Greek and Persian Wars | Heroes at the Pass (Lecture 8)

Lecture 8: Because the other Greeks refused to follow the Athenians, the Spartans organized the forces designed to resist the Persian advance. The Spartan officer Eurybiades was sent to the Artemision Channel to lead the Greek naval forces; we will look at the sea battles in the next lecture. On land, the Spartan king Leonidas led 300 Spartan hoplites and several thousand Greek allied troops to hold the pass at Thermopylae against Xerxes’s army. When the Persian army negotiated a hidden mountain track around the pass, Leonidas and his 300 hoplites defended the pass to the last man. Though the way into Greece was now open to Xerxes, the Greek resistance had found both its first martyr and an inspirational story of defiant opposition.

Recommended Reading:
Cartledge, Thermopylae: The Battle That Changed the World.
Fitzhardinge, The Spartans.