An assortment of essays about the Battle of Thermopylae in 480BCE. With the exception of an American from Duluth, the authors are all from Australia or New Zealand; relevant, because the ANZACs deployed at Thermopylae trying to hold the Germans in 1941. Essay include a discussion of the origins and progress of the Persian Wars, the battle itself, the topography of the area as it was in 480BCE, a discussion of whether the deployment to Thermopylae was a suicide mission, the way the battle was remembered in antiquity, the influence of Homer on Herodotus’ description, other battles at the site, and the idea of as “glorious defeat” through history.

Ancient descriptions of the battle come from Herodotus and Diodorus Siculus (Plutarch’s description seems to be derivative from Herodotus). The accounts are contradictory for the end; Herodotus has the Spartans retreating to a small hill where they are killed by missile fire while Diodorus has them dying in a failed night raid on the Persian camp; it’s thought that Herodotus’ account is more likely, since he was a near contemporary, but Diodorus found favor with ancients who favored more aggressive tactics.

Discussion of the weapons and arms used by both sides notes that hoplite arms were well suited for the situation. The Persians depended heavily on their cavalry archers, who were useless on the narrow battlefield; Persian infantry used a shorter spear than the Greeks and couldn’t close; Persian foot archers, slingers and javelin throwers couldn’t penetrate Greek armor. (An endnote describes an experiment from 2009; 700 arrows were fired at 20 re-enactors armed and formed as hoplites; there were only three hits in unarmored areas).

Although it’s conceded that the size of the Persian army is greatly exaggerated by the ancient authors, it still would have needed immense amounts of forage and supplies, and the longer it could be kept in place the worse its sanitation situation would become. Thus if the Spartans had been able to hold a little longer, Xerxes’ army might have collapsed due to disease and starvation.

The essay on topography, by the sole American contributor, geologist George Rapp, was of interest. Rapp drilled boreholes at the site and noted that the 480BCE ground surface is almost 60 meters lower than the current elevation (he notes he had some difficulty convincing historians). Alluvial deposits from the Sperchios River and travertine from the hot springs that give Thermopylae its name have widened the original narrow strip between the Gulf of Malia and the Mount Kallidromon. Rapp notes that it’s often casually assumed that Thermopylae was a mountain pass; it’s true there are (and were in 480BC) cliffs on one side but the other side was swampy ground along the gulf.

The essays were all easy reads. I think my view of the battle has been colored by the movies 300 and The 300 Spartans and the novel Gates of Fire so this was an instructive read. Maps and pictures of the area; extensive endnotes; bibliography of ancient and modern authors. ( )