What Happened in the Aftermath of Thermopylae? (480 BC) DOCUMENTARY
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 13 มิ.ย. 2024
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In this history documentary we explore the immediate aftermath of the famous battle of Thermopylae. This famous clash between the Greeks and Persians is always mentioned as a major point in studies of the Greco Persian Wars. And yet once mention, the narrative often jumps to the next clash at the Battle of Salamis. Here we choose to linger upon the battlefield itself to see what was the fate of the defeated Greeks and how both the Persians and Greek Allies plotted their next moves. This involves the slaughter of the 300 spartans, the corpse of Leonidas, the story of the hidden dead, the branding of the captives and more.
In follow up episodes we will cover the rest of the Second Greco Persian War with the Battle Salamis, the Battle of Plataea, and the counter-offensive against the Persian Empire.
You can learn about the aftermath of other famous battles here:
The Aftermath of Carrhae • What Happened in the A...
The Aftermath of Teutoburg • Deadly Moments - The A...
Time Stamps:
00:00 Intro
01:35 Road to Thermopylae
04:43 Battle of Thermopylae
07:29 The Site of Battle
10:39 Advance of the Persians
16:05 The Sack of Athens
Credits:
Research = Dr. Roel Koninendijk
Script = Dr. Roel Koninendijk
Narration = Invicta
Art = Penta Limited
#history
#documentary
#300
We follow up this episode with our Avenging Leonidas series: th-cam.com/video/f7PQvP4GF20/w-d-xo.html
The Spartans were searching for years to locate Ephialtes. The Spartan agency "krypteia" disguised as shepherds, was patrolling the mountain passes of the region. Herodotus describes the end of Ephialtes.
What happened to him? Did they find him? 👀
@@davidknight2104 yea Ephialtes died by someone else’s hand for a completely different reason but he was still rewarded
He has been damned and cursed ever since ,so to speak. His name is now the Greek word for "nightmare".
He lingered around for a while and was killed over a money issue by other people.
@@selfiekroos1777 You mean he still stayed after everyone knew what he did?? What an idiot.
Another reliable source of information is the movie titled "meet the spartans". It really depicted the events accurately.
One of the best historical documentaries of all time imo
I loved that movie. Its authenticity and quality was something that its remake "300" could never successfully replicate.
I truly missed that awesome movie.
Back in the days where pure comedy at its peak.
Nowadays, lacking sense of humors and stupid social justice warriors and Karens inflicting much damage to slapstick comedies.
Everyone always leaves out the penguins and it’s critical to history
Movie is movie and history is history. Study more and watch less stupid movies made for audience with a lot of fantasy
I was watching a ww2 documentary about the battle of Greece a while back. There was another battle of Thermopylae in that campaign. The narrator made the statement that the main difference between the two battles is that xerxes didn’t have air power. Lol
yeah, I remember, when the wehrmacht advanced the Greek PM committed suicide
Seems like Xerxes’ actions after the encounter with Leonidas are those of a very frustrated ‘victor’
Pyrrhean victory should be probably called xerxesian victory🤣
Delphi is such a beautiful place. Go to Greece in March and not only is the weather perfect but you have a good chance of being completely alone at some of these world heritage sites like Delphi, temple of Poseidon, etc.
March is probably best month for whole Mediterranean (never been to Greece so far, but in Spain & Italy several times)
The Persian savages like today's Islamic savages got what they deserved when Alexander exercised his revenge by burning Persepolis to the ground and completely destroying the Persian Empire .
What comes around goes around!
It’s funny how modern history tells Greek and Persian history after this battle. Most people don’t know that the Persians went on to dominate Greek politics via financial subterfuge. They paid and played every greek city against one another for the next hundred plus years after the battle until the Macedonian invasion by Phillip II and Alexander the Great. Persia financed and backed the Peloponnesian League (led by Sparta) into destroying the Delian League (led by Athens). That was what the Peloponnesian War was about.
Persia wanted to curtail Athenian regional naval dominance in the Aegean Sea and Black Sea, and ensure control over the city states in Asia Minor (modern day turkey). They did the same again with the Boeotian League (led by Thebes) against the Peloponnesian League. It was a great story and cool movie, but it didn’t change the status quo. Persia operated much as the British and American empire. Provide finance and naval support, and play kingmaker. Persian was fine supporting the Greeks and Balkan regions being in constant warfare while they controlled trade and politics from afar. Ancient Greece was more like Game of Thrones than Band of Brothers. Damn near every invasion they faced was because one of the city states invited in a powerful foreign power to get the upper hand in a local conflict. Persia, Macedon, and Rome.
I'm really excited to have a follow up series where we look at that period of Greco-Persian history
@@InvictaHistory llleettss ggoooo
Noice bro! The Persians won the war goal in the end and that's the only reason they left.
@@InvictaHistory I look forward to it! Very little attention is paid to the “inter-war” years between the Greco-Persian Wars and the invasion of Alexander the Great.
@@InvictaHistory please do mecerenries I the persian empire indian ,greek ,scytains etx
What other "Aftermath" events should we cover?
the fall of Rome or Constantinople maybe? i like the focus on politics and daily life.
The afternath of the battle of Marathon
I've always been interested in the aftermath of Pompei
The Aftermath of the Battle of the Saw (Truceless or Mercenary War) in Cathage. It happened after the First Punic War. It rolled the political dice that led to the Second Punic War after. Hanno the Great basically removed Hamilcar Barca’s influence in Carthage by allowing them to set up a private empire in Spain. Hamilcar met many of his and Hannibal’s political allies during this battle. Carthage should’ve reformed after losing the first punic war, and focused on retaking its Mediterranean colonies. It doomed Carthage to lose in the Second Punic War. Rome was never seriously threatened at sea after the First Punic War, and Hannibal had to depend on Iberian troops and an overland route through the alps for reinforcements in what was basically a private war. Carthage sent very little troops and even less resources.
Little big horn
We just don't know if the Persians lost 20,000 men. What we do know is that exaggeration was not beyond Herdotous.
I love this channel. You bring history to life Invicta. Thank you.
I'm actually gonna agree. I used to think invicta was pretty dry, so I was sceptical when I clicked on the video but I have been pleasantly surprised.
The Patriot is in love everyone 💕 ❤ congratulations Patriot 👏 😆
@@matimus100 haha
If we come to the bare bones and leave aside the ultra inflated tragic facts as (invented?) related by Herodotus Thermopylae was a minor skirmish in which Greeks behind a wall stopped the army at a mountain pass until they were bypassed and not longer protected by the wall were all killed. Herodotus wrote in praise of the temporarily victorious Greeks and no doubt the audiences celebrated the highly adorned facts in his writings.
The whole sensation Is that Xerxes' was a Hitler like monster that had as a goal in life to cause pain and suffering to the poor democracy lover Greeks when the truth is that the athenians had burned Sardes without any provocation nor state of war between them and Persia
We literally visited Thermopylae today - what a great add-on. Amazing content as always!
Been wanting to go, does it have a vibe?
The passage of Thermopylae doesn't exist today as it has subsided. Monuments still stand though.
Not really tbh. The mountainwalls are not scalable for an army - I've learned that. But the sea has retreated so far it's basically a small plain now (so nothing like the 20m pass it was) and it smelled like the thermal baths close by (sulphur-like).
If you're okay with those things, it's nice to have been 'where it all happened' :) And the small museum's pretty nice. Plus, Delphi is relatively close by, so that might be packed into a trip, perhaps.
I always did wonder how Herodotus knew of Xerxes hiding so many of his dead when the point of the deception would be so no one wound out. Also I like how you put Argos not in the alliance. It's a reference to the city that pretty much never lived up to their commitments. Not only did they pull out of the alliance when Thessaly did, I think the only promise they kept over the ages were their truces. Broken promises to them are like what warrior culture is to Sparta.
Argos did not have much of an army by the time, years of fighting Sparta had left them wrecked.
There's a very small part of Greece that actually participated in the war if you think about it defending Greece.
Middle eastern greek cities were enslaved, much of northern Greece as well, greek city states in Southern Italy also didn't give a fuck. Other greek cities in Spain were also too far to help.
And then there's cities that even allied with Persia to further their goals like Thebes. Geographically wise Greeks that fought against Persia were coming quite probably from even less than 20 percent of the total greek land.
@@GothPaoki I know there were Greeks on both sides of the war, I just singled out Argos since they were allied with Platea at this time. "We're allied with the Persians and we hate Athens" is a better reason to not contribute to Thermopylae than "I said I was your buddy three years ago and while you never turned your back on me, I was too busy fighting Sparta who is now your ally"
@@alex_zetsu actually Sparta had a terrible military culture that made sure they can never take advantage of their manpower. Noy to mention that it was quite rigid. They keep using the only thing they knew {hoplite warfare} when siege craft, diplomacy, logistics or even just out right good state craft would have been much better. There is a reason they only ever managed to conqueror one third of the Peloponnese
TH-cam expert spotted!!!
Good episode but I think the quote is thus:
"Go tell the Spartans, passersby
That here
Obedient to their will
We lie"
Either way, great stuff.
How many others read Gates of Fire 5x and cried every time ?
Well, since the origin is not English but Greek all of the quotes are just translations. So obviously there is not THE translation that is correct. There exist a lot of different variations.
In one book the author went for:
"Go tell them in Sparta o passersby
That here in obedience with their orders
We lie"
Maybe my personal favorite.
I can't remember the name of the book right now. Which is a shame, becaue it was a great read.
I can look it up at home.
@@wedgeantilles8575 Gated of Fire by Pressfield
The ancient Greek quote...
Ω ξειν, αγγέλλειν Λακεδαιμονίοις ότι τήδε κείμεθα τοις κείνων ρήμασι πειθόμενοι .
The translation...
O, foreign passenger, announce to the Lacedaemonians that we are buried here, obeying their commandments.
god, these are always so interesting... THANK YOU for taking the time to make these!
Is Zeus your God
Fantastic series! Can't wait for part 2!
I once watched 300 movie, and I thought it was Leonidas and his 299 gym buddies.
They used all steroids as well back then, didn't you know?
Excellent explanation, thank you! I can't wait to see the subsequent video!
I think one of the least discussed topics is what happened immediately after the fall of Western Roman Empire.
This will be a perfect choice for an "Aftermath" series
The Germans are the barbarians
The aftermath wasn't as immediate as that of, say, the battle of Thermopylae. Things mostly continued as usual for decades. For example, nothing much changed in Italy under Odoacer after he officially ended the Western Empire by deposing Romulus Augustulus. Roman administrators and bureaucrats kept doing their jobs, the Senate still existed and comprised of Romans and life in Italy went on as normal. He even built monuments and repaired older ones. He ruled as a nominal governor of the Eastern Empire and paid lip service to the Emperor in Constantinople to avoid any conflict. But as he started getting more ambitious the Eastern Empire played the Ostrogoths against him and Odoacer was deposed by them under Theoderic the Great who again preseved Roman institutions while paying lip service to the Eastern Emperor. Things really started to change after his death when the Kingdom was divided into Pro-Romans under Amalsuntha who wanted to reunite Italy with the Eastern Empire and the anti-Romans who wanted to destroy Roman institutions in Italy and turn into a Barbarian state. After Amalsuntha was captured and killed by the Anti Romans, Justinian the Great used this as a pretext to declare war on the Ostrogoths. What followed was the extremely destructive 20 year Gothic was which saw thousands dead and Italy completely destroyed. Great cities like Rome and Ravenna turned into post apocalyptic ruins due to constant sieges. The Gothic war and the subsequent Lombard invasion is what officially ushered in the Dark Ages for Italy.
Europe went to shit for like 800 years and the Pope presided while anyone with two gold coins and a sword tried to kill their cousin. End of video
@@xunqianbaidu6917 They can't have it. As a Roman history fan I'm proudly contemptuous of the Middle Ages. Am I right? No. Do I care? Absolutely not.
@@xunqianbaidu6917 Constantinople is actually kinda cool, you got me there. But I'm more interested in their constant knife fights with the Sasanians. Post-Arab conquest Byzantium is just depressing.
The Persians were expelled from Greece, proper by about 478 at the battle of Sestos: this secured the Hellespointe. Only about 3 years after Thermopylae. A series of battles followed to get the Greek colonies back from the edge of what is now Turkey. And as usual the Spartans and their allies wared with Athens and her allies.
The Athenians deserved it
The defeat of the Athenians, had much more to do with a plague, then anything else.
@@raywhitehead730 The plague in turn had to do with Athens being besieged.
Modern day Turkey... A wholly Greek area before all of their savage genocides.
@@Moutopher And why is that?
If he branded those generals and soldiers as slaves, it is possible he used them for the labor of preparing the field instead of using his own men. It would actuality be useful to further dishoner them as slaves. The story could have survived from them…. I dont know much about the subject so I appreciate videos like this. Thanks.
He branded them and released them. So they would live the rest of their lives forever marked as cowards/traitors/dishonored men. They wouldn't be able to interact with anyone, without that person seeing the mark of Xerxes on their face.
This is absolutely AMAZING
Lost in these historic timelines is your depicting of these events
Looking forward to the next episode 🤓 great work guys
Fantastic effort in this video! I enjoyed it greatly.
F*cking love your videos!!! Growing up as a kid I could never access documentaries like yours, so thank you. Thank you for making these stories and our history accessible to all!
Disgraceful disgusting language you're reported lover boy
The true question that a lot of people didn't ask is: What happened to Demaratus?
You know the exiled spartan king, who was discovered by Gorgo cheating against her father Cleomenes I.
Excellent video! Thank you very much!
300 gets a lot of hate but still an entertaining movie. As a Greek I’ll always love it. Beats Captain Spandex pt 82 that Hollywood loves now
It's as Intresting to non-greeks as a black Achilles movie is Intresting to you my dear Greek friend.
Its kinda goofy though.
@@ryansmith8345 Wrong. I'm not Greek.
@@ryansmith8345 idk bro. The only people I’ve ever seen bash 300 are people online who feel as if the movie insults their intelligence or something. Off the top of my head, everybody I know says they like the movie, including females. Probably cause of the hot bods and Leonidas beating Gorgos cheeks but hey. Something for everybody
@@WarHammer1989 everybody in Greece perhaps...
Thinking about the sacks of ancient cities always makes my heart ache for the thought of all the suffering and destruction caused & lost to time...
It's horrific to think such atrocities still occur to this day.
It’s in our nature as a species unfortunately 😔. We’ll do it until we wipe ourselves out. Planet Earth will continue though as it always does.
yeah so sad those hundreds of thousand of innocent people in the middle east got killed by the united states :(
orcrainians will turn to popsicles this winter
@@isaack2084 We'll never wipe ourselves out
@@seanplays16
🤡
How about a show on the after math of the battle that led to Xenophon's March of the 10,000? The aftermath of the defeat of Athens's at Syracuse would also be a good one. Aftermath of Platea? The aftermath of Crassus's defeat in the east? You could also do Antony's campaign through Armenia.
good old Anabasis yeah
Thank you for the video it was really good
Awesome video. Thank you.
Oh hey the defeat of Syracuse and Carthage by Rome those would also be good aftermath stories
Excellent channel for relaxing thanks invicta
Thank you for this 🙏🏾
There's a last aftermath of The Battle of Thermopylae that never gets mentioned. The story itself was famous, and well known to the classical peoples that followed, including the expansionist Romans. When the time came for Rome to conquer Greece (always in defense -- NEVER as aggressors as most empires tell themselves) they sent Cato the Elder. Once again, the Greeks, severely undermanned by this point in history, chose Thermopylae as a defensive holding ground. Cato's scouts return and inform him of this, and he goes "isn't there supposed to be a shepherd's trail around here somewhere? Ah, there it is." And so the Roman front held the Greeks stationary while another portion of the Roman army flanked them, causing an immediate rout.
And then Cato the Elder, in front of cartoon crimson sky, planted the signifier into the ground and said "THIS. IS. ROME!" Actually that part never happened. As far as I know.
Think a similar story happened in WWI or WWII. Some verse from the bible let some British. Lemme see if that's close enough to Google.
Yup! Vivian Gilbert it was .
It happened again when celts invaded ,they didnt know about the shepards secret path though so they lost so at least it worked perfectly once
@@lord_cataphract216 Ha! Stupid celts. Teach you to play Mediterranean Domination without reading the manual.
The celts under Brennus II? Those celts?
Aftermath? About 280 years after??
And you do not think that the pass was forgotten by the Greeks
well, Leonidas himself treated unarmed Persian ambassadors with Unnecessary cruelty That's why Xerxes didn't have a reason to treat him according to the usual custom
The Persians could have just not invaded and conquer Greek colonies…
@@90skidcultist Athens could have not supported the Ionian revolts (devils advocate, not actually pro Empire here)
@@jackalope07 Yeah, I think this history has become a little distorted into "freedom loving good people" vs "freedom hating baddies", when in reality it was more a story of tit-for-tat retaliations between different powers trying to serve their own ends.
@@jackalope07 They had every right to do so. The Persians would have came anyway. They literally wanted to conquer the world.
(Respect for the devil`s advocate part)
@@90skidcultist Fast foward a couple of decades and Athens is trying the same thing, Persia wasn't a unique threat to Greek freedom
Again, excellent video and insight
Great work!
Informative and interesting documentary shared by Invicta channel thanks
the aftermath of galipoli or agincourt would be interesting
History hahahahahahaha yes the Greeks allied with the Persians again
You are a proper history nerd. Love it.
hell of a job man thanx I love history
Alexander the Great: *Destroys Persepolis*
Persians: "WHY DID YOU DO THAT? WE DID NOT OPPOSE YOUR SOVEREIGNTY HERE!"
Alexander the Great: "I'm sorry, but we couldn't let what you did to Athens go unpunished..."
Ptolemy: "Actually, my wife Thaïs accidentally burned one of the curtains in the Palace while she was drunk and then..."
Alexander the Great: "Shut up, Ptolemy! You and that crazy b*tch are going to ruin my reputation!"
Persians: What about Thebes?
Alexander: They were rude to me!
Slave: You killed my family!
Alexander: I said I was sorry! Now shut it you rude Theban!
The burning of Athens was retribution for the burning of Sardis. But the Greeks save for Herodotus do not bother to keep a tally of their wounds they inflict, only ones that are inflicted upon themselves.
@@KTA1sVidsandFacts Talking about wounds, that Athenian wound opened by Thais should serve as a reminder that when you burn down the craddle of global civilization, the Athenian shrine and the most magnificent monuments ever erected by man, you should be on the lookout for retribution. Charring Persepolis bore testimony to that undeniable fact. Next up, the United Kingdom and the British Museum... One thing is for sure; in the end, divine justice is always served, in one way or another.
@@anastasiosliagkris576 th-cam.com/video/ztVMib1T4T4/w-d-xo.html
1: The Ancient Greeks thought themselves descended from the Egyptian Civilization. Never mind, the fact that the first Civilization was Sumer, and there were multiple that followed in Egypt, Indus River Valley, China, and Norte Chico.
2: Athens' Golden Age when most of its monuments were constructed was during the Peloponnesian War, after they used the Delian League as a way to exact tribute from other Greeks. In matter of fact throughout most of Ancient Greek History the City-State of Miletus was the center of the Greek world until the Ionian Revolt.
3: Θαΐς and her story of being the reason 𐎱𐎠𐎼𐎿 was burnt down is likely legend, as Plutarch and Diodorus Siculus didn't want to lay the blame on Alexander.
4: The Greeks were so heavily colonized by Rome that they forget themselves as Greeks for over a thousand years, and it wasn't until the rise of Greek Separatism in the Ottoman Empire that they started to recognize themselves as Greeks again.
@@jeremyalexander9761 You seem to be ignoring the whole Ionian Revolt, and the history that preceded it, and what came after.
Alas it was a shame that Alexander's generals killed him for becoming Persianized.
Such a cool, unappreciated part of the story!
Terrific video! Can't wait for Salamis! ⚔
Can't wait to see the second episode of this serie
Rumor has it King Leonidas and the brave 300 are still dining in Hades.
Philip of Macedonia based the Hellenic Asian Expedition on these Persian sacrileges which his son, Alexander the Great completed with the razing of Persepolis 170 years after the Persian Empire fell to him after defeating Darius in three major battles.
Didn't know that, thats interesting
I didnt know Alexander lived to 170 yrs, tho.... :D
excellent work i learned a lot
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Excellent video!!!!! Can’t wait for the next ones to continue!!!!! 5 STARS!!!!!
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
As it turned out, the "wooden wall" are the mighty Athenian fleet.
The evacuation of Athens and the Battle of Salamis, are heroic stories of resolution, equivalent to Dunkirk and the battle of Britain.
Dunkirk was a Defeat,Nazis Germany could of wiped out almost the entire British Army,If wasn’t for Hitler’s sentimental views,that he admired the British and considered them fellow Germanic folk,If wasn’t for that,History would be different,No D Day,and the Third Reich would have Dominion Not Only Of the UK but Much Of the World..Read History Dude..p.s.The Russians won the War..
This video was interesting and informative
It's so nice to learn about these events by only studying the facts, with none of the toxic nationalism of Greek schools. Great video!
Nice Saruman reference around 11:00 there Invicta 😏
Nice video! But in 2:02 Mt. Athos is located elsewhere. It's the third "claw" from left at the Chalkidiki peninsula
You've misinterpretted the video. 2:02 is where Xerxes' fleet was in Asia Minor before departing. You can see on 2:13 that where the Mount Athos canal was, like you said on the third claw from the left (first claw from the right) of the Chalkidiki peninsula.
man i havent commented on something in years. for some reason this seemed extra cool and gave me big vibes of the old total war days haha awesome
video!
Nicely done
Moral of the story: is better to fight to the death than to trust in the mercy of your enemy.
The more I learn about Herodotus, the less I trust his details while seeing him more as a collector of tales which he embellishes or outright changes to provide a comprehensive telling.
Nah, Herodotus did pretty damn well for his time! 👍
Read his Histories. It Is difficult to tell apart the probable facts from propaganda. Particularly on the Persían wars he provides lots of facts with incredible detail that sound more invented than real. There Is obviously no limit to oral tradición and seems sensible to think that anyone was free to add something of his own.
Regardless he is still today named the first historian
Awesome video and channel.
You just got a new Sub.
Enjoyed ♥️
Funny how spartans are now portrayed as the heroic defenders of greece when they were so unwilling to make sacrifices for others. Also how much thermopylae was made to be a big thing after the fact.
it was a heroic because they sent their king and their elite to death! persians suffered huge loses, and last battle at plataies was against 10000 spartans.thats the meaning of heroe
Well thermopylae is like one of the first recorded last stands in history so yeah it is a big thing
I wasn't watching thinking about the aftermath of Thermopylea, I was watching it to see the final outcome, sadly, it just left you hanging, really bad.
Captivating!
Great video! Where's the follow up?
Another great video Invicta, Hopefully we get to see more Ancient Greek and Persians videos in the future!
Would be interested to get daily life in Ancient Greece videos at some point, similarly to how you do The Roman ones. Seeing how the two, Greeks and Romans differ would be awesome.
Press F to pay respects to Phocis.
Phocis got phocced in the ass to death
F
Φ
Ф
At that time, the acropolis of Athens did not have the appearance shown in your video. In its present form, the Parthenon was built later, and any other temples present probably were enhanced at a later date also.
If you have been to the Acropolis, you can see the foundations of the original Temple to Athena that the Persians burned down in front of the Erechthion Maidens :) They also took some of the Fallen Columns from this first Temple and installed them into the sides of the Acropolis’ foundations to be displayed so that no Greek or other Athenian would forget about the Persians atrocities when they burned down their city! 👍
@@SpartanLeonidas1821 Alexander made them pay.
@@jacktattis That’s true! 💯👍🏻
Can we get a aftermath of the battle of Plataea please!
First casualty in war.
Greek Reporting: 300 Spartans Dead and 20,000 Persians slain.
Persian Reporting: 4,000 rebels dead at the cost of only 1,000 warriors.
Propotionally the Greeks lost way more men. More than half of their total forces at Thermopylae around 4,000 Hoplites out of a total of 7,000 at the beginning. Compared to the Persians who had between 70,000 - 300,000 soldiers which is kind of confusing but the ancients Greek sources tend to exaggerate for propaganda purposes. The Persians lost around 20,000 soldiers presumably but we don't know for sure, since their is a lack of Persian sources except for the biased Greek ones.
if it was soo they would have marched earlier,not waitting 3 days.and looking forothr ways to win.
@@HeroHoundoom so you beleive 4000loses accoding to greek source but not the 20000 persians according to the same source?since they won the war why should they lie,they didnt lie about the cities who joined persians,about burned athens ,about the other lossed cities,about salamis,but at thermopyles they did?it could be one more defeat among the rest
@@manoliskoutras6613 I think the Greeks were more sure of the total numbers they had on their side than about the total numbers on the Persian side. This also includes calculating the losses at Thermopylae since the Greeks lost that battle and had to retreat, so how could they have counted the dead bodies on both sides?
nice video
Thanks for a great video on this subject. I'm glad you did not fall for the usual Greek legend about the traitor leading Persian troops through a pass. The Persians fought in Anatolia, the Caucasus, Bactria etc. They knew well there was a pass through the mountain. Xerxes even stopped his army for 4 days before attacking the Greek contingent. However, the population of Athens was only about 35K in the city. The countryside did contain 200,000. Thebes had already been medized and any Thebans on the Greek side would be dissenters to that position. There is a great read about the Phocians at the pass and why there was virtually no resistance to the Persians. Delphi in Phocian territory was not touched and there are so reasons for that. Look it up under The Phocian Betrayal at Thermopylae. Thanks again!
It is of no surprise that in modern day Greek, Ephialtes translates to "nightmare".
Do the aftermath of Leuctra.
This is such a cliffhanger! haha I liked the depiction of the events and in my head I was imagining characters from the movie 300 and the sequel and from god of war as well, hell even Assassin's Creed Odyssey haha so I cannot wait for the continuation of this story.
There is a debate on whether or not Thermopylae actually accomplished anything. Many cities and towns were sacked including Athens after that battle. While, as Invicta points out, the Spartans decided to hide behind their wall and abandon the rest of greece. Of course, they left that part out of the movie.
Still tasting the bitter taste of crow huh, and after all that time too, lol
@@kenneth9874 "Crow"? I'm not sure I follow. Who are you, again?
@@Mahbu oh, but you always follow
@@kenneth9874 That's a little weird.
Oh, were you one of those spartan groupies that got all butt hurt? That was, like, five years ago.
@@Mahbu nah, just recalling Alexander making fools and vassals almost at will of the persians thinking that must be the reason for your comment
Thanks.
I tend to agree that the Greeks inflicted mass casualties by the fact that they held 3 days against a much larger army only failing due to the mountain pass. Had that pass not been found they would've held much longer. Additionally the drive to find the pass rather than push the battle home proves the Persians were frustrated and didn't see the ability to go thru the Greeks in a reasonable timeframe as a possibility. To me it seems the Greeks were clearly losing few while inflicting unacceptable casualties on the Persians. The numbers may have been exaggerated slightly but you would assume the first and second day the Persians would not have been as cautious given their size vs the defenders and simply not yet knowing the outcome of their attempts. They would've likely thrown a maximized effort in day 1 and depending when they actually learned about the pass a doubled and more determined effort day 2. After learning of the pass they would've simply applied as much effort as needed to delay while going thru the pass to encircle the Greeks. So the first 2 days were likely mass casualty events for the Persians army. Another example is the quality of troops the Persians eventually put into the battle. In their frustration they put their most elite troops into the battle sacrificing years of training and experience and a valuable asset to the Army.
It's worth remembering that this was AFTER The Ten Thousand and their March to the Sea. Greek hoplites were considered the greatest heavy infantry in the world even by the Persians at this point. That kind of legend impacts morale.
@@TheAchilles26 I'm pretty sure this happened before the ten thousand. I could be wrong though.
@@adamtedder1012, I'm pretty sure the Ten Thousand even predated the Ionian Revolts that kicked off Marathon
@@adamtedder1012, I stand corrected, just checked the dates. Ten Thousand was later, however, the reputation of Greek hoplites was significant even in Persia even by this point. They were considered the best heavy infantry in the world at the time
@@TheAchilles26 yes sir. I remembered reading the book back when I was in the military. Had to be around 2004. Awesome story.
Has the shoreline moved a huge distance? I am looking on maps and you and the movie show all this occurring directly on the beaches and cliffs. These locations have a tremendous amount of farmland in between
It's been 2,501 years since the battle and coastlines constantly change, volcanoes create new land, and water erodes coastlines.
Yes.
It has changed as you describe. There are enough sources that describe the narrow pass at the hot gates that it would be odd to doubt it's existence. Time and the sea have made their mark on the once fabled location of Greek defenses
The shoreline around Thermopylae retreated a lot in the last 24 centuries. The sediment of the river acummulated and created a couple miles of land. The shoreline back then would be around the line where the highway is today. A similar thing happened at Miletus, that used to be a port town but is now sittting in a hill over a plain. another major change is lake Copais in Beotia that got drained in the 1850’s.
My favorite films are "300" and "300: Rise of an Empire", but too bad that there isn't a sequel to the Battle of Platea or the Peace of Kallias!
@@xunqianbaidu6917 is of the most beautiful but inaccurate Historical film!
@@alejandrosakai1744 An incredibly mediocre movie even if you ignore the wank fest and historic inaccuracies. Meet the spartans....a parody of 300 is more entertaining
Presented with the prospect of decapitating and mutilating the corpse of Mardonius after the battle of Plataea in revenge for the treatment of their fallen King Leonidas at Thermopylae, the Spartans flatly refused. Such deeds, they said, were worthy only of barbarians, not free Greeks.
Gerard Butler just couldn’t help but lose his head at Thermopylae could he?
But he did become a Law Abiding Citizen!
@@greg5775 only after London and the whitehouse had fallen
@@patricianoftheplebs6015 Jesus, yes, imagine fighting for slavery, but the Persians forbid slavery
@@user-cg2tw8pw7j Reminiscent of the conquest the US does towards those who violate their values.
You practice Zoroastrianism, and can tell us of their need to invade other countries?
@@user-cg2tw8pw7j Wait, is your name written in the language used today for selling slaves?
oh my, the irony.
Invicta, why nobody makes videos about the Dacian Campaigns of the Emperor Trajan?
Here is one...
th-cam.com/video/R59YvnA6mZY/w-d-xo.html
:)
@@chrisyoung5363 Thank you man!
1:08 Ah yes who could forget the ancient Pharaoh class tanks, thank you History Channel at 2am
I’m so amazed by Greek culture. Very thankful for their contribution to human history.
What about Persian culture
@@TheColombiano89 bunch of punks
@@teeheeteeheeish ignorance at its finest
@Nisar BO summed up my question lol
@@teeheeteeheeish how so 🤔
I watched this episode and wondered throughout if there were no historians in the Persian empire that gave accounts of this campaign. You quote Herodotus quite often but unless I missed it not a Persian historian. Is this an intentional omission or, I doubt seriously, there are no Persian chroniclers to be found?
None have come to us from that period Xerxes would have had them for sure .
For a second, I thought the thumbnail was of a Dark Elf during the Battle of Red Mountain...
Great shit
Disgraceful language you're reported primate
We Greeks hate each other until someone disturbs us from hating each other. Then we unite to finish him so we can hate each other or we just hate each other and ask him to help us destroy our enemy. Then we destroy him because he destroyed our brothers, which we hated. Dont disturb us unless you are a friendly stranger 😝
😂
Tell the Germans that lol
We!? You and I weren’t alive back then, nor should we take credit for their work and failures. Even then, they still fought each other! They’re were Greeks that were allied with the Persians, dude. Their wasn’t really much of Greek unity. They just feared the Persian superpower at the time. It took Alexander and his father to stop this and bring true Greek unity. Both were also killed by their fellow Greeks. The Romans did a much better job with us, that we kept their Empire alive in the East for another thousand years.…😖
@@90skidcultist yeah ! So ? That doesnt change the fact that greek history is full of civil wars.
@@tg1095gr ...That is my point, sir.🤬
A Brilliant campaign by the Persians which of course included the Satrap of Macedonia. They would go on to sack Athens twice!
I think it should be 400 Thebans, not helots, at 5:28 . There were surely helots there, though; I don't know how many.
Attackers striked by lightning
Herodotus is the best 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
I just drove past Thermopylae a couple weeks ago. Now there's nothing but a toll road there lol. But to the north, you have a vast flat plane and then the mountains begin like a massive and unpassable fortress.
The terrain has been altered throughout the ages. At the ancient times, Thermopylae were a narrow pass between Kallidromon mountain and the sea. Millenia of debris deposit by dozens of streams and torrents have created that flat plane you saw.
The geography of the place have changed a lot. Now the piece of flat land between the mountains and the sea is much wider. It was pretty narrow 2000 years ago...
That the Greeks took more casualties would make sense since we could loose huge volleys of arrows at them without necessarily engaging too much in close combat. I say our 1000 dead on the field is accurate and 19000 was made up by Herodot.
You're forgetting how thoroughly the Ten Thousand trashed Achaemenid armies earlier. The phalanx was very well protected from missile fire. Losses were definitely disproportionate in favor of the Greeks, just not disproportionate enough.
Kudos for the cartography: many people miss the now-vanished _Lake Copais_ (west of Thebes)
Ahmazing
If the Athenians had abandoned the fight like they threatened...and sailed their ships across the wine dark sea to Italy to rebuild their city state was their any power in Italy at that time strong enough to appose them?
If not...once they got a foothold in Italy...could Rome ever had reached her full power...with such a warlike city state as " Italian Athens " to appose her?
Siracusa, perhaps Taranto and other italic populations. Those countries were much more populated than Greece
@@oronzobarberio5029 populated with greek people though,magna grecia called
@@manoliskoutras6613 lot of greek colonies, usually they melted with locals. All Italy was much more crowded
It's clear that Delphi has an arrangment with the Persian long before the war started. They try, by all means, to discourage the greek polis to fight xerxes, with bad omens and oracles. They pass information too, that's why the persian don't sack the temples at Delphi. Later, of course, after the persian defeat, Delphi try to make things straight, but it shows.
Delphi was akin to the Vatican of the Greek world. I don’t know if you’re familiar with the five Sacred Wars that took place throughout Greece from 595-280 BCE, but they devastated the the greek city states and ensured that Macedon under Phillip II (Alexander the Great’s father) ultimately dominated Greece not only militarily but politically. Look up the Amphictyonic League of Delphi and Sacred Wars. It’s very interesting reading. It’s impossible to understand the politics and history of ancient Greece without knowing about that. It’s fascinating reading. Tragic too. Most of the Greek infighting was based around some infraction against Amphictyonic League of Delphi or an attempt to control or sack it for money by despots and mercenaries. Greece was very much like Medieval Italy. Makes sense why Machiavelli used so much of ancient Greek history in The Prince.
@@isaack2084 Yeah, I know about that and as you say, a fascinating moment in history. Thanks for sharing! Best wishes
P.S.: How funny is that no history channel that I know cover machiavelli as it should be. Every one say (they means justified the end, an other things that machiavelli never said, but noone talks about the amazing thinks he did talk about).