300 - The facts about the REAL battle of Thermopylae

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Mar 12, 2007 | 01:38 PM
  #1  
Although the movie seems a bit exadurated... read this ****. It's pretty much how it went down.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Thermopylae

To sum it up..... here's the real numbers:

Size of the Persian army
Xerxes I, king of Persia, had been preparing for years to continue the Greco-Persian Wars started by his father Darius. In 481 BC, after four years of preparation, the Persian army and navy arrived in Asia Minor. A bridge of ships had been made at Abydos. This allowed the land forces to cross the Hellespont. Herodotus of Halicarnassus, who wrote the first history of this war, gave the size of Xerxes's army as follows:

Units Numbers
Fleet crew 517,610
Infantry 1,700,000[27]
Cavalry 80,000[28]
Arabs and Libyans 20,000[29]
Greek allied troops 324,000
Total 2,641,610


Size of the Greek army
According to Herodotus, the Greek army included the following forces:

Units Numbers
Spartans 300
Mantineans 500
Tegeans 500
Arcadian Orchomenos 120
Other Arcadians 1,000
Corinthians 400
Phlians 200
Mycenaeans 80
Thespians 700
Thebans 400
Phocians 1,000
Opuntian Locrians 13
Total 5,200+


So yeah.... 300 Spartans against millions.
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Mar 12, 2007 | 02:28 PM
  #2  
Nice info, thanks
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Mar 12, 2007 | 04:54 PM
  #3  
Quote: Although the movie seems a bit exadurated... read this ****. It's pretty much how it went down.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Thermopylae

To sum it up..... here's the real numbers:

Size of the Persian army
Xerxes I, king of Persia, had been preparing for years to continue the Greco-Persian Wars started by his father Darius. In 481 BC, after four years of preparation, the Persian army and navy arrived in Asia Minor. A bridge of ships had been made at Abydos. This allowed the land forces to cross the Hellespont. Herodotus of Halicarnassus, who wrote the first history of this war, gave the size of Xerxes's army as follows:

Units Numbers
Fleet crew 517,610
Infantry 1,700,000[27]
Cavalry 80,000[28]
Arabs and Libyans 20,000[29]
Greek allied troops 324,000
Total 2,641,610


Size of the Greek army
According to Herodotus, the Greek army included the following forces:

Units Numbers
Spartans 300
Mantineans 500
Tegeans 500
Arcadian Orchomenos 120
Other Arcadians 1,000
Corinthians 400
Phlians 200
Mycenaeans 80
Thespians 700
Thebans 400
Phocians 1,000
Opuntian Locrians 13
Total 5,200+


So yeah.... 300 Spartans against millions.

No history book has the actual number at this battle. All are approximations based on I don't know what. The number the spartans actually went up against ranges according to history books anywhere between 1000 and 1000000 enemies.
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