Thermopylae, 480 BC

The battle, stage by stage

1. Summer 480 BC (August or September), before the Persians arrive

   Holding the Middle Gate

   While the Greek fleet takes station off Artemisium in northern Euboea, a land force under the Spartan king Leonidas occupies Thermopylae, the coastal pass between Mount Kallidromo and the Malian Gulf. Herodotus lists 300 Spartiates, 500 Tegeans, 500 Mantineans, 120 Orchomenians, 1,000 other Arcadians, 400 Corinthians, 200 Phliasians, 80 Mycenaeans, 700 Thespians, 400 Thebans, 1,000 Phocians and the full levy of the Opuntian Locrians (Hdt 7.202–203) — about 5,200 men plus the Locrians, so roughly 5,000–7,000 in all. Diodorus gives about 7,400, and Pausanias 6,000 Locrians alone. Helots also served (Hdt 8.25). The Greeks rebuild an old wall that the Phocians had once built across the pass against the Thessalians (Hdt 7.176), at the Middle Gate by the hot springs. The 'gates' are the narrowest points of a coastal strip that has since vanished: the Spercheios has pushed the coast several kilometers north, and travertine and alluvium have buried the ancient surface under up to about 20 m of deposit (Kraft, Rapp et al. 1987). The shoreline drawn here is an approximation, and the modern monument and museum stood in or by the sea in 480 BC.

2. Four days of waiting

   Xerxes camps in Trachinia

   Xerxes' army comes down through Malis and camps in Trachinia, west of the pass (Hdt 7.201). Herodotus gives the whole invading army as 1,700,000 foot (7.60), and Simonides' epigram speaks of three million. Ctesias has 800,000. Such figures are vastly exaggerated, and modern estimates vary widely, from under 100,000 to about 300,000. Reviewing Matthew and Trundle, Michael Taylor doubts that more than about 75,000 took part. Seeing the size of the army, the Peloponnesians want to fall back to the Isthmus. Leonidas votes to stay and sends for help, since the main Spartan army is held back by the Carneia festival and the Olympic games (7.206–207). A Persian horseman reportedly finds the Spartans in front of the wall exercising and combing their hair (7.208). On learning of the mountain path, the Phocians volunteer to guard it (7.212, 7.217). Xerxes waits four days, perhaps for his storm-battered fleet. The Persian camp is placed only roughly near ancient Trachis.

3. Day 1 (the fifth day after the Persians arrived)

   Medes and Kissians, then the Immortals

   On the fifth day Xerxes sends the Medes and Kissians to bring the Greeks to him alive (Hdt 7.210). They attack all day in the narrows and are thrown back with heavy losses. Herodotus says the attack showed Xerxes that he had many men but few real soldiers. He then sends Hydarnes and the Immortals, who fare no better: in the confined space their shorter spears and numbers count for little. The Spartans reportedly turn as if to flee and then wheel on their pursuers (7.211). Xerxes, watching, is said to have leapt up from his seat three times in fear for his army. Diodorus has the Medes first, then the Kissians and Sakai, then the Immortals (11.6–7). The Greek contingents fight in turn in front of the wall, on a strip that Kraft and colleagues estimate was no more than 20–30 m wide at its narrowest. At sea the first fighting off Artemisium takes place about the same time.

4. Day 2, and that evening

   The assaults fail; Ephialtes

   The next day the Persians attack again, hoping the Greeks are worn out by wounds. Diodorus says Xerxes chose the bravest men of every nation (11.8). The Greeks, drawn up by cities and fighting in turn (all but the Phocians on the mountain), again drive them back (Hdt 7.212). Ctesias, in Photius' summary, has 10,000, then 20,000, then 50,000 men sent in and beaten. Then a Malian, Ephialtes son of Eurydemus, offers for a reward to show Xerxes the path over the mountain (7.213). Herodotus names others who were blamed and rejects them, and Ctesias names two men of Trachis instead. Hydarnes and the Immortals leave the camp 'at about lamp-lighting time' (7.215). Herodotus says the path starts at the Asopus where it runs through its ravine, runs along the ridge of the mountain called Anopaia, and ends at Alpenoi (7.216). Rop (2019) argues the Persians knew of the path from the start. The second day of fighting at Artemisium ends in Greek success.

5. Night of day 2 to dawn of day 3

   Over the Anopaia path

   The Immortals cross the Asopus and march all night with the mountains of Oeta on their right and those of Trachis on their left, reaching the summit at dawn (Hdt 7.217). There the 1,000 Phocians hear them in the still, oak-covered woods by the rustle of fallen leaves. Believing themselves the target, they withdraw under arrow fire to the top of the mountain and prepare to die. The Persians ignore them and hurry on down (7.218). Rop (2019) suggests the Phocians may have abandoned the path on purpose. The route is disputed. Modern reconstructions (Burn; Pritchett, Studies in Ancient Greek Topography; Wallace, AJA 1980) take the path up from the Asopus to the high meadows of Kallidromo by Eleftherochori and Nevropoli, then down toward Alpenoi, but differ on the ascent and the descent. The track and the Phocian positions drawn here are schematic. Diodorus gives the outflanking force as 20,000 (11.8), and Ctesias as 40,000.

6. Day 3, morning

   Leonidas dismisses the allies

   Lookouts running down from the heights at daybreak bring word that the Greeks have been turned (Hdt 7.219). Most of the allies leave. Herodotus is unsure whether Leonidas sent them away or they went of their own accord, but holds that Leonidas dismissed them and chose to stay himself (7.220). The 700 Thespians refuse to go. The 400 Thebans stay too, as hostages in Herodotus' hostile telling (7.222), and the helots remain with the Spartans. On Ephialtes' advice Xerxes attacks at about the hour the market fills, mid-morning (7.223). This time the Greeks go out 'much further than before into the wider part of the pass' and kill great numbers, many Persians being driven into the sea or trampled. How far they went is not known. Leonidas falls, and the Greeks drive the enemy back four times in the fight over his body (7.224–225). Two brothers of Xerxes are killed. Diodorus and Plutarch instead tell of a night raid on Xerxes' tent, which modern historians mostly reject.

7. Day 3, late morning

   The last stand on the Kolonos

   When the Immortals arrive, the survivors fall back into the narrow part, pass behind the wall and gather on the hill at the mouth of the pass, 'where the stone lion in honor of Leonidas now stands' (Hdt 7.225). The Thebans break away, go toward the Persians with hands held out and surrender, and some are killed as they come (7.233). Persians pull down the wall, others close in from all sides, and the defenders fight with swords, hands and teeth until they are overwhelmed by missiles. In 1939 Spyridon Marinatos found many bronze and iron arrowheads on this hill, identifying it as the Kolonos. A 1955 stone on top carries the epigram attributed to Simonides (7.228). Herodotus later gives 4,000 Greek and 20,000 Persian dead (8.24–25), the first including helots. Hearing of the defeat, the Greek fleet withdraws from Artemisium (8.21). The date is uncertain: modern proposals run from late July to mid-September 480 BC.