Thespians: The Forgotten Heroes of the Battle of Thermopylae

700 Thespians fought and died astatine Thermopylae but they are often overshadowed by the Spartans and forgotten. Credit: Jona Lendering / Wikimedia Commons CC0

The Battle of Thermopylae, Greece successful 480 BC is 1 of the astir celebrated past stands successful history. In the galore centuries since the battle, Leonidas and the 300 Spartans person go a awesome of bravery successful the look of insurmountable odds.

However, the Spartans did not march to Thermopylae alone, nor so were they the lone ones to stay astatine the “Hot Gates” erstwhile it became wide that king Xerxes and the Persians would yet prevail. The brave Thespians besides fought and died astatine Thermopylae.

Led by Demophilus of Thespiae, 700 Thespians reached Thermopylae, wherever determination is present a monument successful their representation adjacent to a statue dedicated to the Spartans. For the Thespians, the terms of their defiance astatine Hot Gates would beryllium a terrible 1 – the demolition of their metropolis nary little – but they fought again astatine Platea.

Ancient Thespiae

Thespiae was an ancient Greek polis (city) successful Boeotia, cardinal Greece. The Thespians look to person held Eros, the deity of love, passion, and fertility, successful peculiarly precocious esteem.

One of the astir celebrated landmarks successful the metropolis was a statue of the deity created by the celebrated sculptor Praxiteles of Athens. Prxiteles modeled galore of his sculptors connected Phyrne, an infamous courtesan from Thespiae. However, the celebrated statue of Eros would not person been contiguous successful the metropolis during the Greco-Persian Wars, arsenic the sculptor was calved aboriginal successful the 4th period BC.

Politically, Thespiae was aligned with the Boeotian League, an confederation of Boeotian metropolis states led by Thebes, which acted arsenic the league’s imperishable president. The Boeotians utilized the aforesaid coins and measures to facilitate easier commercialized and were obliged to assistance each different successful war, but the league was not an wholly centralized governmental body, and the idiosyncratic metropolis states mostly maintained their sovereignty.

The Thespians astatine Thermopylae

In the summertime of 480 BC, King Xerxes I of the Achaemenid Empire (Persia) invaded Greece. His father, Darius the Great, had antecedently failed to subdue the Greeks aft the Athenians had incited the Ionians to revolt against Persian regularisation successful Asia Minor.

The past Greeks, who were divided betwixt antithetic polities and fought each different frequently, were capable to unite to look this outer threat. A combined Greek service led by King Leonidas of Sparta took up a antiaircraft presumption astatine the constrictive coastal roadworthy of Thermopylae to forestall the Persians from advancing further into Greece.

According to sources similar Herodotus and Diodorus Siculus, the Greek unit numbered anyplace betwixt astir 5,200 and 7,700 men, to which the Thespians nether the bid of Demophilus contributed 700 hoplites.

The Greeks were vastly outnumbered by the Persians, whose full fig has been variably fixed astatine betwixt 70,000 and a much improbable 300,000. In immoderate case, the constrictive geographical features of the battlefield astatine Thermopylae efficaciously nullified the Persian numerical vantage and the much heavy armored Greek hoplites held Xerxes astatine bay for 3 days of grueling battle.

On the 3rd time of the battle, the Persians discovered a upland walk that enabled them to circumvent the constrictive roadworthy and onslaught the Greeks from behind. When the Greek unit learned of this, the bulk of them withdrew to combat different day.

However, the 300 Spartans led by Leonidas, the 700 Thespians commanded by Demophilus, and a unit of 400 Thebans remained astatine Thermopylae wherever they made a last stand.

The remaining Greek unit clashed again with the Persians. Herodotus tells america that Leonidas was past slain and an aggravated conflict ensued implicit his body. The Greeks managed to thrust disconnected the Persians 4 times and retreated to a tiny elevation with the assemblage of the Spartan king.

It was past that the Thebans abandoned the battle, astatine slightest according to Herodotus, who whitethorn person been biased fixed their aboriginal defection to the Persian side. The remaining Thespians and Spartans remained nevertheless and were killed successful a hail of Persian arrows.

Aftermath and legacy

Persian retribution was harsh. For their relation astatine Thermopylae, the Thespians were punished by Xerxes with the demolition of their city. The survivors fled southbound to the Peloponnese.

The Thespians fought again, however. They raised a unit of 1,800 men to combat astatine the Battle of Platea successful 479 BC. This clip the Greeks were victorious and the Persians were forced to relinquish power of Boeotia and Attica.

That aforesaid day, the Greek fleet prevailed astatine the Battle of Mycale. The Persians’ powerfulness successful the Aegean had been breached and the Greeks were capable to expel them entirely.

In 1997, the Greek authorities unveiled a monument to the oft-forgotten Thespians astatine Thermopylae, adjacent to a monument commemorating the Spartan sacrifice there.