KING LEONIDAS LED A SMALL TEAM OF SOLDIERS, MAINLY FROM SPARTA, ALSO KNOWN AS THE FAMOUS 300 WHO WENT AGAINST THE LARGE PERSIAN ARMY. THEY FOUGHT AGAINST THE PERSIANS WHEN THEY WERE CROSSING THERMOPYLAE, WHICH IS THE COAST OF MAINLAND GREECE, IN 480 BC (BCE). THE WAR STARTED BECAUSE XERXES, THE KING OF PERSIA, WANTED TO TAKE OVER THE WHOLE OF GREECE BECAUSE WHAT HE HAD ALREADY WAS NOT ENOUGH. XERXES WANTED TO EXPAND ALL THE WAY TO EUROPE AND HE HAD TO GET THROUGH GREECE FIRST. XERXES DID NOT WANT TO FAIL LIKE HIS FATHER, DARIUS, HAD WHEN AT THE BATTLE OF MARATHON. WHAT XERXES WAS ABOUT TO DO HAD NEVER HAPPENED IN THE HISTORY OF ANCIENT GREECE.
First Xerxes went through Northern Greece and had defeated all of the cities on the way. When the Spartans went out to war they got bad news from the Oracle. The priest told them that the King would have to die before Victory. Gorgo asked Leonidas what she should do if he did not come back from battle and he told her that she had to marry a good man and have children. The Persians had a lot more soldiers than Sparta did. Once Xerxes and Leonidas’ troops got to the Thermopylae Xerxes troop stood there for four days. This is because he was so surprised that Sparta had made a troop and he thought that it was a joke. Xerxes told Sparta to put down their weapons but Leonidas told them that they had to come and get them. This is when the war started.
The Greeks used a formation called the phalanx. The phalanx dependable formation which works really well when going against large troops. The phalanx has a smaller amount of people in the center and larger amount of people on the wings. The phalanx is used be all Greeks when they go into war. The Greeks usually train with this formation. The phalanx is in tight and organized lines when the shields overlap and they stand side by side. Usually people say you stand brother beside brother. This is because in Sparta all young boys get put into military school at the age of five so all of the soldiers would be always fighting with their family.
The Greeks used a formation called the phalanx. The phalanx dependable formation which works really well when going against large troops. The phalanx has a smaller amount of people in the center and larger amount of people on the wings. The phalanx is used be all Greeks when they go into war. The Greeks usually train with this formation. The phalanx is in tight and organized lines when the shields overlap and they stand side by side. Usually people say you stand brother beside brother. This is because in Sparta all young boys get put into military school at the age of five so all of the soldiers would be always fighting with their family.
When the Persians and the Greeks started to get into the fight the Persians started to grab some of the Greek spears. This meant that the Spartans had to use their short knives. As the Persians had so many soldiers it made it harder for them to attack. As much as Persia tried they could not get through the tough line or you may call it wall of shields that protected the Spartan soldiers. Xerxes new that his troop of light armored soldiers were not good enough to fight against the 300 Spartans, so Xerxes decided to send in his immortals. A Greek trader wanted to get some money so he told Xerxes about a path that went around the mountains and would end up behind the Spartans which meant that they would have fighters from the front and behind the Spartans.
Leonidas decided to send some of his soldiers back to Sparta thinking that they were going to fail. It would have been hard for the Spartans knowing that the people who were going back to Sparta were going to live and the Spartans staying were more than likely going to die. The Spartans started to fight again with the amount they had left from the 300 and then Leonidas fell. The soldiers tried to preserve his body and fight even harder but the Persians started to fire their arrows and did not leave one Spartan standing. Xerxes sent out some men to find Leonidas and cut off his head and stick it on a pole. After the Persians defeated the Spartans they started to head to Athens.
Leonidas decided to send some of his soldiers back to Sparta thinking that they were going to fail. It would have been hard for the Spartans knowing that the people who were going back to Sparta were going to live and the Spartans staying were more than likely going to die. The Spartans started to fight again with the amount they had left from the 300 and then Leonidas fell. The soldiers tried to preserve his body and fight even harder but the Persians started to fire their arrows and did not leave one Spartan standing. Xerxes sent out some men to find Leonidas and cut off his head and stick it on a pole. After the Persians defeated the Spartans they started to head to Athens.