- last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT
Posted by: RedBack
you are wrong, at Thermopylae 1000 spartans took on 1 million persians. the spartans never had a chance but they fought to the very end and the persians had huge casualties, not sure off hand. once the they actually made it into the spartan stronghold they were still getting slaughtered attacking head on so for a few days they didnt attack and they found a back way in to surround them, they did and still they got killed when they tried to attack them, so in the end they just stood back with arrows and shot them till all the spartans were dead.Actually, there were only 300 Spartans commanded by Leonidas at Thermopylae, and they were supported by more Greeks from other city-states. The Persian force wasn't all just Persian, but made up of several different peoples (sounds like the Covenant, doesn't it), like Russians and Turks. The warriors held off the Persians quite well for several days, until a Greek traitor (Ackerson?) showed the the enemy a way around the pass. Knowing that the fight was to be lost, Leonidas told the other Greeks to retreat. He and his Spartans stayed behind. All of them were killed, but they managed to take a hell of a lot of Persians with them. The news of their sacrifice gave a huge morale boost to the Greeks, and helped them to win several more battles. Another group of Spartans eventually defeated the Persians permanently, ending the war. I'm pretty sure this is correct, since I almost memorized it in my History book. It also helps that it was on page 117.