Serial Last Stands; Thermopylae
Many famous battlefields get somewhat recycled down through history. Usually, only one of the battles receives any lasting notice and the others fade out of knowledge. The pass at Thermopylae is famous for the defense by Leonidas and his Spartans against King Xerxes and his 60,000 Persians in 480 BC. The Spartan's stand was the first, and most famous of at least six known battles at this site.
This site obviously has had some strategic significance through the ages. Each of the battles was the result of an invading force, heading for Athens, being met by defenders at Thermopylae. The land route was being taken because the defenders had control of the sea lanes in each case, and the attacker could not risk simply sailing to his ultimate destination. The pass contained a decent road, quite unlike the terrain inland from the coast, which was extremely rough and had few, poor paths. The best and fastest land route from Thessaly to Athens was along the coast and through Thermopylae. The pass was also ideal for mounting a defense, because it was very narrow, reported by Herodotus as only half a plethron (15 meters) wide.
In 480 BC, King Leonidas of Sparta was the commander of a small army intended to delay the Persian advance towards Athens, while the rest of the Greeks formed their army. He chose the pass at Thermopylae as his site and move his troops into place. http://www.thevines.com/leaf/AB000001831...
Leonidas is generally acknowledged to have fought this battle with the 300 Spartans of his personal bodyguard, but this is not quite correct. His force was composed of hoplites from several kingdoms and numbered about 7,100. About 1000 of these were Phokians, whose assignment was to guard against a flanking movement via the goat path which was the actual route eventually used by Xerxes' troops; so it's apparent that Leonidas was aware of the weakness in his defense, and had planned for it.
The 'goat path' taken by the Persians travels approximately 16 kilometers, from the Persian camp, up a branch of the Asopus River and skirts the summit of Mt.Callidromus (actually a ridge line) before descending down another river course and arriving in the rear of the Greek positions. http://www.reisenett.no/map_collection/h...
The Phokians were surprised by the attack, so they were apparently not maintaining a proper watch. Nevertheless, they held long enough for the rest of the Greek force to escape the trap, except for Leonidas and his bodyguard who upheld the Spartan creed of refusing to retreat or surrender.
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