the Hellenic people so much that everyone was on board with it. The final battle in which Hellas won had soldiers on the Greek side that fought like no one has ever seen before. There was a historian of the Athens who wrote about this one spartan soldier (sadly I forgot his name) who was sent back home to Sparta due to an eye infection during the battle at Thermopylae. He was seen as a coward but fought like Ares himself on the final battle.
Damn Spartans where sick as heck.
Nice to see you’re reacting to the amazing videos of Knight SGC. They make arguably the best Sabaton music videos
I named my oldest son after this king (sort of, his first name goes to greatest Greek of all time). Alexzander Leonidas Paoli. So fun fact, the one thing the move totally got wrong was King Leonidas was not the last Spartan to fall in combat. After they got over ran, Leonidas was killed. Then the remaining Spartan/Greek Alliance made it a point to not let their king be in the hands of the enemy so long as a Spartan lived. I want to say that their is reports of his body being captured by the enemy 3 different times before Xerxes put Leonidas head on a spike.
You are right that they may have mit achieved much. But in my opinion that battle was a rallying cry for all greek city states to fight against the persians and resist as much as they can
Been enjoying all of your work, even if I'm not interested in all stuff, but you and your commentary make that fit! Thank you for that and keep up the good work!
The traitor was Ephialtes (I hope it is written right), and yes, based on Heraklit he existed, but many historians today believe that he only was a lyrical metaphor for Leonidas oversight of properly guarding this passage.
Also, as you mentioned responses by Spartans like "we will be fighting in the shade": That was pretty much the schtick of Spartans (this sort of Schwarzenegger-esque, badass replies). The most famous one: The Spartans somehow angered some Philip of Macedonia (the most powerful citystate back then), and when he sent a letter like "If I march into Sparta, I will raise it to the ground", to which the Spartans replied in a letter with one single word: "IF"
Phillip of Macedonia was the father of Alexander the Great.
Hello everyone. Well I will start by saying that I am Greek and I’ve learned about this event at school. The teacher I had loved this story and the Spartans in general and he told us some extra things. I remember he told us their way of living was so harsh that it was easier for them to go for war than to train for the actual war. They were the best fighters for their time and they were training by “fighting” each other. When training they were fighting against the best of the best but when they were at war they were not fighting so skilled soldiers thus it was much easier for them. Furthermore when they were training they had to sleep in the cold even in snow but when they were at war they had proper camps. Also their coins (currency) were big and heavy. As a result they could not carry many coins and they could not get greedy. To sum up, they were preparing for the worst case scenario but most of the times things were much easier than that.
Ares trained his spartan children well.
The battle of thermopyle did hold the Persian army long enough for the greeks to have a decisive victory at the battle of salamis that was a turning point for the Persian invasion
The thing I really like about you and your channel is that you watch the videos and tell the stories with so much passion. Every time in a video when you explain something or talk about history for me it feels captivating. I am still in school and history is by far my favorite subject. I even consider studying it. Every time I tell someone about a new story I learned they don't really care that much but you seem to feel about history just as I do. I don't know much about Americas history but through your channel I have learned more in a month than in 11 years of school, though my favorite part to talk about is ww2. I really enjoy every video of yours and I am always excited for the next one. Please keep up the good work and continue to keep the stories of the past alive for us to learn. And until I'm old enough to legally become a patreon I'll just go ahead and wish you a great day and best of health and luck! Greetings from Germany
Love your videos!! Great commentary!
Great reaction !! I've waited for this so long!
This is incredible how even the movements are fit on the rythm
tbh... i wish there'd be a more historical movie about Thermopylae, just so that we could get some videos for the Song without Frank Millers nearly nude Spartans... and with the other Greeks at Themopylae. Maybe even a PROPER PHALANX... but nice, now i was reminded of AC Odyssey where Leonidas throws his shield as if he was Captain America...
About "often gotten wrong": Leonidas also didn't really "call the Spartans" to go there. He was chosen to lead the troops at Thermopylae. He didn't exactly volunteer.
I also wanna suggest you to check out Running Wilds Songs "Waterloo" and "Little Big Horn". Basically doing the sabaton shtick before Sabaton (and the Alestorm shtick before Alestorm)
About the battlefield at Thermopylae: Iirc the Gulf in the area retreated due to rivers etc. leaving sand there and so the land area increased, from 100m to 9km.
There is a documentary here on RUclips called "Battle of Thermopylae" that has a more realistic movie scenes from the battle and what happend otherwise in that time period.
Unfortunatly there are so many that has uploaded bad documantaries by that name now that i cant find it :(
You see that at the end of 300, that charge at the end of the film is the opening act of the "Battle of Plataea", where the combined armies of the alliance of the greek cities- lead by Sparta and Athens crushed the Persians in 479.....The Spartans wanted revenge for Leonidas in my opinion.
The fact that Leonidas was 60 at the time of the battle really shows how physical fit and strong the Spartans were
In the past, people had more muscle mass and overall stronger muscles.
On the other hand, they were smaller than us.
I've been to Thermopylae and now it's pretty much just an open field due to the sea level being much, much lower than it was back then. There wasn't really a mountain pass either, the battle is believed to have been taken place on a ledge with a swamp on one side and the sea on the other.
It's not a lower sea level, it's sedimentation from the river that has just pushed the shoreline further away from the mountains.
I mean its almost 2000 years later of course it will be very different
Definitely can see you much clearer and brighter. The sound also seems better. Thx for the awesome video
It was very much a symbolic act, and they even knew this at the time... According to history, an Oracle foretold that either Sparta would lose a king or its freedom. Leonidas knew of this prophecy and left the Peloponnese with his 300 personal guards with no intention of ever returning.
If you ever get a chance to see Sabaton live, go. It's a blast to see them live and I love the attention they bring to history.
The case of the hot gates is if you visit the place, the hill of the last stand is there, but is way lower than it was at that time, and the sea will be around where the monument is now. And if you walk 5 minutes you find the spring that smells sulfur that give the name of the hot gates.
Been there 2 years ago, really a nice sight.
Please add Price of A Mile to your patreon vote or just react to it next. If you do react to it please please please react to the one by Knight SCG Archive.
My respect for the Spartan culture knows no bounds. The absolute bad asses when threatened with war respond with a single word reply, who also value their women greater than most countries in the world. Women given warrior funerals if they die in childbirth the view of childbirth being absolute war.
@@philmccracken7520 Yes, but even though they had the Helots, they were still one of the most feared and badass military presences at the time.
@@tkurz3071 true they did some messed up shit to the helots but if you looked past them in terms of citizens in sparta they were actually pretty advanced in terms of equality and especially in government in fact I believe the Roman's based part of their government on the spartans
Yessss been waiting for this reaction!
In Norway we use Hellas when we talk about Greece . We said Grekenland until 1932 when we changed it to Hellas.
Based Gigachad Norwegians 🇬🇷🤝🏻🇳🇴
This was only a small part of Sparta's full military power - a few weeks later the combined hellenic fleets devastated the persian force at Salamis, and the year after the Greek alliance finally defeated the persians at the battles of Plataea and Mycale - here the spartans contributed a vastly greater force.
you need to watch from Sabaton- Seven pillars of wisdom, Lifetime at war , The last stand
He did the last stand
En livstid av krig with subs
@@chrippao1720 I second this. The live from Gothenburg one is the best
I cannot wait to see these guys live next month
Love the vids man
One of the best scenes imo from the movie is near the end when Ephialtes the traitor begs Leonidas to think of hes men and Leonidas responds with "May u live forever" and u can se the absolute shame in hes face overwhelm him. To a Spartan soldier if i was gonna die i was gonna do it in battle so hearing that line "May u live forever" from your king must have been the greatest insult of hes life.
Fun fact: this video posted on Feb 15, 2021. Six months and twenty-five days later (August 10, 2021) was the 2,500th anniversary of the Battle of Thermopylae.
There was two battles at the time. One at land the Other at Sea both Gave Athenians Important time to evacuate Athens before the Persians could get there.
PS: if The Traitor didn't give away the secret passage Leonidas could have won the battle as even the "Immortals" *Persian Elite* Fell To Phalanx The Greeks set up
Very nice Episode Hg sure looks and sounds good as a nice place and we can see you very well . Very good content . Keep it up !
Brilliant video and like you makes me want to watch the film again. 💖
Was waiting for this..m
Huge psycological victory,just imagine winning a battle with that much casualty's...
It is true that the Spartans would never surrender. To them, surrender was such a dishonorable act that they had a saying that their women would say to their husbands before they left for battle. "Come back with your shield or on it."
I believe the total for the last stand was around 1500 the reason the spartans are particularly remembered for this battle is because the spartans left the bulk of their army to defend (the 300) while the others retreated while most of the other city states left behind smaller parts of their armies.
"Come back with your shield or on it" - Spartan proverb
@@philmccracken7520 who hurt you?
Spartans were not only kings of battle, they were the kings of 80's action movie one liners.
I think it was during the Peloponnesian War, Athens sent a message to Sparta saying:
"If we win, we will slaughter your men, enslave your women and children, and burn all of your crops and erase you from history."
The Spartans sent back a one word reply:
"If."
Great video, you should react to Sabaton history - Ghost division. Keep up with great work.
I'm disappointed that the Spartans didn't wear full bronze armor plating in the movie.
But the abs were great
i mean, they probably wouL've worn a mix of full cuirass, linothorax and so on.
Never end a Sabaton video before it has run full course. Sometimes there's tidbits of info or thoughts at the end of a song.
Did you react to Hell and Back? It’s a very good song!
No he hasn't
I mean technically they bought the other city states time to organize a larger force to deal with Persians at the battle of Plataea.
best channel on youtube
you are almost as cool as my history teacher, he is very wise man
The traitor was called Efialtes. His name means nightmare in modern Greek. The mountain passage was guarded by 1000 Phokeans and in total there were 5000 Greeks, with the Spartans at the narrowest point. At the time of the battle the passage was about 12 meters wide. Today, this area is between 1.5 and 3 kilometers wide, due to erosion.
The Battle of Thermopylae was one of two battles happening the other was at sea at Artemisium the Greeks failed to hold either place but inflicted severe casualties to the Persians. Where the battle happened there was an old fort that had been long abandoned by this time and that fort is where the Greeks held out for.
The traitors name was Εφιάλτης (Efialtes) which to this day literally means "nightmare" in Greek
The best line in the entire movie is *" SPARTANS, PREPARE FOR GLORY"*
i love that the video has acvtual acurate hoplite combat in the pass
context standing with shield and spear is hoplite combat
Find the hot gates on a map. It's no where near sea level or close to the Med now. That's what glacial uplift will do to a continent after the miles of ice are gone and the land recovered and 'rebounds' after thousands of years. Crazy to think that some of our civilization's major legends and historic legend have really just made a minor blemish on the lifecycle of this planet.
It's kind of sobering, if you think about it.
The traitor's name was Εφιάλτης (Ephialtes). The interesting about his name is that in Greek language Ephialtes is the word meaning "nightmare". So strong was his betrayal in the Greek historic consciousness Tha in modern Greek when we say "I had a nightmare" we say "είδα εφιάλτη = I saw an Ephialte"
Great video. One minor critique, or rather clarification:
One of the allied Greeks was the one who said "There's so many of them, their arrows will blot out the sun."
And then one Leonidas' men (I don't remember him being named) is quoted as literally saying "Good, then we fight in the shade."
In the movie it's a Persian bragging that their arrows will blot out the sun so that's slightly inaccurate but the Spartan's reply is word-for-word accurate to what Herotodus quoted him as saying.
Many of the Spartans badass one-liners in the movie are direct or almost direct quotes to what they were quoted to have said at the actual battle by their contemporaries who were also there and later told their stories (or their sons told their fathers/grandfather's stories) to Herotodus
The reason I love the movie 300 is because it would be the movie that the Spartans would actually make about themselves. The Spartans are pretty well known for spreading propaganda to make themselves look extremely good. They're all wearing little armor, they're all jacked, they put in the famous one liners, the gratuitous usage of slow mo and even making the Greek that betrays them look horribly disfigured. The Spartans would often depict their enemies as extraordinarily cunning to show how great they were themselves for winning against them (the Romans are extremely well known for doing this as well) and, in the film, the Persian's numbers are greatly inflated, they have rhinos and grenadiers, and Xerxes looks like a god among men and gets scarred by Leonidas before his death, something that never happened. It's one of those things that a lot of historians would say "wow, that's bullshit" to but, when you realize that it's exactly what the Spartans would've wanted, you get a bit of a kick out of it.
I love this comment and I think you're absolutely right. The graphic novel and the film is exactly the way the Spartans would have recorded this story as it transitioned from truth, to legend and finally myth.
One thing I notice is how they are using the spears. Another historian video I saw pointed out that most people think of holding a spear underhand and near the center, as is used to throw javelins. However based on things like the impact points on surviving shields and experimentation they figured that instead they were held overhand and closer to the butt--facilitated by counterweights at the rear end. Being able to balance the spear more toward the rear gives them more reach with it. The impact point they noted was low and outside on the shield (bottom left from the point of view of the person holding the shield). This would "tip" the shield away from the center-line creating an opening to thrust through. And I do see them holding the spears overhand in the video.
The last stand did more than a physiological effect, it’s rallied Greece and saved democracy and made a cool ass story- remember the 300
I live near this ancient battlefield and it's really very different although theres still excists the path That Efialtes lead the Persians behind the Greek
one thing they got wrong was the swords. spartans used a sword that is a little longer than a dagger, designed to be used over and around the shield. its a little thicker than a knive so it has some heft.
You have to react to sabaton la lifetime of war or the Swedish version livstid i krieg which ever you prefer.
They are very different. Do swe with eng subs.
@@siggedrake yes they are different but I like them both equally that’s why I don’t care which one he does.
i think the idea of 300 comes from the final stand part where leonidas told other helenic people they may retreat or stand ajd die by the spartans side giving anyone who wasnt a spartan the choice but his own men were exspected to face death they knew they would die
This movie is one of my fav movie
You might want to check out shadows it's an older one but what makes it unique is its unit historical but talks of the nazgul from Lord of the rings
Part of a Spartan warrior's training was trash talk. So, all of Leonidas' smart remarks to Xerxes are historically correct. The Spartans were known for their mic drop moments
Hello there! My name is Michalis, i am from Greece(Hellas)! Very nice video, i like your content a lot! But let me clarify some things here!
Ephialtes, was the name of the traitor who, in the move, was a "not perfect spartan,rejected by Leonidas" but in history, he was a villager livin near Thermopylae who showed the Persian army, a path behind Hellenic lines! Fun fuct! - Ephialtes is still rellevant in greek today as it is the word that meens NIGHTMARE in greek! (The lyrics sais about him "know his name, know his shame, will last forever" and they refer to this fact)
Hellas is the greek name for Greece! The root of this name is the word ΣΕΛΑΣ( SELAS ) that means light in anc. and modern greek !
If you have any questions about greek history, feel free to ask away! I will try to explain as good as i can! Have a good day!
Appreciate your insight, Michalis. Thanks for sharing it with us!
The whole reason Leonidas went was to commit Sparta to fighting against the Persians, who, having killed their king, now became their mortal enemy. The Spartan Council up until then had been sitting on the fence and did not want to commit to war with Persia (hence only 300 Spartans taking part - royal bodyguard). The combined Greek force eventually beat Xerxes in the battle of Plataea (479BC) where 10 000 Spartans plus took part.
YES YES YES SPARTA
Look Midway the movie and the Song. Both are really accurate. They even choose Actors looking like the real guys fight back then. At least the all important Charakters.
leonidas knew he couldnt hold his own, he just needed to buy some time(3 days to be precise) for the rest of the greeks to assemble and thats why you see everyone in platea going berserk and every kind of plan almost just failed, in favour of blood rage.
A two video series on this topic by extra history is really good to learn more about this topic, it would be cool if you watched them also.
so from my very limited understanding, Thermopylae was in tandem with a naval battle (i don't know how accurate rise of an empire was in regards to that). when Thermopylae fell, they fell back. a battle at i believe Plataea(?) Xerxes had returned home, and left a higher up to take the rest of greece. the persian forces fell, but i dont know if there was more to it than that
About the "brothers" in the lyrics, yes maybe they meant it in the sense that they saw fellow Greeks joining to fight off the invasion but in my opinion it'd be more accurate if they meant the actual brothers or friends who we call "brothers" were fighting side by side in the phalanx. After all ancient Greeks weren't always too fond of each other and they regularly fought and killed each other in many little or bigger wars. So I think it would describe the brotherhood that the men fighting side by side their whole lives in the phalanx would feel for each other.
It was not about winning, it was about protecting their home and dying like a true warrior
beware an old man in a profession were most die young
my grandfather was born in Sparta and to Australia for a better life than being in Greece cause there was not alot of shooes .
7 thousand were before the fight would start, but after they saw how big the persian army was they decided to back up to korinthos except spartans. Spartans were around 400 in the fight ( plus when the someone told leonidas about how many arrows are coming leonidas said, '' thats very good of them to let us fight under a shade'')
Objectively speaking, Thermopylae was a complete and utter disaster for the Greeks.
It did nothing to stop the Persian advance into Greece. They also lost the de facto military leader of the Greek coalition in Leonidas, as well as a not-insignificant number of Spartan citizen soldiers. 300 Spartans is easily ~5-10% of the Spartans entire male fighting population.
For context, Spartan citizen soldiers, the Spartiates, were the elite soldiers we associate with Sparta but they were comparatively very few in number. At the very peak of Sparta's military power, circa mid-5th century BCE, it's estimated Sparta could field between 3000-5000 men. The majority of the Spartan army was comprised of the Periocoi, "dwellers-around", the merchant class that lived in towns and villages in and around Sparta.
It was virtually impossible for outsiders to gain full Spartan citizenship under their laws, meaning losing 300 men in a single battle was a pretty hefty blow to the Spartan state, although the knock-on effect would be a slow one over the century or so after the Persian Wars.
Considering the Persians will still in Greece, having ravaged Boeotia and Attika, including razing Athens, a year after Thermopylae, you begin to understand the battle was nothing less than waste of Greek life.
We tend to give Sparta all the credit but for me, the Athenians were the orchestrators of the Persian defeat. Themistocles' tactics at sea crushed the Persian navy, threatening the Persian supply lines and forcing their withdrawal from mainland Greece. After Thermopylae, Sparta walled off the Isthmus of Corinth and left the rest of Greece to it's fate. It was only reluctantly they went to Plataea, where the Persians were decisively defeated.
Thermopylae had one hell of a PR job done on it however. I'd argue Plataea had a more interesting battle and a better outcome, considering Greek communication errors basically led to Sparta, Athens and Tegea fighting the remnants of the Persians (against which the Greeks were still heavily outnumbered) alone yet they managed to rout the Persians out of mainland Greece entirely.
Appreciate your input. I tend to agree with your feelings on Thermopolaye but don't consider myself knowledgeable enough on it to say that for sure.
It gave greeks time to build the peloponesian wall and for the atheneans to abandon athens so they wouldnt be killed and for all the greek armies to gather to the peloponese to form the panhellenic army that beat the persians in plataie
Last dying breath , for my country that suffered greatest casualties per capita in WW1
brazillian here. absolutely love last dying breath and the story behind it!!!
Hellas is in reference to the fact that until the Romans the word "Greek" did not refer to most of what we now call Greece. It was a smaller city that was trading with the Romans, and the romans misunderstood when they referred to themselves as Greek to mean their culture overall.
During the 3rd day 300 spartans, 400 Elite Thebans (Sacred band of Thebes) and 700 from Thespies remained. 2 Brothers of Xerxes were killed. When Leonidas fell, the 2 armies kept fighting to retrieve his body. When the Immortals entered the battle, the remaining Thebans surrendered under the pressure and were stigmatized. The rest fought to the death. The name of the traitor nowadays means nightmare in Greek.
Also Themistocles was definitely the leader that saved the Greeks in that war.
The name of the traitor was Ephialtes and he is a hard of case of his name is Mudd outside of course Dr. Mudd himself. Essentially his treachery was so great that his name in the Modern Greek Language means nightmare, basically the Greeks view him with even more disdain the US does John Wilkes Booth, he is actually considered one of the greatest traitors of all time and up there with Marcus Brutus and Judas Iscariot in some rankings.
What happened to him historically is after his betrayal he did get a sizeable reward and he fought with the Persian Army in a hope to gain more then in one of the funniest cases of history deciding to make his fate as ignominious as possible he was killed by the King of Argos in personal combat without the king even realizing who the guy was and was even more surprised when the Spartans gave him a sizeable amount of money for doing so the movie 300 does fictionalize him a bit as no one is actually sure about where he actually came from due to records being lost over time and well the Greeks not wanting to preserve the memory of the man who brought about two of the darkest moments in Greek history the 300's last stand and the subsequent Sack of Athens.
Basically Ephialtes is Greece's greatest betrayer with the potential exception of the idiot or potential traitor that left the postern gate to Constantinople open allowing the Ottomans to destroy the Eastern Roman Empire, and of course the claimant to the Eastern Roman Empire's throne who got Constantinople sacked in the Fourth Crusade functionally rending Greece to the state it is today because it dealt a blow the Eastern Roman Empire could never recover from and thus Greece ceased being independent for a long time and even then never managed to reclaim the glory the once had being built on debts that go back to the founding of the modern nation that are still unpaid.
Greece or Hellas as they call their nation a once great nation that controlled multiple empires and was a bastion of culture and the father of Western Civilization even managing to subsume culturally their conquerors the Romans and become the rulers of the Roman Empire only to be brought low by singular individuals betraying their own nation and causing their fall. Greece's history is very much a true Greek Tragedy and Ephialtes is the original betrayer of Greece a man whose name has become nightmare and also his name is certainly Mudd.