How The Spartans Died At Thermopylae

When Xerxes, as his father had done before him, sent to the Grecian

cities to demand earth and water in token of submission, no heralds were

sent to Athens or Sparta. These truculent cities had flung the heralds

of Darius into deep pits, bidding them to take earth and water from

there and carry it to the great king. This act called for revenge, and

whatever mercy he might show to the rest of Greece, Athens and Sparta

w re doomed in his mind to be swept from the face of the earth. How they

escaped this dismal fate is what we have next to tell.



As one of the great men of Athens, Miltiades, had saved his native land

in the former Persian invasion, so a second patriotic citizen,

Themistocles, proved her savior in the dread peril which now threatened

her. But the work of Themistocles was not done in a single great battle,

as at Marathon, but in years of preparation. And a war between Athens

and the neighboring island of AEgina had much to do with this escape from

ruin.



To make war upon an island a land army was of no avail. A fleet was

necessary. The Athenians were accustomed to a commercial, though not to

a warlike, life upon the sea. Many of them were active, daring, and

skilful sailors, and when Themistocles urged that they should build a

powerful fleet he found approving listeners. Longer of sight than his

fellow-citizens, he warned them of the coming peril from Persia. The

conflict with the small island of AEgina was a small matter compared with

that threatened by the great kingdom of Persia. But to prepare against

one was to prepare against both. And Athens was just then rich. It

possessed valuable silver-mines at Laurium, in Attica, from which much

wealth came to the state. This money Themistocles urged the citizens to

use in building ships, and they were wise enough to take his advice, two

hundred ships of war being built. These ships, as it happened, were not

used for the purpose originally intended, that of the war with AEgina.

But they proved of inestimable service to Athens in the Persian war.






The vast preparations of Xerxes were not beheld without deep terror in

Greece. Spies were sent into Persia to discover what was being done.

They were captured and condemned to death, but Xerxes ordered that they

should be shown his total army and fleet, and then sent home to report

what they had seen. He hoped thus to double the terror of the Grecian

states.



At home two things were done. Athens and Sparta called a congress of all

the states of Greece on the Isthmus of Corinth, and urged them to lay

aside all petty feuds and combine for defence against the common foe. It

was the greatest and most successful congress that Greece had ever yet

held. All wars came to an end. That between Athens and AEgina ceased,

and the fleet which Athens had built was laid aside for a greater need.

The other thing was that step always taken in Greece in times of peril,

to send to the temple at Delphi and obtain from the oracle the sacred

advice which was deemed so indispensable.



The reply received by Athens was terrifying. "Quit your land and city

and flee afar!" cried the prophetess. "Fire and sword, in the train of

the Syrian chariot, shall overwhelm you. Get ye away from the sanctuary,

with your souls steeped in sorrow."



The envoys feared to carry back such a sentence to Athens. They implored

the priestess for a more comforting reply, and were given the following

enigma to solve: "This assurance I will give you, firm as adamant. When

everything else in the land of Cecrops shall be taken, Zeus grants to

Athene that the wooden wall alone shall remain unconquered, to defend

you and your children. Stand not to await the assailing horse and foot

from the continent, but turn your backs and retire; you shall yet live

to fight another day. O divine Salamis, thou too shalt destroy the

children of women, either at the seed-time or at the harvest."



Here was some hope, though small. "The wooden wall"? What could it be

but the fleet? This was the general opinion of the Athenians. But should

they fight? Should they not rather abandon Attica forever, take to their

wooden walls, and seek a new home afar? Salamis was to destroy the

children of women! Did not this portend disaster in case of a naval

battle?



The fate of Athens now hung upon a thread. Had its people fled to a

distant land, one of the greatest chapters in the history of the world

would never have been written. But now Themistocles, to whom Athens owed

its fleet, came forward as its savior. If the oracle, he declared, had

meant that the Greeks should be destroyed, it would have called Salamis,

where the battle was to be fought, "wretched Salamis." But it had said

"divine Salamis." What did this mean but that it was not the Greeks, but

the enemies of Greece, who were to be destroyed? He begged his

countrymen not to desert their country, but to fight boldly for its

safety. Fortunately for Athens, his solution of the riddle was accepted,

and the city set itself diligently to building more ships, that they

might have as powerful a fleet as possible when the Persians came.



But not only Athens was to be defended; all Greece was in peril; the

invaders must be met by land as well as by sea. Greece is traversed by

mountain ranges, which cross from sea to sea, leaving only difficult

mountain paths and narrow seaside passes. One of these was the long and

winding defile to Tempe, between Mounts Olympus and Ossa, on the

northern boundary of Greece. There a few men could keep back a numerous

host, and thither at first marched the small army which dared to oppose

the Persian millions, a little band of ten thousand men, under the

command of a Spartan general.



But they did not remain there. The Persians were still distant, and

while the Greeks awaited their approach new counsels prevailed. There

was another pass by which the mountains might be crossed,--which pass,

in fact, the Persians took. Also the fleet might land thousands of men

in their rear. On the whole it was deemed best to retreat to another

pass, much farther south, the famous pass of Thermopylae. Here was a road

a mile in width, where were warm springs; and at each end were narrow

passes, called gates,--the name Thermopylae meaning "hot gates."

Adjoining was a narrow strait, between the mainland and the island of

Euboea, where the Greek fleet might keep back the Persian host of

ships. There was an old wall across the pass, now in ruins. This the

Greeks rebuilt, and there the devoted band, now not more than seven

thousand in all, waited the coming of the mighty Persian host.



It was in late June, of the year 480 B.C., that the Grecian army, led by

Leonidas, king of Sparta, marched to this defile. There were but three

hundred Spartans[3] in his force, with small bodies of men from the

other states of Greece. The fleet, less than three hundred ships in all,

took post beside them in the strait. And here they waited while day by

day the Persian hordes marched southward over the land.



The first conflict took place between some vessels of the fleets,

whereupon the Grecian admirals, filled with sudden fright, sailed

southward and left the army to the mercy of the Persian ships.

Fortunately for Greece, thus deserted in her need, a strong ally now

came to the rescue. The gods of the winds had been implored with prayer.

The answer came in the form of a frightful hurricane, which struck the

great fleet while it lay at anchor, and hurled hundreds of ships on the

rocky shore. For three days the storm continued, and when it ended more

than four hundred ships of war, with a multitude of transports and

provision craft, were wrecked, while the loss of life had been immense.

The Greek fleet had escaped this disaster, and now, with renewed

courage, came sailing back to the post it had abandoned, and so quickly

as to capture fifteen vessels of the Persian fleet.



While this gale prevailed Xerxes and his army lay encamped before

Thermopylae, the king in terror for his fleet, which he was told had been

all destroyed. As for the Greeks, he laughed them to scorn. He was told

that a handful of Spartans and other Greeks were posted in the pass, and

sent a horseman to tell him what was to be seen. The horseman rode near

the pass, and saw there the wall and outside it the small Spartan force,

some of whom were engaged in gymnastic exercises, while others were

combing their long hair.



The great king was astonished and puzzled at this news. He waited

expecting the few Greeks to disperse and leave the pass open to his

army. The fourth day came and went, and they were still there. Then

Xerxes bade the Median and Kissian divisions of his army to advance,

seize these insolent fellows, and bring them to him as prisoners of war.

Forward went his troops, and entered the throat of the narrow pass,

where their bows and arrows were of little use, and they must fight the

Greeks hand to hand. And now the Spartan arms and discipline told. With

their long spears, spreading shields, steady ranks, and rigid

discipline, the Greeks were far more than a match for the light weapons,

slight shields, and open ranks of their foes. The latter had only their

numbers, and numbers there were of little avail. They fell by hundreds,

while the Greeks met with little loss. For two days the combat

continued, fresh defenders constantly replacing the weary ones, and a

wall of Persian dead being heaped up outside the wall of stone.



Then, as a last resort, the Immortals,--the Persian guard of ten

thousand,--with other choice troops, were sent; and these were driven

back with the same slaughter as the rest. The fleet in the strait

doubtless warmly cheered on the brave hoplites in the pass; but as for

Xerxes, "Thrice," says Herodotus, "did he spring from his throne, in

agony for his army."



The deed of a traitor rendered useless this noble defence. A recreant

Greek, Ephialtes by name, sought Xerxes and told him of a mountain pass

over which he could guide a band to attack the defenders of Thermopylae

in the rear. A strong Persian detachment was ordered to cross the pass,

and did so under shelter of the night. At daybreak they reached the

summit, where a thousand Greeks from Phocis had been stationed as a

guard. These men, surprised, and overwhelmed with a shower of arrows,

fled up the mountain-side, and left the way open to the Persians, who

pursued their course down the mountain, and at mid-day reached the rear

of the pass of Thermopylae.



Leonidas had heard of their coming. Scouts had brought him word. The

defence of the pass was at an end. They must fly or be crushed. A

council was hastily called, and it was decided to retreat. But this

decision was not joined in by Leonidas and his gallant three hundred.

The honor of Sparta would not permit her king to yield a pass which he

had been sent to defend. The laws of his country required that he should

conquer or die at his post. It was too late to conquer; but he could

still die. With him and his three hundred remained the Thespians and

Thebans, seven hundred of the former and about four hundred of the

latter. The remainder of the army withdrew.



Xerxes had arranged to wait till noon, at which hour the defenders of

the pass were to be attacked in front and rear. But Leonidas did not

wait. All he and his men had now to do was to sell their lives as dearly

as possible, so they marched outside the pass, attacked the front of the

Persian host, drove them back, and killed them in multitudes, many of

them being driven to perish in the sea and the morass. The Persian

officers kept their men to the deadly work by threats and the liberal

use of the whip.



But one by one the Spartans fell. Their spears were broken, and they

fought with their swords. Leonidas sank in death, but his men fought on

more fiercely still, to keep the foe back from his body. Here many of

the Persian chiefs perished, among them two brothers of Xerxes. It was

like a combat of the Iliad rather than a contest in actual war. Finally

the Greeks, worn out, reduced in numbers, their best weapons gone, fell

back behind the wall, bearing the body of their chief. Here they still

fought, with daggers, with their unarmed hands, even with their mouths,

until the last man fell dead.



The Thebans alone yielded themselves as prisoners, saying that they had

been kept in the pass against their will. Of the thousand Spartans and

Thespians, not a man remained alive.



Meanwhile the fleets had been engaged, to the advantage of the Greeks,

while another storm that suddenly rose wrecked two hundred more of the

Persian ships on Euboea's rocky coast. When word came that Thermopylae

had fallen the Grecian fleet withdrew, sailed round the Attic coast, and

stopped not again until the island of Salamis was reached.



As for Leonidas and his Spartans, they had died, but had won

imperishable fame. The same should be said for the Thespians as well,

but history has largely ignored their share in the glorious deed. In

after-days an inscription was set up which gave all glory to the

Peloponnesian heroes without a word for the noble Thespian band. Another

celebrated inscription honored the Spartans alone:



"Go, stranger, and to Lacedaemon tell

That here, obeying her behests, we fell,"



or, in plain prose, "Stranger, tell the Lacedaemonians that we lie here,

in obedience to their orders."



On the hillock where the last of the faithful band died was erected a

monument with a marble lion in honor of Leonidas, while on it was carved

the following epitaph, written by the poet Simonides:



"In dark Thermopylae they lie.

Oh, death of glory, thus to die!

Their tomb an altar is, their name

A mighty heritage of fame.

Their dirge is triumph; cankering rust,

And time, that turneth all to dust,

That tomb shall never waste nor hide,--

The tomb of warriors true and tried.

The full-voiced praise of Greece around

Lies buried in this sacred mound;

Where Sparta's king, Leonidas,

In death eternal glory has!"