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The 300 Spartans: What Really Happened at Thermopylae?
In 480 BCE, Xerxes I led the Achaemenid Empire’s invasion of Greece toward the narrow coastal pass of Thermopylae. A Greek coalition, with Spartan king Leonidas in a leading operational role, tried to block the Persian advance while Greek warships contested the nearby strait at Artemisium.
The famous story of three hundred Spartans is rooted in a real final stand, but the surviving evidence shows a larger and more complicated operation. Several thousand Greek defenders initially held the pass. Thespians, Thebans, Phocians, Arcadians, Locrians, Corinthians, Helots attached to the Spartans, and…
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