Author | Cold Research Author Team - Micro Diffuse Tobacco Leaf
Word count: 1906, Reading time: about 5 minutes
Editor's note: The Battle of Hot Spring Pass in BC480 is very famous on the Internet due to the influence of literary and artistic works such as the movie "Spartan 300 Warriors". So some people used their strong imagination and liked to add drama to the battle. In fact, as long as you look closely at the records of the ancient Greek historian Herodotus, you will understand that the battle of Hot Spring Pass in real history is actually not a legendary epic feat, just an ordinary offensive and defensive battle.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="11" > prelude to the Battle of Hot Spring Pass</h1>
BC 480, Xerxes, king of kings of the Persian Empire, personally led a large army to invade Greece. Regarding its military strength, although Herodotus's record is in the millions, according to the current research, it is obviously not so much. The modern scholar Oswin Murray argues that Xerxes's expeditionary force should have been 200,000 men and navy warships 600. Duncan Head refines this number even more, noting that infantry is 146,000 men, cavalry is at most 40,000 men, and the Navy is 650 warships.
Faced with a menacing Persian army, the Greeks, led by sparta, the overlord of the time, organized an army of 10,000 infantry plus a large number of Thracian cavalry to make the initial resistance. They were initially stationed between Mount Olympos and Mount Osa.
Alexander, the king of Macedon at the time, advised them to abandon their garrison here and told them of the sheer number of Persian troops. The Greeks, out of fear, retreated to the famous Hot Spring Pass.
By this time the number of Greek troops had been drastically reduced by fear of Persia, and according to Herodotus , " 300 heavily armored infantry from Sparta ( according to Theo there were 1,000 Morerasimon troops , according to the Epigraphic Evidence , 4,000 soldiers at Thermos , and only 3,100 in Herodotus ' records , probably Herodotus omitted these 1,000 ) from Arkadiah,...... There were 120 Ocomynus, 1,000 from the other city-states of Arcadia, 400 from Corinth, 200 from Frius, and 80 from Messini,...... There are 700 Cespia and 400 Thebans.
In view of the morale of the Greek army, the commander of the Greek coalition army at the time, the Spartan king Leonidas, decided not to retreat, stationed at the easy to defend and difficult to attack the hot spring pass, and began to rebuild the original wall of the hot spring pass. I guess everyone will understand when you see this? In fact, the Battle of Onsen Pass was not a field battle but a defensive battle.
The terrain of the hot spring pass was narrow, and being held here prevented the Persian army from taking advantage of its strength. In fact, in history, thousands of people used the advantages of terrain to block the attack of tens of thousands of people, ancient and modern, Chinese and foreign abound, and there are no miracles and myths. However, people who could not stand up to future generations, in order to create the myth of the so-called "Spartans did not need walls", distorted the defensive battle of Hot Spring Pass into a field battle. In fact, with a little thought, why did Leonidas build the city walls if he didn't intend to defend the city? Leonidas is not crazy, why should he give up his advantage when he has walls?
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="69" > the course of the battle at Hot Spring Pass</h1>
Although some people like to create the concept of "Persians only dare to shoot arrows and do not dare to engage in hand-to-hand combat", it is said that the first day of fighting in the hot springs is after the Medians and Sakas start shooting arrows and then go to melee combat. However, the original text of Herodotus's record is that "the Medes rushed forward and attacked the Greeks, and many fell..." Whether it was archery or hand-to-hand combat is not recorded, and the so-called details of various battles can only be the brain complement and drama of later generations.
The next day of fighting, the Persians sent the empire's elite troops, the "Undead Army". Here Herodotus records that the Greek army used the "back horse gun" tactic, "they turned and pretended to flee, and the foreigners did not know the plan, so they shouted and rushed up..." Apparently the Greeks used the classic tactic of the whole war, that is, to go out of the city to fight, pretend to be defeated, and then kill a horse gun. The Persians thought the Spartans were defeated and began to charge, the battle focused on the queue and terrain, the Persians were in a state of pursuit, the queue was not very good, and the terrain was too small to unfold. At this time, the Spartans, leaning on the city walls, suddenly turned around and reorganized the queue, pounced on the Persians, and defeated the Persians.
On the third day, the Persian army once again went all out. The places of attack and defense on both sides were at the city walls and gates. Although the specific details of the battle are not known, Herodotus records that "Greece was lined up according to the city-states, and the battle was rotated in turn... Thus, when the Persians saw that the Greeks had behaved the same as the day before, they were defeated again."
After this defeat, Xerxes followed the advice of the Greek traitors and detoured from another path to the back of the Greek army. As a result, some of the Greek army left, but the Spartans, led by Leonidas, and some other Greeks remained, after which they died heroically.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="70" > the significance of the Battle of Hot Spring Pass</h1>
So, what is the significance of the Battle of Hot Spring Pass? The author believes that it can be divided into two points.
First of all, it was the meaning of the time, and Leonidas lived up to the standards of Spartan society for Spartans at that time, which was the most important. Because at that time the Spartans had zero tolerance for escape and surrender. Strategically, however, it was also true that his failure to hold the hot spring pass led to the Allies being forced to retreat.
Secondly, it was the significance of the aftermath of the battle that the Spartans, who never retreated in the face of a strong enemy, did inspire the Greeks. Later generations of Greeks continued to use Sparta as an example to praise and create.
But that's the point of this battle.
As for the other aura and brain supplements added to this battle, they can only be counted as novels, not history.
bibliography:
Lü Qiao. The Greek-Persian War and the Decline of the Persian Empire. Journal of Inner Mongolia University for Nationalities, May 2010
[2] Herodotus. History of the Greek-Polish War. Chongqing Publishing House.2007
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