Position:Home>History> 300 Sparta aftermath?

1!. First of all, it's important to recognize that there were really about 1,000 Spartans at Thermoplae!. About 300 peers, knights or citizens with the rest as slaves/servants/armorers!. But they were augmented with representatives from other Greek states!. In the last day of the fight, there were probably an equal number of Spartans and citizens of Thespes!. Leonidas issued decrees freeing most of the helots but enough of them stayed to fill holes from dead peers so that despite casualties there were more than 300 there that last day!. The Thespians were fighting for their homes so it made no sense for them to run!. A critical point is this: all of the Spartans were sires--they had fathered male children (so their family names would go on)!. But the troops from Thespes were what they had--when they died in the battle, most of their culture was extinguished!.

Thermoplae is credited with several things:
--delaying the Persians enough for the Greeks to get organized
--delaying the Persians enough so they had to stay the winter
--shaming/inspiring the rest of Greece to unit (to that point it was not a country but a series of warring city-states)!.

After Thermoplae came Salamis (where the Persian navy suffered greviously)!. As others had pointed out, Athens was captured and burned (the Oracle of Delphi had told the representatives from Athens that "the Wooden Wall will save you" and initially that was taken to mean the wooden wall in Athens when with hindsight it was the Athenian Navy)!. Most of the Athenians had time to evacuate the city!.

After the winter (with Xerxes having gone home), the Greeks (still outnumbered numerically but outnumbering the Persian forces in terms of quality and fighting ability) administered a can of whup *** at Plateaa and drove the Persians from Greece!. This did not take decades!.

also, lost in the comic book/move "300" is that this was not Persia's first attempt at Greece!. A decade earlier they'd been repulsed at the battle of Marathon (in which the Greek messenger ran 26 miles after the battle to inform the greeks in Athens "rejoice, we conquer" and then died)!.

Sparta was never conquered by the Persians (if you check the location of Laekedamon you can see why) and it was never much to conquer anyway--just a cluster of small stone villages!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

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The Persians never went to Sparta!.

Athens was burned to the ground, but most of the people escaped (except a few that refused to leave the temple)!. The people had time to flee because of the battle at Thermopylae!.

The Persians "won" by destroying Athens, but they didn't really accomplish the revenge they wanted since the people escaped!. The Athenians soon rebuilt!.

In another generation, the Greeks repelled and completely crushed an invasion the Persians sent!.

Then, a few generations later, Alexander the Great and his forces conquered the Persians and started the Greek Empire!.

EDIT

Oops, I got confused!. That was the wrong generation!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

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The movie actually indicates what happened!. The Battle of Platea with the Spartans leading other Greek entities, decisively defeated the Persians on land!. What the movie doesn't indicate is that simultaneously, the naval battle of Salamis (between Athens and Aegina) ensured that the Persians could not sustain their forces any further into Greece!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

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The Greeks owned the Persians at the Battle of Platea, the Persians never went into Greece again and then a few hundred years later Alexander the Great went into Persia and owned them again!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

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Athens was occupied and largely destoyed!.

However the Greek fleet (under Themistocles) totally routed the Persian fleet at the battle of Salamis!. This presented the Persians with insurmountable logistical problems, so the bulk of their army had to return home!. What was left was defeated at the battle of Platea!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

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The Spartians held the mountain pass at Thermopylae with 300 men and 1,000 other men from another city!. They will all be killed after the two days of fighting!. The Athenians abandoned Athens and the population of Attica!. The Greeks and Persians fought a sea battle of Salamis, the Greeks were outnumbered but they fought in a closed space and outmaneuver the Persian fleet and defeated them!. Xerxes returns to Persia fearful of a Ionian revolt!. In 479 BCE the Greeks formed the largest Greek army seen up to that time!. The Athenians forced the Spartians to move north of the Peloponnesus and take on the Persians at Plataea, northwest of Athens, where the Greek forces decisively defeated the Persian army!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

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The battle of Thermopylae (300 the movie) was not the end of the war between Greece and Persia!. There were several more battles before the Greeks were able to beat them back to Asia!. Sparta was never captured!. Athens was, but the Persians found it evacuated!.

If you follow this link, you can pick up right at the movie and move forward in time to the conclusion:

http://en!.wikipedia!.org/wiki/Persian_War!.!.!.

Or, scroll up on the link's site and read from the beginning!. The war began much earlier than Thermopylae!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

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The greeks defeated the persian arrmy at the battle salamis!.The persian quikly retreated!.And some persian who were on land were crushed at Platea!.It was Darius the first the son of Xerxes who sacked Athens some years later!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

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