50 Fun Facts About Battle of Thermopylae

In which year was the Battle of Thermopylae fought?

The naval Battle of Artemisium was fought at the same time.

How many days of direct fighting did the battle involve?

The Greeks held the pass for seven days in all, counting the stand-off before the assault.

Which naval battle was fought simultaneously with Thermopylae?

The Greek strategy needed both the pass and the straits to be held.

Which Athenian proposed blocking the pass while the fleet held the straits?

He later lured the Persian fleet to its destruction at Salamis.

Roughly how large was the Greek force that marched to the pass?

It included an estimated 300 Spartans.

What do modern scholars estimate as the size of the Persian invasion army?

Ancient writers put it in the millions.

Who revealed the mountain path behind the Greek lines to the Persians?

He was a local man from Trachis, motivated by the hope of a reward.

The traitor's name came to mean what in the Greek language?

He became the archetypal traitor in Greek culture.

How many Thespians stayed with the Spartans for the last stand?

Their contingent was every hoplite the city could muster.

Which Greek contingent reportedly surrendered and was branded with the royal mark?

Herodotus suggests they had been brought along as hostages.

After the pass fell, the Greek fleet withdrew to which island?

It then destroyed much of the Persian fleet in the straits there.

Which battle the following year ended the second Persian invasion?

Mardonius, left behind by Xerxes, was defeated there.

Who is the primary ancient source for the battle?

His account is in Book VII of the Histories.

Which monument standing in Istanbul's Hippodrome supports the ancient accounts?

It was dedicated at Delphi by the Greek cities that fought the Persians.

Which uprising of 499-494 BC, aided by Athens, provoked the Persian invasions?

Darius vowed to punish the Athenians for helping it.

How did the Spartans treat the Persian heralds who demanded "earth and water" in 491 BC?

Athens threw its heralds into a pit after a trial.

The first Persian invasion ended with which Athenian victory in 490 BC?

The Spartans arrived too late because of the Carneia festival.

Xerxes' army crossed into Europe over which strait on pontoon bridges?

He also had a canal dug across the isthmus of Mount Athos.

In which city did the Greek alliance hold its congress in autumn 481 BC?

Many of the allies were technically still at war with each other.

Where did the Greeks first plan to make a stand before abandoning the idea?

Alexander I of Macedon warned them it could be bypassed.

Which Spartan festival forbade the main army from marching when the Persians arrived?

It was also the time of the Olympic truce.

What was the name of the 300-man royal bodyguard Leonidas took north?

He reportedly chose only men with living sons.

Convinced of his death, Leonidas selected only Spartans who had what?

The Delphic oracle had prophesied that Sparta or a king must fall.

How many men did Leonidas post on the heights to guard the mountain track?

They were Phocians, and the Persians simply shot past them.

Who is said to have replied that the Greeks would "fight in the shade"?

Plutarch attributes the line to Leonidas instead.

What does "Molon labe", Leonidas's reply to the demand for his arms, mean?

It is now the only inscription on the Leonidas Monument at the site.

How large did the ancient historian claim Xerxes' military force was?

Ctesias said 800,000 and the poet Simonides four million.

Thermopylae means "Hot Gates" because of what at the site?

The Phocians had channelled the spring water to make a marsh.

In which year did British Empire forces defend the same pass against Germany?

They fought mere metres from the ancient battlefield.

Which elite Persian corps of 10,000 failed to break the Greeks on the first day?

Hydarnes later led them around the mountain path.

Which tactic did the Spartans reportedly use to lure and kill pursuing Persians?

They turned and struck when the enemy ran after them.

The path around the pass ran along the ridge of which mountain?

It branched towards Phocis and down to the Malian Gulf at Alpenus.

Who led the 700 men from Thespiae who refused to leave?

They committed themselves to the fight when the others withdrew.

How did Leonidas die, according to the ancient account?

Both sides then fought over his body, which the Greeks recovered.

What did Spyridon Marinatos find on Kolonos Hill in 1939?

The find moved the presumed site of the last stand to a different hill.

The ancient account puts Persian deaths at the pass at up to how many?

The Greek rearguard probably lost about 2,000 men.

How long after the battle were Leonidas's bones returned to Sparta?

Funeral games were then held every year in his memory.

The famous epitaph on the Spartan burial mound is usually attributed to whom?

The original stone is lost; a new one was engraved in 1955.

Whom does the epitaph address?

It asks the reader to carry news to Sparta, since none of the 300 survived to do so.

Which German Nobel laureate titled a short story with the epitaph's first line?

A variant of the epigram is also inscribed at the Polish Cemetery at Monte Cassino.

The 1997 monument to the 700 Thespians features a statue of which god?

The ancient Thespians held him in particular veneration; the figure is headless.

Asked what to do if he did not return, Leonidas told his wife Gorgo to do what?

The exchange is recorded by Plutarch in his Sayings of Spartan Women.

A Persian scout reported the Spartans doing what before the battle, to Xerxes' amusement?

The exiled king Demaratus explained it was their custom before risking their lives.

Deserters told Xerxes the other Greeks were at the Olympics competing for what prize?

A Persian general exclaimed that these men fought for honour, not riches.

Which battle of 330 BC near Persepolis saw Ariobarzanes' last stand in a narrow pass?

Ariobarzanes held a pass near Persepolis for a month until a shepherd showed a way round.

Who directed the 2006 film 300?

It grossed $456 million and was based on Frank Miller's 1998 comic.

The film 300 was based on a 1998 comic series by whom?

The film kept the comic's stylised look.

Which 1998 novel unusually depicts the battle as gruesome rather than glorious?

Steven Pressfield wrote it.

How many of the Spartans sent to the pass survived, according to the ancient accounts?

Aristodemus and Pantites were the exceptions.

Xerxes' father, who launched the first Persian invasion, was which king?

He was a usurper who spent much of his reign putting down revolts.