I am going to do an "Interactive" of the battle of Thermoplyae, your the commanding general of some three-hundred greek spartans, the most elite warriors know to man, about one-hundred and fifty thousand persians are heading your way to take your capital.

To the battle.

One of the best points at which to hold off an invader was at Thermopylae, a narrow valley adjacent to the sea. The attacker could not pass to the seaward side, and to go inland would mean a significant detour. Other armies could risk this, but Xerxes could not. Pressured by Persia he needed a victory and fast and decsive one. To begin with, the Greek army was surprised to see the Persians arrive so soon. They had hoped to get more reinforcements. On the other side, Xerxes had excellent information and knew that the Greeks were waiting for him. He set up camp on the plain below the pass. He was confident, but the army was so large that it could not afford to wait in any one place for very long.

A. Delay the land force and to defeat the Persians at sea, then starve the Persian army. By cutting of land supplies and blockading.

B. Send for reinforcements and let the persians gain precious time.

C. Call an all out retreat and make a stand with a much larger army and better equiped troops.

If you chose A. you are correct, you can delay the land force with bows and arrows until the mighty Greek Navy could defeat the Persian navy and starve the persian land force. If you chose B. your fate is grim and ill-mannered, the persians gain precious time and your men are overwhelemed. If you chose C. when you retreat the persians go out into an all out skrimish you and your capital is overwhelmed.

I may edit this later to have more options, if you do take the time to read this I am dearly sorry it is so long I would like to know how you think the small out numbered spartans held of numbers almost 100 times their size.

I'm bit lost to be honest. Was your intention to create some sort of "game-like" thing, or what? The info you give is interesting, I'm just bit confused about your purpose.

Anyway, about the battle of Thermopylai.. First of all, the total number of Greek forces in the narrows was not only 300. 300 was the Spartan Peers. If you put together all the skirmishers, archers, etc plus the forces of other Greeks, like Thespians, the total number was about 15000. In the narrows, the Persians couldn't use much more troops either (much less actually). Also, they couldn't use chariots or horses very efficiently. Putting in the equation the superb and unmatched in the ancient world fighting skill and ability of the Spartans, you have the results. The Spartans held as much as they could. When their numbers deteriorated (because even them would die in the battle) that was it..

Strategically, the battle of Thermopylai was a victory for Greece, not only because the casualties suffered by the Persians were much greater than the Greeks fallen, but because it created in the mind of Xerxes the uncertainty about the Greek campaign. Also, it put in the Persian generals' mind the "fear of the Spartans". Imagine how they must have felt hearing that in Sparta there were another 7000 soldiers like those 300 that almost made them pack their stuff and go home..

A, now that I remembered..You said:


Don't worry! Around here you get to see much, much, MUCH longer posts than this, and sometimes less sense-making

Chariots for the Persian there almost "trademark like weapon" would have been nothing short of useless. The steep incline of Thermoplyae would have eliminated any way of the persians to make any use of them. As for the Spartans nearing almost 15,000 troops I have yet to hear that. Intresting, very.

At Thermopylae there were 15000 (Greek) troops as this had been the first defence of the Greeks during the Persian wars and actually waited reinforcements to arrive. The landscape has changed since then in Thermopylae, but it is still a narrow passage, where many troops can't fight efficiently. Since the Greeks were largely outnumbered they decided to hold line at Thermopylae (and Corinth). However according to Herodotus the Persians found a way to bypass the Greek lines, and most of Greek army decided to retreat, while 1000 men (300 Spartans and 700 locals) stayed behind to face a lost battle. They could retreat too, but their vows wouldn't allow them to retreat.
Seeing their opponents to fight battles that they would result in certain death, demoralized the Persian army, an army too big and made up of lots of different units (that disliked each other).

The Persians retreated from Greece after their fleet had lost the naval battle at Salamis (and its morale went to zero), while they still outnumbered the Greek Fleet by 5 to 1. The Persian army couldn't stay in Greece without supplies so they retreated in Asia, leaving a portion of the army (more than enough men again) behind to continue the war. However the superior training of the Spartan troops along with superior battle tactics won the war.

Very true, and also I would like to add that the "portion" of the army that remained in Greece was no less than about 300.000 men, according to Herodotus. They were defeated in Plataia by a combined greek army of around 100.000 men.

Nice info about Thermopylai (meaning in greek: hot gates) can be found
here