The Spartans were searching for years to locate Ephialtes. The Spartan agency "krypteia" disguised as shepherds, was patrolling the mountain passes of the region. Herodotus describes the end of Ephialtes.
It’s funny how modern history tells Greek and Persian history after this battle. Most people don’t know that the Persians went on to dominate Greek politics via financial subterfuge. They paid and played every greek city against one another for the next hundred plus years after the battle until the Macedonian invasion by Phillip II and Alexander the Great. Persia financed and backed the Peloponnesian League (led by Sparta) into destroying the Delian League (led by Athens). That was what the Peloponnesian War was about. Persia wanted to curtail Athenian regional naval dominance in the Aegean Sea and Black Sea, and ensure control over the city states in Asia Minor (modern day turkey). They did the same again with the Boeotian League (led by Thebes) against the Peloponnesian League. It was a great story and cool movie, but it didn’t change the status quo. Persia operated much as the British and American empire. Provide finance and naval support, and play kingmaker. Persian was fine supporting the Greeks and Balkan regions being in constant warfare while they controlled trade and politics from afar. Ancient Greece was more like Game of Thrones than Band of Brothers. Damn near every invasion they faced was because one of the city states invited in a powerful foreign power to get the upper hand in a local conflict. Persia, Macedon, and Rome.
@@InvictaHistory I look forward to it! Very little attention is paid to the “inter-war” years between the Greco-Persian Wars and the invasion of Alexander the Great.
Delphi is such a beautiful place. Go to Greece in March and not only is the weather perfect but you have a good chance of being completely alone at some of these world heritage sites like Delphi, temple of Poseidon, etc.
The Persian savages like today's Islamic savages got what they deserved when Alexander exercised his revenge by burning Persepolis to the ground and completely destroying the Persian Empire . What comes around goes around!
Not really tbh. The mountainwalls are not scalable for an army - I've learned that. But the sea has retreated so far it's basically a small plain now (so nothing like the 20m pass it was) and it smelled like the thermal baths close by (sulphur-like). If you're okay with those things, it's nice to have been 'where it all happened' :) And the small museum's pretty nice. Plus, Delphi is relatively close by, so that might be packed into a trip, perhaps.
If we come to the bare bones and leave aside the ultra inflated tragic facts as (invented?) related by Herodotus Thermopylae was a minor skirmish in which Greeks behind a wall stopped the army at a mountain pass until they were bypassed and not longer protected by the wall were all killed. Herodotus wrote in praise of the temporarily victorious Greeks and no doubt the audiences celebrated the highly adorned facts in his writings.
The whole sensation Is that Xerxes' was a Hitler like monster that had as a goal in life to cause pain and suffering to the poor democracy lover Greeks when the truth is that the athenians had burned Sardes without any provocation nor state of war between them and Persia
@@ryansmith8345 idk bro. The only people I’ve ever seen bash 300 are people online who feel as if the movie insults their intelligence or something. Off the top of my head, everybody I know says they like the movie, including females. Probably cause of the hot bods and Leonidas beating Gorgos cheeks but hey. Something for everybody
I was watching a ww2 documentary about the battle of Greece a while back. There was another battle of Thermopylae in that campaign. The narrator made the statement that the main difference between the two battles is that xerxes didn’t have air power. Lol
@@EusisLandale Leonidas was 60 and fought on the Front and killed the so called "Immortals" (until they fled.) Xerxes was far away in safety like a Coward. To this Day Leonidas is a Hero Warrior-King the World look at his Actions with Awe. Xerxes and his mostly enslaved Fighters vanished bit by bit. No Hero at all. Rather an Embarrassment concider his superior Numbers. Where is the Persian Empire now? Oh,... never mind. 😏
Good episode but I think the quote is thus: "Go tell the Spartans, passersby That here Obedient to their will We lie" Either way, great stuff. How many others read Gates of Fire 5x and cried every time ?
The ancient Greek quote... Ω ξειν, αγγέλλειν Λακεδαιμονίοις ότι τήδε κείμεθα τοις κείνων ρήμασι πειθόμενοι . The translation... O, foreign passenger, announce to the Lacedaemonians that we are buried here, obeying their commandments.
The Aftermath of the Battle of the Saw (Truceless or Mercenary War) in Cathage. It happened after the First Punic War. It rolled the political dice that led to the Second Punic War after. Hanno the Great basically removed Hamilcar Barca’s influence in Carthage by allowing them to set up a private empire in Spain. Hamilcar met many of his and Hannibal’s political allies during this battle. Carthage should’ve reformed after losing the first punic war, and focused on retaking its Mediterranean colonies. It doomed Carthage to lose in the Second Punic War. Rome was never seriously threatened at sea after the First Punic War, and Hannibal had to depend on Iberian troops and an overland route through the alps for reinforcements in what was basically a private war. Carthage sent very little troops and even less resources.
I always did wonder how Herodotus knew of Xerxes hiding so many of his dead when the point of the deception would be so no one wound out. Also I like how you put Argos not in the alliance. It's a reference to the city that pretty much never lived up to their commitments. Not only did they pull out of the alliance when Thessaly did, I think the only promise they kept over the ages were their truces. Broken promises to them are like what warrior culture is to Sparta.
There's a very small part of Greece that actually participated in the war if you think about it defending Greece. Middle eastern greek cities were enslaved, much of northern Greece as well, greek city states in Southern Italy also didn't give a fuck. Other greek cities in Spain were also too far to help. And then there's cities that even allied with Persia to further their goals like Thebes. Geographically wise Greeks that fought against Persia were coming quite probably from even less than 20 percent of the total greek land.
@@GothPaoki I know there were Greeks on both sides of the war, I just singled out Argos since they were allied with Platea at this time. "We're allied with the Persians and we hate Athens" is a better reason to not contribute to Thermopylae than "I said I was your buddy three years ago and while you never turned your back on me, I was too busy fighting Sparta who is now your ally"
@@alex_zetsu actually Sparta had a terrible military culture that made sure they can never take advantage of their manpower. Noy to mention that it was quite rigid. They keep using the only thing they knew {hoplite warfare} when siege craft, diplomacy, logistics or even just out right good state craft would have been much better. There is a reason they only ever managed to conqueror one third of the Peloponnese
If he branded those generals and soldiers as slaves, it is possible he used them for the labor of preparing the field instead of using his own men. It would actuality be useful to further dishoner them as slaves. The story could have survived from them…. I dont know much about the subject so I appreciate videos like this. Thanks.
He branded them and released them. So they would live the rest of their lives forever marked as cowards/traitors/dishonored men. They wouldn't be able to interact with anyone, without that person seeing the mark of Xerxes on their face.
The Persians were expelled from Greece, proper by about 478 at the battle of Sestos: this secured the Hellespointe. Only about 3 years after Thermopylae. A series of battles followed to get the Greek colonies back from the edge of what is now Turkey. And as usual the Spartans and their allies wared with Athens and her allies.
F*cking love your videos!!! Growing up as a kid I could never access documentaries like yours, so thank you. Thank you for making these stories and our history accessible to all!
Thinking about the sacks of ancient cities always makes my heart ache for the thought of all the suffering and destruction caused & lost to time... It's horrific to think such atrocities still occur to this day.
Alexander the Great: *Destroys Persepolis* Persians: "WHY DID YOU DO THAT? WE DID NOT OPPOSE YOUR SOVEREIGNTY HERE!" Alexander the Great: "I'm sorry, but we couldn't let what you did to Athens go unpunished..." Ptolemy: "Actually, my wife Thaïs accidentally burned one of the curtains in the Palace while she was drunk and then..." Alexander the Great: "Shut up, Ptolemy! You and that crazy b*tch are going to ruin my reputation!"
The burning of Athens was retribution for the burning of Sardis. But the Greeks save for Herodotus do not bother to keep a tally of their wounds they inflict, only ones that are inflicted upon themselves.
@@KTA1sVidsandFacts Talking about wounds, that Athenian wound opened by Thais should serve as a reminder that when you burn down the craddle of global civilization, the Athenian shrine and the most magnificent monuments ever erected by man, you should be on the lookout for retribution. Charring Persepolis bore testimony to that undeniable fact. Next up, the United Kingdom and the British Museum... One thing is for sure; in the end, divine justice is always served, in one way or another.
@@anastasiosliagkris576 ruclips.net/video/ztVMib1T4T4/видео.html 1: The Ancient Greeks thought themselves descended from the Egyptian Civilization. Never mind, the fact that the first Civilization was Sumer, and there were multiple that followed in Egypt, Indus River Valley, China, and Norte Chico. 2: Athens' Golden Age when most of its monuments were constructed was during the Peloponnesian War, after they used the Delian League as a way to exact tribute from other Greeks. In matter of fact throughout most of Ancient Greek History the City-State of Miletus was the center of the Greek world until the Ionian Revolt. 3: Θαΐς and her story of being the reason 𐎱𐎠𐎼𐎿 was burnt down is likely legend, as Plutarch and Diodorus Siculus didn't want to lay the blame on Alexander. 4: The Greeks were so heavily colonized by Rome that they forget themselves as Greeks for over a thousand years, and it wasn't until the rise of Greek Separatism in the Ottoman Empire that they started to recognize themselves as Greeks again.
@@jeremyalexander9761 You seem to be ignoring the whole Ionian Revolt, and the history that preceded it, and what came after. Alas it was a shame that Alexander's generals killed him for becoming Persianized.
I think one of the least discussed topics is what happened immediately after the fall of Western Roman Empire. This will be a perfect choice for an "Aftermath" series
The aftermath wasn't as immediate as that of, say, the battle of Thermopylae. Things mostly continued as usual for decades. For example, nothing much changed in Italy under Odoacer after he officially ended the Western Empire by deposing Romulus Augustulus. Roman administrators and bureaucrats kept doing their jobs, the Senate still existed and comprised of Romans and life in Italy went on as normal. He even built monuments and repaired older ones. He ruled as a nominal governor of the Eastern Empire and paid lip service to the Emperor in Constantinople to avoid any conflict. But as he started getting more ambitious the Eastern Empire played the Ostrogoths against him and Odoacer was deposed by them under Theoderic the Great who again preseved Roman institutions while paying lip service to the Eastern Emperor. Things really started to change after his death when the Kingdom was divided into Pro-Romans under Amalsuntha who wanted to reunite Italy with the Eastern Empire and the anti-Romans who wanted to destroy Roman institutions in Italy and turn into a Barbarian state. After Amalsuntha was captured and killed by the Anti Romans, Justinian the Great used this as a pretext to declare war on the Ostrogoths. What followed was the extremely destructive 20 year Gothic was which saw thousands dead and Italy completely destroyed. Great cities like Rome and Ravenna turned into post apocalyptic ruins due to constant sieges. The Gothic war and the subsequent Lombard invasion is what officially ushered in the Dark Ages for Italy.
@@xunqianbaidu6917 Constantinople is actually kinda cool, you got me there. But I'm more interested in their constant knife fights with the Sasanians. Post-Arab conquest Byzantium is just depressing.
There's a last aftermath of The Battle of Thermopylae that never gets mentioned. The story itself was famous, and well known to the classical peoples that followed, including the expansionist Romans. When the time came for Rome to conquer Greece (always in defense -- NEVER as aggressors as most empires tell themselves) they sent Cato the Elder. Once again, the Greeks, severely undermanned by this point in history, chose Thermopylae as a defensive holding ground. Cato's scouts return and inform him of this, and he goes "isn't there supposed to be a shepherd's trail around here somewhere? Ah, there it is." And so the Roman front held the Greeks stationary while another portion of the Roman army flanked them, causing an immediate rout. And then Cato the Elder, in front of cartoon crimson sky, planted the signifier into the ground and said "THIS. IS. ROME!" Actually that part never happened. As far as I know.
Think a similar story happened in WWI or WWII. Some verse from the bible let some British. Lemme see if that's close enough to Google. Yup! Vivian Gilbert it was .
How about a show on the after math of the battle that led to Xenophon's March of the 10,000? The aftermath of the defeat of Athens's at Syracuse would also be a good one. Aftermath of Platea? The aftermath of Crassus's defeat in the east? You could also do Antony's campaign through Armenia.
Philip of Macedonia based the Hellenic Asian Expedition on these Persian sacrileges which his son, Alexander the Great completed with the razing of Persepolis 170 years after the Persian Empire fell to him after defeating Darius in three major battles.
I tend to agree that the Greeks inflicted mass casualties by the fact that they held 3 days against a much larger army only failing due to the mountain pass. Had that pass not been found they would've held much longer. Additionally the drive to find the pass rather than push the battle home proves the Persians were frustrated and didn't see the ability to go thru the Greeks in a reasonable timeframe as a possibility. To me it seems the Greeks were clearly losing few while inflicting unacceptable casualties on the Persians. The numbers may have been exaggerated slightly but you would assume the first and second day the Persians would not have been as cautious given their size vs the defenders and simply not yet knowing the outcome of their attempts. They would've likely thrown a maximized effort in day 1 and depending when they actually learned about the pass a doubled and more determined effort day 2. After learning of the pass they would've simply applied as much effort as needed to delay while going thru the pass to encircle the Greeks. So the first 2 days were likely mass casualty events for the Persians army. Another example is the quality of troops the Persians eventually put into the battle. In their frustration they put their most elite troops into the battle sacrificing years of training and experience and a valuable asset to the Army.
It's worth remembering that this was AFTER The Ten Thousand and their March to the Sea. Greek hoplites were considered the greatest heavy infantry in the world even by the Persians at this point. That kind of legend impacts morale.
@@adamtedder1012, I stand corrected, just checked the dates. Ten Thousand was later, however, the reputation of Greek hoplites was significant even in Persia even by this point. They were considered the best heavy infantry in the world at the time
well, Leonidas himself treated unarmed Persian ambassadors with Unnecessary cruelty That's why Xerxes didn't have a reason to treat him according to the usual custom
@@jackalope07 Yeah, I think this history has become a little distorted into "freedom loving good people" vs "freedom hating baddies", when in reality it was more a story of tit-for-tat retaliations between different powers trying to serve their own ends.
@@jackalope07 They had every right to do so. The Persians would have came anyway. They literally wanted to conquer the world. (Respect for the devil`s advocate part)
Another great video Invicta, Hopefully we get to see more Ancient Greek and Persians videos in the future! Would be interested to get daily life in Ancient Greece videos at some point, similarly to how you do The Roman ones. Seeing how the two, Greeks and Romans differ would be awesome.
You've misinterpretted the video. 2:02 is where Xerxes' fleet was in Asia Minor before departing. You can see on 2:13 that where the Mount Athos canal was, like you said on the third claw from the left (first claw from the right) of the Chalkidiki peninsula.
Thanks for a great video on this subject. I'm glad you did not fall for the usual Greek legend about the traitor leading Persian troops through a pass. The Persians fought in Anatolia, the Caucasus, Bactria etc. They knew well there was a pass through the mountain. Xerxes even stopped his army for 4 days before attacking the Greek contingent. However, the population of Athens was only about 35K in the city. The countryside did contain 200,000. Thebes had already been medized and any Thebans on the Greek side would be dissenters to that position. There is a great read about the Phocians at the pass and why there was virtually no resistance to the Persians. Delphi in Phocian territory was not touched and there are so reasons for that. Look it up under The Phocian Betrayal at Thermopylae. Thanks again!
Dunkirk was a Defeat,Nazis Germany could of wiped out almost the entire British Army,If wasn’t for Hitler’s sentimental views,that he admired the British and considered them fellow Germanic folk,If wasn’t for that,History would be different,No D Day,and the Third Reich would have Dominion Not Only Of the UK but Much Of the World..Read History Dude..p.s.The Russians won the War..
That the Greeks took more casualties would make sense since we could loose huge volleys of arrows at them without necessarily engaging too much in close combat. I say our 1000 dead on the field is accurate and 19000 was made up by Herodot.
You're forgetting how thoroughly the Ten Thousand trashed Achaemenid armies earlier. The phalanx was very well protected from missile fire. Losses were definitely disproportionate in favor of the Greeks, just not disproportionate enough.
At that time, the acropolis of Athens did not have the appearance shown in your video. In its present form, the Parthenon was built later, and any other temples present probably were enhanced at a later date also.
If you have been to the Acropolis, you can see the foundations of the original Temple to Athena that the Persians burned down in front of the Erechthion Maidens :) They also took some of the Fallen Columns from this first Temple and installed them into the sides of the Acropolis’ foundations to be displayed so that no Greek or other Athenian would forget about the Persians atrocities when they burned down their city! 👍
Funny how spartans are now portrayed as the heroic defenders of greece when they were so unwilling to make sacrifices for others. Also how much thermopylae was made to be a big thing after the fact.
it was a heroic because they sent their king and their elite to death! persians suffered huge loses, and last battle at plataies was against 10000 spartans.thats the meaning of heroe
The more I learn about Herodotus, the less I trust his details while seeing him more as a collector of tales which he embellishes or outright changes to provide a comprehensive telling.
Read his Histories. It Is difficult to tell apart the probable facts from propaganda. Particularly on the Persían wars he provides lots of facts with incredible detail that sound more invented than real. There Is obviously no limit to oral tradición and seems sensible to think that anyone was free to add something of his own.
@@Theodoros_Kolokotronis And you help make my point. Unless you were there interviewing Cicero personally, then you have only 2nd hand, no wait, -3rd-, -7th-, -54th-, well, a lot of hands touched that information before you heard the latest version. Let me put it this way - NOT admissible in court.
There is a debate on whether or not Thermopylae actually accomplished anything. Many cities and towns were sacked including Athens after that battle. While, as Invicta points out, the Spartans decided to hide behind their wall and abandon the rest of greece. Of course, they left that part out of the movie.
Has the shoreline moved a huge distance? I am looking on maps and you and the movie show all this occurring directly on the beaches and cliffs. These locations have a tremendous amount of farmland in between
It has changed as you describe. There are enough sources that describe the narrow pass at the hot gates that it would be odd to doubt it's existence. Time and the sea have made their mark on the once fabled location of Greek defenses
The shoreline around Thermopylae retreated a lot in the last 24 centuries. The sediment of the river acummulated and created a couple miles of land. The shoreline back then would be around the line where the highway is today. A similar thing happened at Miletus, that used to be a port town but is now sittting in a hill over a plain. another major change is lake Copais in Beotia that got drained in the 1850’s.
man i havent commented on something in years. for some reason this seemed extra cool and gave me big vibes of the old total war days haha awesome video!
Kings and Generals gets too political and you can tell their political stance. I do not want that when I’m trying to learn. That is why I ABSOLUTELY LOVE Invicta. (HistoryMarche and Historian Civilas are amazing as well). Just straight history. No spin. Thank you Invicta for everything you do.
Exactly. Kings Generals have a top notch production but their storytelling is either inept or spotty, and they miss key details that they hide or intentionally ignore.
I think Kings and Generals gets way too into the weeds now too. I appreciate it to an extent. But their stuff from 2 years ago or so was just the right amount of detail. Such as Caesar’s civil war series. Loved it But yeah, now the videos lack something. Which is a shame I was excited for the Alexander series
I hear what you’re saying, but wars is politics by more brutal means. I think it’s important to understand why alliances and battles turn out the way they did. Wars don’t just happen because of fate or time. Everything is a domino effect in history.
I watched this episode and wondered throughout if there were no historians in the Persian empire that gave accounts of this campaign. You quote Herodotus quite often but unless I missed it not a Persian historian. Is this an intentional omission or, I doubt seriously, there are no Persian chroniclers to be found?
This is such a cliffhanger! haha I liked the depiction of the events and in my head I was imagining characters from the movie 300 and the sequel and from god of war as well, hell even Assassin's Creed Odyssey haha so I cannot wait for the continuation of this story.
I wasn't watching thinking about the aftermath of Thermopylea, I was watching it to see the final outcome, sadly, it just left you hanging, really bad.
First casualty in war. Greek Reporting: 300 Spartans Dead and 20,000 Persians slain. Persian Reporting: 4,000 rebels dead at the cost of only 1,000 warriors.
Propotionally the Greeks lost way more men. More than half of their total forces at Thermopylae around 4,000 Hoplites out of a total of 7,000 at the beginning. Compared to the Persians who had between 70,000 - 300,000 soldiers which is kind of confusing but the ancients Greek sources tend to exaggerate for propaganda purposes. The Persians lost around 20,000 soldiers presumably but we don't know for sure, since their is a lack of Persian sources except for the biased Greek ones.
@@HeroHoundoom so you beleive 4000loses accoding to greek source but not the 20000 persians according to the same source?since they won the war why should they lie,they didnt lie about the cities who joined persians,about burned athens ,about the other lossed cities,about salamis,but at thermopyles they did?it could be one more defeat among the rest
@@manoliskoutras6613 I think the Greeks were more sure of the total numbers they had on their side than about the total numbers on the Persian side. This also includes calculating the losses at Thermopylae since the Greeks lost that battle and had to retreat, so how could they have counted the dead bodies on both sides?
Presented with the prospect of decapitating and mutilating the corpse of Mardonius after the battle of Plataea in revenge for the treatment of their fallen King Leonidas at Thermopylae, the Spartans flatly refused. Such deeds, they said, were worthy only of barbarians, not free Greeks.
Something I don't think was mentioned explaining the Persian behavior after the battle was the murder of their ambassadors, which while portrayed in a badass way now was a terrible religious crime. Herodotus said the Spartans were filled with fear of divine retribution and begged Xerxes to forgive them, which he refused to do. He had a right to act harshly according to the customs of the time
Spartans send 2 volunteers to ask to be sacrificed by Xerxes since they regret their sacrilegiousness action and wanted to make ''an honest equalization''. Xerxes was amazed when he learned that they came to him volluntarily
@@gavsar2748 I don’t blame him on that. Spartan customs were damn brutal. Their gods were extremely ruthless to mortals that did nothing. Let alone offenders. And Spartan Idols were even reportedly chained up and offered sacrifices on certain places at certain times
The true question that a lot of people didn't ask is: What happened to Demaratus? You know the exiled spartan king, who was discovered by Gorgo cheating against her father Cleomenes I.
If the Athenians had abandoned the fight like they threatened...and sailed their ships across the wine dark sea to Italy to rebuild their city state was their any power in Italy at that time strong enough to appose them? If not...once they got a foothold in Italy...could Rome ever had reached her full power...with such a warlike city state as " Italian Athens " to appose her?
It's clear that Delphi has an arrangment with the Persian long before the war started. They try, by all means, to discourage the greek polis to fight xerxes, with bad omens and oracles. They pass information too, that's why the persian don't sack the temples at Delphi. Later, of course, after the persian defeat, Delphi try to make things straight, but it shows.
Delphi was akin to the Vatican of the Greek world. I don’t know if you’re familiar with the five Sacred Wars that took place throughout Greece from 595-280 BCE, but they devastated the the greek city states and ensured that Macedon under Phillip II (Alexander the Great’s father) ultimately dominated Greece not only militarily but politically. Look up the Amphictyonic League of Delphi and Sacred Wars. It’s very interesting reading. It’s impossible to understand the politics and history of ancient Greece without knowing about that. It’s fascinating reading. Tragic too. Most of the Greek infighting was based around some infraction against Amphictyonic League of Delphi or an attempt to control or sack it for money by despots and mercenaries. Greece was very much like Medieval Italy. Makes sense why Machiavelli used so much of ancient Greek history in The Prince.
@@isaack2084 Yeah, I know about that and as you say, a fascinating moment in history. Thanks for sharing! Best wishes P.S.: How funny is that no history channel that I know cover machiavelli as it should be. Every one say (they means justified the end, an other things that machiavelli never said, but noone talks about the amazing thinks he did talk about).
If there is one continuous marker of western civilisation since the start; it's utterly absurd KDA claims. Even in Stalingrad, the Germans had a lot more of their men killed than the red army 700k versus 400k. While I do not doubt the Persians, as attackers almost always do against entrenched defenders, lost more than the defending Greeks, It's likely a similar ratio.
I just drove past Thermopylae a couple weeks ago. Now there's nothing but a toll road there lol. But to the north, you have a vast flat plane and then the mountains begin like a massive and unpassable fortress.
The terrain has been altered throughout the ages. At the ancient times, Thermopylae were a narrow pass between Kallidromon mountain and the sea. Millenia of debris deposit by dozens of streams and torrents have created that flat plane you saw.
The geography of the place have changed a lot. Now the piece of flat land between the mountains and the sea is much wider. It was pretty narrow 2000 years ago...
10:38 - Herodotus's Histories are quite fair regarding the Persians (much to the anger of some Greeks at the time), indeed he lived within the Persian empire, so we have no reason to doubt his account here. He says the Persians didn't do a great job of hiding their losses and further visits to the battlefield easily discovered the "hidden dead". I therefore think your conclusion is incorrect.
It would be cool if you guys make a video about all the stories that were told and written about Cyrus death, by Greek and Roman historians and figure out which one is closer to reality You know kinda like what if Caesar had survived series or something Think about it and please consider it Herodotus mentioned that he heard other stories too, but wrote the one that he liked the most because he thought it was more epic You know since the ending was similar to the ending of one of those mythical Greek stories (greed and arrogance leading great humans to their demise) and since Herodotus was a Greek, this story is very debatable and has many things wrong with it if you think about it Other Greek or Roman historians never even mentioned Tomyris or her tribe and each one wrote a different story The most famous one, doesn't always mean the most accurate one The most logical story about his death that i've heard up until now, is the one that Ctesias has written Ctesias had his mistakes while writing about Cyrus life but his record of Cyrus death seems way more logical and the fact that he worked at the Achaemeinid royal court kinda increases the accuracy since he could've had access to their history sources He's also written the numbers of casualties on both sides (though probably exaggerated numbers), the name of the king of the rebel Derbices, the number of Cyrus Scythian reinforcements and name of the Scythian king who led them Plus some information about how the battle went According to him, Cyrus fought the Derbices (Iranian tribal people in Hyrcania) and won the battle but died three days later because he was wounded in the middle of that battle That's enough time for his men to reach Pasargadae without his corpse rotting since Derbices territories were in the north of modern day Iran and that Cyrus didn't immediately die and it was way closer than Central Asia Unlike Massagetaes (eastern Iranic nomadic people), who lived in seperate tribes (like Greek city states), they lived in a unified satrapy and had more manpower than a Scythian tribe and even had allies with war elephants from India Meaning, they had the terrain advantage and enough manpower to fight an army of 80,000-100,000 men, specially when living in modern day north of Iran (where i live) These lands are perfect for Guerilla warfares According to Herodotus, the only advantage the Massagetaes had was a river which they let Cyrus army cross it without even harrassing it What kind of wise military commander would do that ? They were in open plains, with no city walls, no fortresses, no trenches, no natural barriers, not even enough manpower and they let the enemy pass their only line of defence How many people lived in ONE nomadic Scythian tribe in 530 BC ? 3,000 ? 4,000 ? Let's say 5,000-10,000 How many of them could fight ? While the Achaemenids are known for their large armies which are estimated between 50,000 to 200,000 They were professional fighters armed with almost any weapon imaginable at the time and were familiar with nomadic fighting styles and battle tactics (they themselves were nomads once) and were being led by the greatest warlord at the time who won every battle he fought against mighty empires or even other Scythian tribes according to other Greco Roman historians The terrain here in the north is great for a local army to defend against a superior invading force And if we take a look at Cyrus conquest map, he'd conquered territories up to Aral sea/lake in central Asia Massagetae territory is shown next to Dahae territories under Aral sea/lake in most of the maps and according to Cyrus map, he conquered that province and there was even a city fortress called Cyropolis near there While there's no evidence of Tomyris existence beside Herodotus few sentences If she had indeed killed him in battle and completely destroyed his army, then why there's no report of her raiding and plundering or even conquering the reach defenseless Achaemeinid territories or Cyrus son, Cambyses, a vengeful cruel man (at least according to Herodotus) campaign against them ? Darius the great mentioned the names of the people who REVOLTED against him, right after he became king, in his inscription, and the Scythians of Central Asia (beyond the jaxartes) were among the rebels (the man in the end of the line) And since the word revolt has been used, we can assume they were already conquered by Cyrus As far as i know, even Alexander's historians didn't say anything about his skeleton's head missing Ali Sami Shirazi also identified the two corpses/skeletons in his tomb as Cyrus and Cassandane's If what Herodotus says it's true, and Massagetaes took Cyrus body and cut his head off, then what are those remains even doing in his tomb ?
i have historian teacher in uni and he have saying when you study history you can't belive what on man said or write especially if that man is enemy of what you study in this case greek×persian so how wild the persian was in the persian-greek war.... or what happened to body of cyrus .... or how good king of persia rule.... every thing the greek historian write about persia have little BS with it cuz they are enemy's at the time and have hate for each other and little funny alexander the great the man who conquered the persian empire have better saying about persian vs herotodus and other greek who write about persia
I love the exploration of this era because people don't realize just how close many of the most famous and ideological Greek States came to being destroyed. Sparta was one of the primary enemies, and with the resistance of the Spartan King and his forces if Persia had captured Sparta they would have wiped them out of history. Athens lost their capital, and their population took flight. If the battle of Salamis ended differently you could have seen much of the most organized Athenian remnants be wiped out, forcing the survivors to scatter to the world with the rest of the Greek refugees. Their were a lot of cities on Persian proverbial 'shit list' in the peloponnese that were due for a burning and razing. While the effects of this can, has and will be constantly debated the way Greece came within a breath of being drastically altered would be a fascinating topic to discuss. Not just a Persian victory, but the effects of if the Athenians had been wiped out or permanently scattered, if Thebes had been sacked, if the Spartans allies betrayed them for safety and a way off the Persian shitlist. Greece failed to unify largely through infighting which was heavily influenced by the Persians. Had the Spartans been the only major survivor of the war, it could be possible to see a Spartan unified Greece. Like all history it feels like small changes could have major results, with those playing into greater historical ideas like what if a united Greece looked outwards to unite Greek colonies. Greek Colonies like, if I recall correctly, Syracuse? I'm loving this video and I'm excited to see the continuation of it.
@@عليياسر-ذ5ب Reminiscent of the conquest the US does towards those who violate their values. You practice Zoroastrianism, and can tell us of their need to invade other countries?
We Greeks hate each other until someone disturbs us from hating each other. Then we unite to finish him so we can hate each other or we just hate each other and ask him to help us destroy our enemy. Then we destroy him because he destroyed our brothers, which we hated. Dont disturb us unless you are a friendly stranger 😝
We!? You and I weren’t alive back then, nor should we take credit for their work and failures. Even then, they still fought each other! They’re were Greeks that were allied with the Persians, dude. Their wasn’t really much of Greek unity. They just feared the Persian superpower at the time. It took Alexander and his father to stop this and bring true Greek unity. Both were also killed by their fellow Greeks. The Romans did a much better job with us, that we kept their Empire alive in the East for another thousand years.…😖
It's always funny that non-persian and non-greeks start to argue and fight in comments about greco-persian wars while the Greeks and Persians respect each other's history
![Battle of Plataea (479 BC)⚔️Fight for the Fate of Greece [Day 1-10] DOCUMENTARY](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/gHy9pYHSTXo/mqdefault.jpg)
![Felix "Unfair" | [Stray Kids : SKZ-PLAYER]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Oswujxm2Ag0/mqdefault.jpg)
We follow up this episode with our Avenging Leonidas series: ruclips.net/video/f7PQvP4GF20/видео.html
_ pes 20 T numerol _ 20 sid gamadion _ pythagoras tetractys hexagram 20 _ atlas _ atlast20 _ 048 even _ 1235679 odd _ english T 20th letter _
The Spartans were searching for years to locate Ephialtes. The Spartan agency "krypteia" disguised as shepherds, was patrolling the mountain passes of the region. Herodotus describes the end of Ephialtes.
What happened to him? Did they find him? 👀
@@davidknight2104 yea Ephialtes died by someone else’s hand for a completely different reason but he was still rewarded
He has been damned and cursed ever since ,so to speak. His name is now the Greek word for "nightmare".
He lingered around for a while and was killed over a money issue by other people.
@@selfiekroos1777 You mean he still stayed after everyone knew what he did?? What an idiot.
It’s funny how modern history tells Greek and Persian history after this battle. Most people don’t know that the Persians went on to dominate Greek politics via financial subterfuge. They paid and played every greek city against one another for the next hundred plus years after the battle until the Macedonian invasion by Phillip II and Alexander the Great. Persia financed and backed the Peloponnesian League (led by Sparta) into destroying the Delian League (led by Athens). That was what the Peloponnesian War was about.
Persia wanted to curtail Athenian regional naval dominance in the Aegean Sea and Black Sea, and ensure control over the city states in Asia Minor (modern day turkey). They did the same again with the Boeotian League (led by Thebes) against the Peloponnesian League. It was a great story and cool movie, but it didn’t change the status quo. Persia operated much as the British and American empire. Provide finance and naval support, and play kingmaker. Persian was fine supporting the Greeks and Balkan regions being in constant warfare while they controlled trade and politics from afar. Ancient Greece was more like Game of Thrones than Band of Brothers. Damn near every invasion they faced was because one of the city states invited in a powerful foreign power to get the upper hand in a local conflict. Persia, Macedon, and Rome.
I'm really excited to have a follow up series where we look at that period of Greco-Persian history
@@InvictaHistory I look forward to it! Very little attention is paid to the “inter-war” years between the Greco-Persian Wars and the invasion of Alexander the Great.
@@InvictaHistory please do mecerenries I the persian empire indian ,greek ,scytains etx
The Romans did this too all the time "Divide and rule"
It lead us to getting pools of experience points, that we spent to later conquer most of the known world.😬
Delphi is such a beautiful place. Go to Greece in March and not only is the weather perfect but you have a good chance of being completely alone at some of these world heritage sites like Delphi, temple of Poseidon, etc.
March is probably best month for whole Mediterranean (never been to Greece so far, but in Spain & Italy several times)
The Persian savages like today's Islamic savages got what they deserved when Alexander exercised his revenge by burning Persepolis to the ground and completely destroying the Persian Empire .
What comes around goes around!
We literally visited Thermopylae today - what a great add-on. Amazing content as always!
Been wanting to go, does it have a vibe?
The passage of Thermopylae doesn't exist today as it has subsided. Monuments still stand though.
Not really tbh. The mountainwalls are not scalable for an army - I've learned that. But the sea has retreated so far it's basically a small plain now (so nothing like the 20m pass it was) and it smelled like the thermal baths close by (sulphur-like).
If you're okay with those things, it's nice to have been 'where it all happened' :) And the small museum's pretty nice. Plus, Delphi is relatively close by, so that might be packed into a trip, perhaps.
I love this channel. You bring history to life Invicta. Thank you.
I'm actually gonna agree. I used to think invicta was pretty dry, so I was sceptical when I clicked on the video but I have been pleasantly surprised.
The Patriot is in love everyone 💕 ❤ congratulations Patriot 👏 😆
@@matimus100 haha
If we come to the bare bones and leave aside the ultra inflated tragic facts as (invented?) related by Herodotus Thermopylae was a minor skirmish in which Greeks behind a wall stopped the army at a mountain pass until they were bypassed and not longer protected by the wall were all killed. Herodotus wrote in praise of the temporarily victorious Greeks and no doubt the audiences celebrated the highly adorned facts in his writings.
The whole sensation Is that Xerxes' was a Hitler like monster that had as a goal in life to cause pain and suffering to the poor democracy lover Greeks when the truth is that the athenians had burned Sardes without any provocation nor state of war between them and Persia
300 gets a lot of hate but still an entertaining movie. As a Greek I’ll always love it. Beats Captain Spandex pt 82 that Hollywood loves now
It's as Intresting to non-greeks as a black Achilles movie is Intresting to you my dear Greek friend.
Its kinda goofy though.
@@ryansmith8345 Wrong. I'm not Greek.
@@ryansmith8345 idk bro. The only people I’ve ever seen bash 300 are people online who feel as if the movie insults their intelligence or something. Off the top of my head, everybody I know says they like the movie, including females. Probably cause of the hot bods and Leonidas beating Gorgos cheeks but hey. Something for everybody
@@WarHammer1989 everybody in Greece perhaps...
I was watching a ww2 documentary about the battle of Greece a while back. There was another battle of Thermopylae in that campaign. The narrator made the statement that the main difference between the two battles is that xerxes didn’t have air power. Lol
yeah, I remember, when the wehrmacht advanced the Greek PM committed suicide
There was also a gaul invasion of Greece in 279 bc,Greeks holded again at the thermopelau
Seems like Xerxes’ actions after the encounter with Leonidas are those of a very frustrated ‘victor’
Pyrrhean victory should be probably called xerxesian victory🤣
@@bt7843 Leonaifas still got brutally defeated 😂
@@EusisLandale
Leonidas was 60 and fought on the Front and killed the so called "Immortals" (until they fled.)
Xerxes was far away in safety like a Coward.
To this Day Leonidas is a Hero Warrior-King the World look at his Actions with Awe.
Xerxes and his mostly enslaved Fighters vanished bit by bit.
No Hero at all. Rather an Embarrassment concider his superior Numbers.
Where is the Persian Empire now? Oh,... never mind. 😏
Good episode but I think the quote is thus:
"Go tell the Spartans, passersby
That here
Obedient to their will
We lie"
Either way, great stuff.
How many others read Gates of Fire 5x and cried every time ?
@@wedgeantilles8575 Gated of Fire by Pressfield
The ancient Greek quote...
Ω ξειν, αγγέλλειν Λακεδαιμονίοις ότι τήδε κείμεθα τοις κείνων ρήμασι πειθόμενοι .
The translation...
O, foreign passenger, announce to the Lacedaemonians that we are buried here, obeying their commandments.
We just don't know if the Persians lost 20,000 men. What we do know is that exaggeration was not beyond Herdotous.
Fantastic series! Can't wait for part 2!
What other "Aftermath" events should we cover?
the fall of Rome or Constantinople maybe? i like the focus on politics and daily life.
The afternath of the battle of Marathon
I've always been interested in the aftermath of Pompei
The Aftermath of the Battle of the Saw (Truceless or Mercenary War) in Cathage. It happened after the First Punic War. It rolled the political dice that led to the Second Punic War after. Hanno the Great basically removed Hamilcar Barca’s influence in Carthage by allowing them to set up a private empire in Spain. Hamilcar met many of his and Hannibal’s political allies during this battle. Carthage should’ve reformed after losing the first punic war, and focused on retaking its Mediterranean colonies. It doomed Carthage to lose in the Second Punic War. Rome was never seriously threatened at sea after the First Punic War, and Hannibal had to depend on Iberian troops and an overland route through the alps for reinforcements in what was basically a private war. Carthage sent very little troops and even less resources.
Little big horn
god, these are always so interesting... THANK YOU for taking the time to make these!
Is Zeus your God
I always did wonder how Herodotus knew of Xerxes hiding so many of his dead when the point of the deception would be so no one wound out. Also I like how you put Argos not in the alliance. It's a reference to the city that pretty much never lived up to their commitments. Not only did they pull out of the alliance when Thessaly did, I think the only promise they kept over the ages were their truces. Broken promises to them are like what warrior culture is to Sparta.
Argos did not have much of an army by the time, years of fighting Sparta had left them wrecked.
There's a very small part of Greece that actually participated in the war if you think about it defending Greece.
Middle eastern greek cities were enslaved, much of northern Greece as well, greek city states in Southern Italy also didn't give a fuck. Other greek cities in Spain were also too far to help.
And then there's cities that even allied with Persia to further their goals like Thebes. Geographically wise Greeks that fought against Persia were coming quite probably from even less than 20 percent of the total greek land.
@@GothPaoki I know there were Greeks on both sides of the war, I just singled out Argos since they were allied with Platea at this time. "We're allied with the Persians and we hate Athens" is a better reason to not contribute to Thermopylae than "I said I was your buddy three years ago and while you never turned your back on me, I was too busy fighting Sparta who is now your ally"
@@alex_zetsu actually Sparta had a terrible military culture that made sure they can never take advantage of their manpower. Noy to mention that it was quite rigid. They keep using the only thing they knew {hoplite warfare} when siege craft, diplomacy, logistics or even just out right good state craft would have been much better. There is a reason they only ever managed to conqueror one third of the Peloponnese
RUclips expert spotted!!!
If he branded those generals and soldiers as slaves, it is possible he used them for the labor of preparing the field instead of using his own men. It would actuality be useful to further dishoner them as slaves. The story could have survived from them…. I dont know much about the subject so I appreciate videos like this. Thanks.
He branded them and released them. So they would live the rest of their lives forever marked as cowards/traitors/dishonored men. They wouldn't be able to interact with anyone, without that person seeing the mark of Xerxes on their face.
Lost in these historic timelines is your depicting of these events
The Persians were expelled from Greece, proper by about 478 at the battle of Sestos: this secured the Hellespointe. Only about 3 years after Thermopylae. A series of battles followed to get the Greek colonies back from the edge of what is now Turkey. And as usual the Spartans and their allies wared with Athens and her allies.
The Athenians deserved it
The defeat of the Athenians, had much more to do with a plague, then anything else.
@@raywhitehead730 The plague in turn had to do with Athens being besieged.
Modern day Turkey... A wholly Greek area before all of their savage genocides.
@@Moutopher And why is that?
F*cking love your videos!!! Growing up as a kid I could never access documentaries like yours, so thank you. Thank you for making these stories and our history accessible to all!
Disgraceful disgusting language you're reported lover boy
Thinking about the sacks of ancient cities always makes my heart ache for the thought of all the suffering and destruction caused & lost to time...
It's horrific to think such atrocities still occur to this day.
It’s in our nature as a species unfortunately 😔. We’ll do it until we wipe ourselves out. Planet Earth will continue though as it always does.
yeah so sad those hundreds of thousand of innocent people in the middle east got killed by the united states :(
orcrainians will turn to popsicles this winter
@@isaack2084 We'll never wipe ourselves out
@@seanplays16
🤡
Alexander the Great: *Destroys Persepolis*
Persians: "WHY DID YOU DO THAT? WE DID NOT OPPOSE YOUR SOVEREIGNTY HERE!"
Alexander the Great: "I'm sorry, but we couldn't let what you did to Athens go unpunished..."
Ptolemy: "Actually, my wife Thaïs accidentally burned one of the curtains in the Palace while she was drunk and then..."
Alexander the Great: "Shut up, Ptolemy! You and that crazy b*tch are going to ruin my reputation!"
Persians: What about Thebes?
Alexander: They were rude to me!
Slave: You killed my family!
Alexander: I said I was sorry! Now shut it you rude Theban!
The burning of Athens was retribution for the burning of Sardis. But the Greeks save for Herodotus do not bother to keep a tally of their wounds they inflict, only ones that are inflicted upon themselves.
@@KTA1sVidsandFacts Talking about wounds, that Athenian wound opened by Thais should serve as a reminder that when you burn down the craddle of global civilization, the Athenian shrine and the most magnificent monuments ever erected by man, you should be on the lookout for retribution. Charring Persepolis bore testimony to that undeniable fact. Next up, the United Kingdom and the British Museum... One thing is for sure; in the end, divine justice is always served, in one way or another.
@@anastasiosliagkris576 ruclips.net/video/ztVMib1T4T4/видео.html
1: The Ancient Greeks thought themselves descended from the Egyptian Civilization. Never mind, the fact that the first Civilization was Sumer, and there were multiple that followed in Egypt, Indus River Valley, China, and Norte Chico.
2: Athens' Golden Age when most of its monuments were constructed was during the Peloponnesian War, after they used the Delian League as a way to exact tribute from other Greeks. In matter of fact throughout most of Ancient Greek History the City-State of Miletus was the center of the Greek world until the Ionian Revolt.
3: Θαΐς and her story of being the reason 𐎱𐎠𐎼𐎿 was burnt down is likely legend, as Plutarch and Diodorus Siculus didn't want to lay the blame on Alexander.
4: The Greeks were so heavily colonized by Rome that they forget themselves as Greeks for over a thousand years, and it wasn't until the rise of Greek Separatism in the Ottoman Empire that they started to recognize themselves as Greeks again.
@@jeremyalexander9761 You seem to be ignoring the whole Ionian Revolt, and the history that preceded it, and what came after.
Alas it was a shame that Alexander's generals killed him for becoming Persianized.
I think one of the least discussed topics is what happened immediately after the fall of Western Roman Empire.
This will be a perfect choice for an "Aftermath" series
The Germans are the barbarians
The aftermath wasn't as immediate as that of, say, the battle of Thermopylae. Things mostly continued as usual for decades. For example, nothing much changed in Italy under Odoacer after he officially ended the Western Empire by deposing Romulus Augustulus. Roman administrators and bureaucrats kept doing their jobs, the Senate still existed and comprised of Romans and life in Italy went on as normal. He even built monuments and repaired older ones. He ruled as a nominal governor of the Eastern Empire and paid lip service to the Emperor in Constantinople to avoid any conflict. But as he started getting more ambitious the Eastern Empire played the Ostrogoths against him and Odoacer was deposed by them under Theoderic the Great who again preseved Roman institutions while paying lip service to the Eastern Emperor. Things really started to change after his death when the Kingdom was divided into Pro-Romans under Amalsuntha who wanted to reunite Italy with the Eastern Empire and the anti-Romans who wanted to destroy Roman institutions in Italy and turn into a Barbarian state. After Amalsuntha was captured and killed by the Anti Romans, Justinian the Great used this as a pretext to declare war on the Ostrogoths. What followed was the extremely destructive 20 year Gothic was which saw thousands dead and Italy completely destroyed. Great cities like Rome and Ravenna turned into post apocalyptic ruins due to constant sieges. The Gothic war and the subsequent Lombard invasion is what officially ushered in the Dark Ages for Italy.
Europe went to shit for like 800 years and the Pope presided while anyone with two gold coins and a sword tried to kill their cousin. End of video
@@xunqianbaidu6917 They can't have it. As a Roman history fan I'm proudly contemptuous of the Middle Ages. Am I right? No. Do I care? Absolutely not.
@@xunqianbaidu6917 Constantinople is actually kinda cool, you got me there. But I'm more interested in their constant knife fights with the Sasanians. Post-Arab conquest Byzantium is just depressing.
This is absolutely AMAZING
There's a last aftermath of The Battle of Thermopylae that never gets mentioned. The story itself was famous, and well known to the classical peoples that followed, including the expansionist Romans. When the time came for Rome to conquer Greece (always in defense -- NEVER as aggressors as most empires tell themselves) they sent Cato the Elder. Once again, the Greeks, severely undermanned by this point in history, chose Thermopylae as a defensive holding ground. Cato's scouts return and inform him of this, and he goes "isn't there supposed to be a shepherd's trail around here somewhere? Ah, there it is." And so the Roman front held the Greeks stationary while another portion of the Roman army flanked them, causing an immediate rout.
And then Cato the Elder, in front of cartoon crimson sky, planted the signifier into the ground and said "THIS. IS. ROME!" Actually that part never happened. As far as I know.
Think a similar story happened in WWI or WWII. Some verse from the bible let some British. Lemme see if that's close enough to Google.
Yup! Vivian Gilbert it was .
It happened again when celts invaded ,they didnt know about the shepards secret path though so they lost so at least it worked perfectly once
@@lord_cataphract216 Ha! Stupid celts. Teach you to play Mediterranean Domination without reading the manual.
The celts under Brennus II? Those celts?
Aftermath? About 280 years after??
And you do not think that the pass was forgotten by the Greeks
Excellent explanation, thank you! I can't wait to see the subsequent video!
How about a show on the after math of the battle that led to Xenophon's March of the 10,000? The aftermath of the defeat of Athens's at Syracuse would also be a good one. Aftermath of Platea? The aftermath of Crassus's defeat in the east? You could also do Antony's campaign through Armenia.
good old Anabasis yeah
It's so nice to learn about these events by only studying the facts, with none of the toxic nationalism of Greek schools. Great video!
Philip of Macedonia based the Hellenic Asian Expedition on these Persian sacrileges which his son, Alexander the Great completed with the razing of Persepolis 170 years after the Persian Empire fell to him after defeating Darius in three major battles.
Didn't know that, thats interesting
I didnt know Alexander lived to 170 yrs, tho.... :D
Looking forward to the next episode 🤓 great work guys
Fantastic effort in this video! I enjoyed it greatly.
I tend to agree that the Greeks inflicted mass casualties by the fact that they held 3 days against a much larger army only failing due to the mountain pass. Had that pass not been found they would've held much longer. Additionally the drive to find the pass rather than push the battle home proves the Persians were frustrated and didn't see the ability to go thru the Greeks in a reasonable timeframe as a possibility. To me it seems the Greeks were clearly losing few while inflicting unacceptable casualties on the Persians. The numbers may have been exaggerated slightly but you would assume the first and second day the Persians would not have been as cautious given their size vs the defenders and simply not yet knowing the outcome of their attempts. They would've likely thrown a maximized effort in day 1 and depending when they actually learned about the pass a doubled and more determined effort day 2. After learning of the pass they would've simply applied as much effort as needed to delay while going thru the pass to encircle the Greeks. So the first 2 days were likely mass casualty events for the Persians army. Another example is the quality of troops the Persians eventually put into the battle. In their frustration they put their most elite troops into the battle sacrificing years of training and experience and a valuable asset to the Army.
It's worth remembering that this was AFTER The Ten Thousand and their March to the Sea. Greek hoplites were considered the greatest heavy infantry in the world even by the Persians at this point. That kind of legend impacts morale.
@@TheAchilles26 I'm pretty sure this happened before the ten thousand. I could be wrong though.
@@adamtedder1012, I'm pretty sure the Ten Thousand even predated the Ionian Revolts that kicked off Marathon
@@adamtedder1012, I stand corrected, just checked the dates. Ten Thousand was later, however, the reputation of Greek hoplites was significant even in Persia even by this point. They were considered the best heavy infantry in the world at the time
@@TheAchilles26 yes sir. I remembered reading the book back when I was in the military. Had to be around 2004. Awesome story.
well, Leonidas himself treated unarmed Persian ambassadors with Unnecessary cruelty That's why Xerxes didn't have a reason to treat him according to the usual custom
The Persians could have just not invaded and conquer Greek colonies…
@@90skidcultist Athens could have not supported the Ionian revolts (devils advocate, not actually pro Empire here)
@@jackalope07 Yeah, I think this history has become a little distorted into "freedom loving good people" vs "freedom hating baddies", when in reality it was more a story of tit-for-tat retaliations between different powers trying to serve their own ends.
@@jackalope07 They had every right to do so. The Persians would have came anyway. They literally wanted to conquer the world.
(Respect for the devil`s advocate part)
@@90skidcultist Fast foward a couple of decades and Athens is trying the same thing, Persia wasn't a unique threat to Greek freedom
Such a cool, unappreciated part of the story!
Another great video Invicta, Hopefully we get to see more Ancient Greek and Persians videos in the future!
Would be interested to get daily life in Ancient Greece videos at some point, similarly to how you do The Roman ones. Seeing how the two, Greeks and Romans differ would be awesome.
Excellent channel for relaxing thanks invicta
Oh hey the defeat of Syracuse and Carthage by Rome those would also be good aftermath stories
Nice video! But in 2:02 Mt. Athos is located elsewhere. It's the third "claw" from left at the Chalkidiki peninsula
You've misinterpretted the video. 2:02 is where Xerxes' fleet was in Asia Minor before departing. You can see on 2:13 that where the Mount Athos canal was, like you said on the third claw from the left (first claw from the right) of the Chalkidiki peninsula.
As it turned out, the "wooden wall" are the mighty Athenian fleet.
One of the most thrilling historical novels on the legendary Battle of Thermopylae is “Gates of Fire” by Steven Pressfield.
Truly epic.
Nice Saruman reference around 11:00 there Invicta 😏
Thanks for a great video on this subject. I'm glad you did not fall for the usual Greek legend about the traitor leading Persian troops through a pass. The Persians fought in Anatolia, the Caucasus, Bactria etc. They knew well there was a pass through the mountain. Xerxes even stopped his army for 4 days before attacking the Greek contingent. However, the population of Athens was only about 35K in the city. The countryside did contain 200,000. Thebes had already been medized and any Thebans on the Greek side would be dissenters to that position. There is a great read about the Phocians at the pass and why there was virtually no resistance to the Persians. Delphi in Phocian territory was not touched and there are so reasons for that. Look it up under The Phocian Betrayal at Thermopylae. Thanks again!
Moral of the story: is better to fight to the death than to trust in the mercy of your enemy.
Thank you for the video it was really good
Rumor has it King Leonidas and the brave 300 are still dining in Hades.
The evacuation of Athens and the Battle of Salamis, are heroic stories of resolution, equivalent to Dunkirk and the battle of Britain.
Dunkirk was a Defeat,Nazis Germany could of wiped out almost the entire British Army,If wasn’t for Hitler’s sentimental views,that he admired the British and considered them fellow Germanic folk,If wasn’t for that,History would be different,No D Day,and the Third Reich would have Dominion Not Only Of the UK but Much Of the World..Read History Dude..p.s.The Russians won the War..
That the Greeks took more casualties would make sense since we could loose huge volleys of arrows at them without necessarily engaging too much in close combat. I say our 1000 dead on the field is accurate and 19000 was made up by Herodot.
You're forgetting how thoroughly the Ten Thousand trashed Achaemenid armies earlier. The phalanx was very well protected from missile fire. Losses were definitely disproportionate in favor of the Greeks, just not disproportionate enough.
At that time, the acropolis of Athens did not have the appearance shown in your video. In its present form, the Parthenon was built later, and any other temples present probably were enhanced at a later date also.
If you have been to the Acropolis, you can see the foundations of the original Temple to Athena that the Persians burned down in front of the Erechthion Maidens :) They also took some of the Fallen Columns from this first Temple and installed them into the sides of the Acropolis’ foundations to be displayed so that no Greek or other Athenian would forget about the Persians atrocities when they burned down their city! 👍
@@SpartanLeonidas1821 Alexander made them pay.
@@jacktattis That’s true! 💯👍🏻
Funny how spartans are now portrayed as the heroic defenders of greece when they were so unwilling to make sacrifices for others. Also how much thermopylae was made to be a big thing after the fact.
it was a heroic because they sent their king and their elite to death! persians suffered huge loses, and last battle at plataies was against 10000 spartans.thats the meaning of heroe
Well thermopylae is like one of the first recorded last stands in history so yeah it is a big thing
You are a proper history nerd. Love it.
The more I learn about Herodotus, the less I trust his details while seeing him more as a collector of tales which he embellishes or outright changes to provide a comprehensive telling.
Nah, Herodotus did pretty damn well for his time! 👍
Read his Histories. It Is difficult to tell apart the probable facts from propaganda. Particularly on the Persían wars he provides lots of facts with incredible detail that sound more invented than real. There Is obviously no limit to oral tradición and seems sensible to think that anyone was free to add something of his own.
Regardless he is still today named the first historian
Mate, with all due respect, should we trust you or the great Roman Cicero who regarded Herodotus "The Father of History" ?
@@Theodoros_Kolokotronis And you help make my point. Unless you were there interviewing Cicero personally, then you have only 2nd hand, no wait, -3rd-, -7th-, -54th-, well, a lot of hands touched that information before you heard the latest version. Let me put it this way - NOT admissible in court.
Again, excellent video and insight
There is a debate on whether or not Thermopylae actually accomplished anything. Many cities and towns were sacked including Athens after that battle. While, as Invicta points out, the Spartans decided to hide behind their wall and abandon the rest of greece. Of course, they left that part out of the movie.
Still tasting the bitter taste of crow huh, and after all that time too, lol
@@kenneth9874 "Crow"? I'm not sure I follow. Who are you, again?
@@Mahbu oh, but you always follow
@@kenneth9874 That's a little weird.
Oh, were you one of those spartan groupies that got all butt hurt? That was, like, five years ago.
@@Mahbu nah, just recalling Alexander making fools and vassals almost at will of the persians thinking that must be the reason for your comment
Excellent video! Thank you very much!
Has the shoreline moved a huge distance? I am looking on maps and you and the movie show all this occurring directly on the beaches and cliffs. These locations have a tremendous amount of farmland in between
It's been 2,501 years since the battle and coastlines constantly change, volcanoes create new land, and water erodes coastlines.
Yes.
It has changed as you describe. There are enough sources that describe the narrow pass at the hot gates that it would be odd to doubt it's existence. Time and the sea have made their mark on the once fabled location of Greek defenses
The shoreline around Thermopylae retreated a lot in the last 24 centuries. The sediment of the river acummulated and created a couple miles of land. The shoreline back then would be around the line where the highway is today. A similar thing happened at Miletus, that used to be a port town but is now sittting in a hill over a plain. another major change is lake Copais in Beotia that got drained in the 1850’s.
Terrific video! Can't wait for Salamis! ⚔
Informative and interesting documentary shared by Invicta channel thanks
Can we get a aftermath of the battle of Plataea please!
man i havent commented on something in years. for some reason this seemed extra cool and gave me big vibes of the old total war days haha awesome
video!
Kings and Generals gets too political and you can tell their political stance. I do not want that when I’m trying to learn.
That is why I ABSOLUTELY LOVE Invicta. (HistoryMarche and Historian Civilas are amazing as well). Just straight history. No spin.
Thank you Invicta for everything you do.
**** Epic History is amazing as well
Exactly. Kings Generals have a top notch production but their storytelling is either inept or spotty, and they miss key details that they hide or intentionally ignore.
I think Kings and Generals gets way too into the weeds now too. I appreciate it to an extent. But their stuff from 2 years ago or so was just the right amount of detail. Such as Caesar’s civil war series. Loved it
But yeah, now the videos lack something. Which is a shame I was excited for the Alexander series
Armchair Historian: Hey, count me in!!! 😁
I hear what you’re saying, but wars is politics by more brutal means. I think it’s important to understand why alliances and battles turn out the way they did. Wars don’t just happen because of fate or time. Everything is a domino effect in history.
Invicta, why nobody makes videos about the Dacian Campaigns of the Emperor Trajan?
Here is one...
ruclips.net/video/R59YvnA6mZY/видео.html
:)
@@chrisyoung5363 Thank you man!
the aftermath of galipoli or agincourt would be interesting
History hahahahahahaha yes the Greeks allied with the Persians again
Awesome video and channel.
You just got a new Sub.
I watched this episode and wondered throughout if there were no historians in the Persian empire that gave accounts of this campaign. You quote Herodotus quite often but unless I missed it not a Persian historian. Is this an intentional omission or, I doubt seriously, there are no Persian chroniclers to be found?
None have come to us from that period Xerxes would have had them for sure .
Enjoyed ♥️
This is such a cliffhanger! haha I liked the depiction of the events and in my head I was imagining characters from the movie 300 and the sequel and from god of war as well, hell even Assassin's Creed Odyssey haha so I cannot wait for the continuation of this story.
1:08 Ah yes who could forget the ancient Pharaoh class tanks, thank you History Channel at 2am
I wasn't watching thinking about the aftermath of Thermopylea, I was watching it to see the final outcome, sadly, it just left you hanging, really bad.
hell of a job man thanx I love history
First casualty in war.
Greek Reporting: 300 Spartans Dead and 20,000 Persians slain.
Persian Reporting: 4,000 rebels dead at the cost of only 1,000 warriors.
Propotionally the Greeks lost way more men. More than half of their total forces at Thermopylae around 4,000 Hoplites out of a total of 7,000 at the beginning. Compared to the Persians who had between 70,000 - 300,000 soldiers which is kind of confusing but the ancients Greek sources tend to exaggerate for propaganda purposes. The Persians lost around 20,000 soldiers presumably but we don't know for sure, since their is a lack of Persian sources except for the biased Greek ones.
if it was soo they would have marched earlier,not waitting 3 days.and looking forothr ways to win.
@@HeroHoundoom so you beleive 4000loses accoding to greek source but not the 20000 persians according to the same source?since they won the war why should they lie,they didnt lie about the cities who joined persians,about burned athens ,about the other lossed cities,about salamis,but at thermopyles they did?it could be one more defeat among the rest
@@manoliskoutras6613 I think the Greeks were more sure of the total numbers they had on their side than about the total numbers on the Persian side. This also includes calculating the losses at Thermopylae since the Greeks lost that battle and had to retreat, so how could they have counted the dead bodies on both sides?
Press F to pay respects to Phocis.
Phocis got phocced in the ass to death
F
Φ
Ф
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Excellent video!!!!! Can’t wait for the next ones to continue!!!!! 5 STARS!!!!!
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Presented with the prospect of decapitating and mutilating the corpse of Mardonius after the battle of Plataea in revenge for the treatment of their fallen King Leonidas at Thermopylae, the Spartans flatly refused. Such deeds, they said, were worthy only of barbarians, not free Greeks.
Great video! Where's the follow up?
It is of no surprise that in modern day Greek, Ephialtes translates to "nightmare".
Something I don't think was mentioned explaining the Persian behavior after the battle was the murder of their ambassadors, which while portrayed in a badass way now was a terrible religious crime. Herodotus said the Spartans were filled with fear of divine retribution and begged Xerxes to forgive them, which he refused to do. He had a right to act harshly according to the customs of the time
Spartans send 2 volunteers to ask to be sacrificed by Xerxes since they regret their sacrilegiousness action and wanted to make ''an honest equalization''. Xerxes was amazed when he learned that they came to him volluntarily
@@gavsar2748 I don’t blame him on that. Spartan customs were damn brutal. Their gods were extremely ruthless to mortals that did nothing. Let alone offenders. And Spartan Idols were even reportedly chained up and offered sacrifices on certain places at certain times
The Spartan never begged anyone for anything
@@jacktattis
🤡
Thank you for this 🙏🏾
Do the aftermath of Leuctra.
I think it should be 400 Thebans, not helots, at 5:28 . There were surely helots there, though; I don't know how many.
I once watched 300 movie, and I thought it was Leonidas and his 299 gym buddies.
They used all steroids as well back then, didn't you know?
Awesome video. Thank you.
Wasn’t the last stand towards the hill and not shoreline?
excellent work i learned a lot
The true question that a lot of people didn't ask is: What happened to Demaratus?
You know the exiled spartan king, who was discovered by Gorgo cheating against her father Cleomenes I.
Great work!
If the Athenians had abandoned the fight like they threatened...and sailed their ships across the wine dark sea to Italy to rebuild their city state was their any power in Italy at that time strong enough to appose them?
If not...once they got a foothold in Italy...could Rome ever had reached her full power...with such a warlike city state as " Italian Athens " to appose her?
Siracusa, perhaps Taranto and other italic populations. Those countries were much more populated than Greece
@@oronzobarberio5029 populated with greek people though,magna grecia called
@@manoliskoutras6613 lot of greek colonies, usually they melted with locals. All Italy was much more crowded
Can't wait to see the second episode of this serie
It's clear that Delphi has an arrangment with the Persian long before the war started. They try, by all means, to discourage the greek polis to fight xerxes, with bad omens and oracles. They pass information too, that's why the persian don't sack the temples at Delphi. Later, of course, after the persian defeat, Delphi try to make things straight, but it shows.
Delphi was akin to the Vatican of the Greek world. I don’t know if you’re familiar with the five Sacred Wars that took place throughout Greece from 595-280 BCE, but they devastated the the greek city states and ensured that Macedon under Phillip II (Alexander the Great’s father) ultimately dominated Greece not only militarily but politically. Look up the Amphictyonic League of Delphi and Sacred Wars. It’s very interesting reading. It’s impossible to understand the politics and history of ancient Greece without knowing about that. It’s fascinating reading. Tragic too. Most of the Greek infighting was based around some infraction against Amphictyonic League of Delphi or an attempt to control or sack it for money by despots and mercenaries. Greece was very much like Medieval Italy. Makes sense why Machiavelli used so much of ancient Greek history in The Prince.
@@isaack2084 Yeah, I know about that and as you say, a fascinating moment in history. Thanks for sharing! Best wishes
P.S.: How funny is that no history channel that I know cover machiavelli as it should be. Every one say (they means justified the end, an other things that machiavelli never said, but noone talks about the amazing thinks he did talk about).
I’m so amazed by Greek culture. Very thankful for their contribution to human history.
What about Persian culture
@@TheColombiano89 bunch of punks
@@teeheeteeheeish ignorance at its finest
@Nisar BO summed up my question lol
@@teeheeteeheeish how so 🤔
If there is one continuous marker of western civilisation since the start; it's utterly absurd KDA claims. Even in Stalingrad, the Germans had a lot more of their men killed than the red army 700k versus 400k.
While I do not doubt the Persians, as attackers almost always do against entrenched defenders, lost more than the defending Greeks, It's likely a similar ratio.
Kudos for the cartography: many people miss the now-vanished _Lake Copais_ (west of Thebes)
I just drove past Thermopylae a couple weeks ago. Now there's nothing but a toll road there lol. But to the north, you have a vast flat plane and then the mountains begin like a massive and unpassable fortress.
The terrain has been altered throughout the ages. At the ancient times, Thermopylae were a narrow pass between Kallidromon mountain and the sea. Millenia of debris deposit by dozens of streams and torrents have created that flat plane you saw.
The geography of the place have changed a lot. Now the piece of flat land between the mountains and the sea is much wider. It was pretty narrow 2000 years ago...
10:38 - Herodotus's Histories are quite fair regarding the Persians (much to the anger of some Greeks at the time), indeed he lived within the Persian empire, so we have no reason to doubt his account here. He says the Persians didn't do a great job of hiding their losses and further visits to the battlefield easily discovered the "hidden dead".
I therefore think your conclusion is incorrect.
Why are the Persians referred to as barbarians in this video? So much for racism and bias, eh?
Europe coping mechanism 😂
This video was interesting and informative
It would be cool if you guys make a video about all the stories that were told and written about Cyrus death, by Greek and Roman historians and figure out which one is closer to reality
You know kinda like what if Caesar had survived series or something
Think about it and please consider it
Herodotus mentioned that he heard other stories too, but wrote the one that he liked the most because he thought it was more epic
You know since the ending was similar to the ending of one of those mythical Greek stories (greed and arrogance leading great humans to their demise) and since Herodotus was a Greek, this story is very debatable and has many things wrong with it if you think about it
Other Greek or Roman historians never even mentioned Tomyris or her tribe and each one wrote a different story
The most famous one, doesn't always mean the most accurate one
The most logical story about his death that i've heard up until now, is the one that Ctesias has written
Ctesias had his mistakes while writing about Cyrus life but his record of Cyrus death seems way more logical and the fact that he worked at the Achaemeinid royal court kinda increases the accuracy since he could've had access to their history sources
He's also written the numbers of casualties on both sides (though probably exaggerated numbers), the name of the king of the rebel Derbices, the number of Cyrus Scythian reinforcements and name of the Scythian king who led them
Plus some information about how the battle went
According to him, Cyrus fought the Derbices (Iranian tribal people in Hyrcania) and won the battle but died three days later because he was wounded in the middle of that battle
That's enough time for his men to reach Pasargadae without his corpse rotting since Derbices territories were in the north of modern day Iran and that Cyrus didn't immediately die and it was way closer than Central Asia
Unlike Massagetaes (eastern Iranic nomadic people), who lived in seperate tribes (like Greek city states), they lived in a unified satrapy and had more manpower than a Scythian tribe and even had allies with war elephants from India
Meaning, they had the terrain advantage and enough manpower to fight an army of 80,000-100,000 men, specially when living in modern day north of Iran (where i live)
These lands are perfect for Guerilla warfares
According to Herodotus, the only advantage the Massagetaes had was a river which they let Cyrus army cross it without even harrassing it
What kind of wise military commander would do that ?
They were in open plains, with no city walls, no fortresses, no trenches, no natural barriers, not even enough manpower and they let the enemy pass their only line of defence
How many people lived in ONE nomadic Scythian tribe in 530 BC ? 3,000 ? 4,000 ?
Let's say 5,000-10,000
How many of them could fight ?
While the Achaemenids are known for their large armies which are estimated between 50,000 to 200,000
They were professional fighters armed with almost any weapon imaginable at the time and were familiar with nomadic fighting styles and battle tactics (they themselves were nomads once) and were being led by the greatest warlord at the time who won every battle he fought against mighty empires or even other Scythian tribes according to other Greco Roman historians
The terrain here in the north is great for a local army to defend against a superior invading force
And if we take a look at Cyrus conquest map, he'd conquered territories up to Aral sea/lake in central Asia
Massagetae territory is shown next to Dahae territories under Aral sea/lake in most of the maps and according to Cyrus map, he conquered that province and there was even a city fortress called Cyropolis near there
While there's no evidence of Tomyris existence beside Herodotus few sentences
If she had indeed killed him in battle and completely destroyed his army, then why there's no report of her raiding and plundering or even conquering the reach defenseless Achaemeinid territories or Cyrus son, Cambyses, a vengeful cruel man (at least according to Herodotus) campaign against them ?
Darius the great mentioned the names of the people who REVOLTED against him, right after he became king, in his inscription, and the Scythians of Central Asia (beyond the jaxartes) were among the rebels (the man in the end of the line)
And since the word revolt has been used, we can assume they were already conquered by Cyrus
As far as i know, even Alexander's historians didn't say anything about his skeleton's head missing
Ali Sami Shirazi also identified the two corpses/skeletons in his tomb as Cyrus and Cassandane's
If what Herodotus says it's true, and Massagetaes took Cyrus body and cut his head off, then what are those remains even doing in his tomb ?
i have historian teacher in uni and he have saying
when you study history
you can't belive what on man said or write
especially if that man is enemy of what you study in this case greek×persian
so how wild the persian was in the persian-greek war....
or what happened to body of cyrus ....
or how good king of persia rule....
every thing the greek historian write about persia have little BS with it cuz they are enemy's at the time and have hate for each other
and little funny alexander the great the man who conquered the persian empire
have better saying about persian vs herotodus and other greek who write about persia
What the bloody hell are you talking about ? Cyrus was 80/100 years after this battle
@@jacktattis You mean "before" ? LOL
Btw read the comment with more attention
@@ramtin5152 The Cyrus I was referring to was in Xenophons time
@@jacktattis That's Cyrus the younger
I was talking about Cyrus the great
I love the exploration of this era because people don't realize just how close many of the most famous and ideological Greek States came to being destroyed. Sparta was one of the primary enemies, and with the resistance of the Spartan King and his forces if Persia had captured Sparta they would have wiped them out of history. Athens lost their capital, and their population took flight. If the battle of Salamis ended differently you could have seen much of the most organized Athenian remnants be wiped out, forcing the survivors to scatter to the world with the rest of the Greek refugees. Their were a lot of cities on Persian proverbial 'shit list' in the peloponnese that were due for a burning and razing.
While the effects of this can, has and will be constantly debated the way Greece came within a breath of being drastically altered would be a fascinating topic to discuss. Not just a Persian victory, but the effects of if the Athenians had been wiped out or permanently scattered, if Thebes had been sacked, if the Spartans allies betrayed them for safety and a way off the Persian shitlist. Greece failed to unify largely through infighting which was heavily influenced by the Persians. Had the Spartans been the only major survivor of the war, it could be possible to see a Spartan unified Greece. Like all history it feels like small changes could have major results, with those playing into greater historical ideas like what if a united Greece looked outwards to unite Greek colonies.
Greek Colonies like, if I recall correctly, Syracuse?
I'm loving this video and I'm excited to see the continuation of it.
Love ? 😆 🤣 😂 😹
@@matimus100 yes
Gerard Butler just couldn’t help but lose his head at Thermopylae could he?
But he did become a Law Abiding Citizen!
@@greg5775 only after London and the whitehouse had fallen
@@patricianoftheplebs6015 Jesus, yes, imagine fighting for slavery, but the Persians forbid slavery
@@عليياسر-ذ5ب Reminiscent of the conquest the US does towards those who violate their values.
You practice Zoroastrianism, and can tell us of their need to invade other countries?
@@عليياسر-ذ5ب Wait, is your name written in the language used today for selling slaves?
oh my, the irony.
Nicely done
We Greeks hate each other until someone disturbs us from hating each other. Then we unite to finish him so we can hate each other or we just hate each other and ask him to help us destroy our enemy. Then we destroy him because he destroyed our brothers, which we hated. Dont disturb us unless you are a friendly stranger 😝
😂
Tell the Germans that lol
We!? You and I weren’t alive back then, nor should we take credit for their work and failures. Even then, they still fought each other! They’re were Greeks that were allied with the Persians, dude. Their wasn’t really much of Greek unity. They just feared the Persian superpower at the time. It took Alexander and his father to stop this and bring true Greek unity. Both were also killed by their fellow Greeks. The Romans did a much better job with us, that we kept their Empire alive in the East for another thousand years.…😖
@@90skidcultist yeah ! So ? That doesnt change the fact that greek history is full of civil wars.
@@tg1095gr ...That is my point, sir.🤬
It's always funny that non-persian and non-greeks start to argue and fight in comments about greco-persian wars while the Greeks and Persians respect each other's history
True