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The army consisted of about 5100 men:
- 3.100 Peloponnesian allies
- 1.700 Thespians, Thebans, Phocians and Opuntians.
- 300 Spartans
Those 300 Spartans were not the personal royal bodyguard aka: hippeis nor were they all free citizens. Most of them were armed helots , thus slaves, promised freedom after their service to the king.
Leonidas lasted 3 days, but not with superiour phalanx tactics as Herodotus desribes. This is because there were too few real Spartiates and thus Leonidas' army wasn't capable of forming a decent phalanx at all. Most likely they faked retreats and killed their pursuers.
When Ephialtes, son of Eurydemus, a local denizen, showed the Persian king the path to flank Leonidas' army, Leonidas ordered the non Peloponnesian army to retreat. The Phocians, guarding the path, retreated on sight of the massive Persian legion approaching them. The remaining forces were shattered almost instantly and Xerxes was never harmed.
You are now educated. Feel the wrath of historicism.