After 300: The Posthumous Vengeance of King Leonidas of Sparta

Ancient Origins

After 300: The Posthumous Vengeance of King Leonidas of Sparta

 Mythologically descended from the hero Herakles, the Agiad dynasty of ancient Sparta reigned alongside the Eurypontids almost since the beginning of the city-state. When war was on the borders of their land, and that of their neighboring city-states, it was to the current Heraklean descendent that those city-states turned. Even the Athenians, who were long-time rivals of the Spartan warriors looked to the current Agiad king for guidance in the darkest time of the war. That king, unsurprisingly, was King Leonidas I. A

King Amongst Kings
The better remembered of the two warrior-kings of the ancient Greek city-state Sparta, King Leonidas I lived and ruled between the 6th and 5th centuries BC. His time on the throne was short-lived, but his legacy has lasted lifetimes. Leonidas is the king who many other kings aspire to emulate; King Leonidas gave everything to defend and protect his homeland. Called upon to lead the allied forces of the Greek city-states based on his military record alone, it is said that King Leonidas tried to protect his soldiers, ordering them to leave the battlefield to fight another day. They did not, as one might guess, as they were Spartans; one way or another, Spartans return from battle—either with their swords, or on them, as the saying goes. Leonidas' words of protection at the battle of Thermopylae fell on deaf ears, and the Greeks were slaughtered that fateful day in 480 BC

Leonidas at Thermopylae by Jacques-Louis David (Public Domain)

What happened after the massacre, however? What happened after the death of the one of the greatest military leaders? Without Leonidas, Sparta was down one king; it had been tradition for two kings to rule the city-state, one from each of the two primary families, the Agiads and the Eurypontids. With his death at the hands of the army of Xerxes, king of Persia, and his head paraded around on a spike, Sparta was left short-handed. What was the next step?

Revenge.

Leonidas I of Sparta (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Wrath of the Gods
If one believes in the ancient Greek gods—as the city-states clearly did—it is impossible not to see the vengeance those gods encouraged through their mortal soldiers following the death of Herakles' descendent. With the death of King Leonidas and the insult to his person, the Persians had essentially painted a bright red, divinely taunting target on their backs. Over the next year, the Persians and Greeks engaged in their final land and sea battles, of which the Persians suffered as often as not. Salamis and Plataea, two of the most decisive Greek victories, officially turned the tide in favor of the Greeks. In fact, a better vengeance could not have been written for King Leonidas. The Greeks, who had not forgotten the slaughter of Thermopylae, returned the favor in spades at the Battle of Plataea.

A romantic version painting of the Battle of Salamis by artist Wilhelm von Kaulbach. (Public Domain)

The ancient historian Herodotus (5th century BC) is one of the primary sources of this battle. Following a stalemate around the Persian camp constructed in Plataea, the Persians were unintentionally (though it was lucky for the Greeks) lulled into a sense of victory. Having cut off the Greeks from their supply lines, the Persians believed the few Greeks who retreated to regain those connections represented the whole army; the subsequent Persian attack quickly proved them wrong. The Greek allies literally had the high ground, and a defeat of those Persian forces, led by Mardonius, was relatively swift. The Greek forces then, loosely interpreted from ancient texts, exacted their revenge for the slaughter of Leonidas and his men by massacring the Persian camp at Plataea. Later that afternoon, the Greeks finished the job at the final battle of Mycale.

King Leonidas I Monument at Thermopyles. (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Exacting Revenge
One could attribute this "retribution" as constructed by King Leonidas' son Pleistarchus, intended to take the throne upon Leonidas' death. Yet in an interesting turn of events, Pleistarchus was too young to rule at his father's death, and the boy's guardian Pausanias, was actually on the second Spartan throne. Thus the decisive, somewhat brutal, actions against the Persians at Plataea and Mycale may or may not have been an act of vengeance in the name of the father Leonidas, but were almost certainly for the Herculean general who sacrificed everything for his home, and the homes of those allied with him. (One should remember that Sparta and Athens were only on good terms when they were teamed up against Persia. They placed their animosities aside during the Persian War, Athenians willingly following Spartans, and Spartans trusting to delegate to Athenians. This alliance would crumble soon after the war, but Leonidas' actions are even more inspiring for the prejudices put aside.)

Greek and Persian warriors depicted fighting on an ancient kylix. 5th century BC. (Public Domain)

United States of Leonidas
King Leonidas' sacrifice might not have resulted in the battle to end all Persian-Greek battles, however it did inspire a great deal of "nationality", a concept not yet fully formed in the ancient world. Yet the Greek city-states saw a common enemy, and shared a common goal, and for a brief period of time, respected and valued the same man—homeland and culture aside. The increased sense of unity Leonidas inadvertently forged between the Spartans, Thebans, Athenians, etc. led to an increased determination; the Greeks left no man standing at Plataea and Mycale if they could find one. The victory of the Greeks over the Persians resonated for centuries, and Leonidas' name is remembered far better than those of the men who returned home with their shields rather than on them. Because of this (and the later cockiness of the Athenians), the Spartans and their allies successfully defeated the Athenians in the Peloponnesian War, the next great battle on their horizon.

Top image: King Leonidas by David Baldo (deviantart)

By Riley Winters

Goths vs. Greeks: Epic Ancient Battle Revealed in Newfound Text

Live Science

Researchers used spectral imaging to read the writing on this fragment, which details the third-century Thermopylae battle. Credit: Vienna, Austrian National Library, manuscript Hist. gr. 73, fol. 193r lower text. Spectral imaging by the Early Manuscripts Electronic Library. Processed image by David Kelbe. © Project FWF P 24523-G19 View full size image

Fragments of an ancient Greek text telling of an invasion of Greece by the Goths during the third century A.D. have been discovered in the Austrian National Library. The text includes a battle fought at the pass of Thermopylae.
Researchers used spectral imaging to enhance the fragments, making it possible to read them. The analysis suggests the fragments were copied in the 11th century A.D. and are from a text that was written in the third-century A.D. by an Athens writer named Dexippus.
During Dexippus' life, Greece (part of the Roman Empire) and Rome struggled to repel a series of Gothic invasions. [10 Epic Battles That Changed History]

"Warding off the battle columns"
Lecturers Christopher Mallan, of Oxford University, and Caillan Davenport, of the University of Queensland in Australia, recently translated one of the fragments into English. The translated text, detailed in the Journal of Roman Studies, describes the Thermopylae battle: At the start of the fragment, "battle columns" of Goths, a people who flourished in Europe whom the Romans considered barbarians, are attacking the Greek city of Thessalonica.
"Making an assault upon the city of the Thessalonians, they tried to capture it as a close-packed band," Dexippus wrote of the attack, as translated by Mallan and Davenport. "Those on the walls defended themselves valiantly, warding off the battle columns with the assistance of many hands."
Unable to capture Thessalonica, the Goth force turned south toward Athens, "envisioning the gold and silver votive offerings and the many processional goods in the Greek sanctuaries, for they learned that the region was exceedingly wealthy in this respect," Dexippus wrote.

An image of sulfur springs near Thermopylae pass, Greece. Long ago, the narrow pass made it a good point to try and prevent the invading Goths from reaching Athens and southern Greece.
Credit: eFesenko / Shutterstock.com

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A Greek force assembled at the narrow pass of Thermopylae in an attempt to stop the Gothic advance. "Some [of the Greeks] carried small spears, others axes, others wooden pikes overlaid with bronze and with iron tips, or whatever each man could arm himself with," Dexippus wrote. "When they came together, they completely fortified the perimeter wall and devoted themselves to its protection with haste."
"Terrifying to the enemy"
In the text, Dexippus said the commander of the Greek force, a general named Marianus, tried to raise morale by reminding the Greeks of the battles their ancestors had fought at Thermopylae in the past, including the famous fifth-century B.C. battle between the Persians and a Spartan-led force. [In Photos: Spartan Temple and Cultic Artifacts Discovered]
"O Greeks, the occasion of our preservation for which you are assembled and the land in which you have been deployed are both truly fitting to evoke the memory of virtuous deeds," Marianus' speech to his troops reads, as translated from the fragment. "For your ancestors, fighting in this place in former times, did not let Greece down and deprive it of its free state.
"In previous attacks, you seemed terrifying to the enemies," said Marianus. "On account of these things, future events do not appear to me not without hope …"
The fragment ends before the completion of Marianus' speech, and the outcome of the battle is uncertain, researchers said.
Marianus may well have given a speech (or speeches) to the troops, the researchers said; however, the speech recorded in this text was likely invented by Dexippus, something ancient historians often did.
Though no one has an exact date for the Thermopylae battle, it was likely fought in the 250s or 260s, researchers said.
An emperor fights
The Thermopylae fragment is one of several written by Dexippus, discovered in the Austrian National Library book, that discuss the invasion of Greece by the Goths. The Thermopylae battle fragment was first published in 2014 in German in the journal Wiener Studies by Gunther Martin and Jana Grusková, researchers at the University of Bern and Comenius University in Bratislava, respectively.
Martin and Grusková have published several articles in German and English on the other fragments. Some of the fragments tell of an attempt by the Roman Emperor Decius (who lived A.D. 201-251) to stop the Gothic forces, as described by Martin and Grusková in 2014 in the journal Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies. In those fragments, Dexippus wrote that Emperor Decius suffered a series of setbacks, losing territory and men.
Like Marianus, Emperor Decius also supposedly gave a speech to raise morale among his troops. "Men, I wish the military force and all the provincial territory were in a good condition and not humiliated by the enemy," Emperor Decius told his troops (translation by Martin and Grusková).
"But since the incidents of human life bring manifold sufferings … it is the duty of prudent men to accept what happens and not to lose their spirit, nor become weak."
Again, this speech may have been invented by Dexippus.
by Owen Jarus

Were there really only 300 Spartans at the Battle of Thermopylae?

History Extra

It is considered a heroic last stand by King Leonidas of Sparta and his tiny number of brave warriors against an army of a supposed million soldiers.
This article was first published in March 2014

King Leonidas sculpture in Thermopylae © Santiago Rodríguez Fontoba | Dreamstime.com

Last week saw the release of 300: Rise of an Empire, the sequel to the muscle-rippling, blood-splattering, historically-dodgy 300 – which told the fantastical story of the Battle of Thermopylae in 480 BC, when a handful of Spartans fought the entirety of Persia’s armies for three days. But was it as one-sided as the legend suggests?
In short, not as much as suggested. It is true there were only 300 Spartan soldiers at the Battle of Thermopylae but they were not alone, as the Spartans had formed an alliance with other Greek states. It is thought that the number of Greeks was closer to 7,000. The size of the Persian army is disputed. 5th-century Herodotus claimed there were over two million but it was more likely to be between 100,000 and 300,000, so the Greeks were still against overwhelming odds.
With this huge army, Xerxes I of Persia was intent on invading and conquering all of Greece, but King Leonidas of Sparta met him at the narrow coastal pass of Thermopylae, known as the Hot Gates, where Persia’s superior numbers counted for nothing. A messenger threatened a Spartan general saying, “Our arrows will block out the Sun”, to which the general replied, “Then we will fight in the shade.” Leonidas’ forces held off the Persians for two full days.
The Spartans were brutal warriors, raised never to surrender or show weakness. When a Persian ambassador ordered the Greeks to lay down their weapons, Leonidas hit back with, “Come and take them”.
A Greek called Ephialtes betrayed his country by revealing a path to the Persians that allowed them to outflank Leonidas. The Spartan King dismissed most of the army and formed a rear-guard of around 1,500 men, including his 300 Spartans, 700 Thespians, 400 Thebans and a few hundred others, many of them slaves. They were wiped out but this sacrifice allowed the bulk of the army to retreat and regroup.
Xerxes’ invasion ended in failure as the Greeks won decisive victories at the Battles of Salamis and Plataea.