The Last Stand of the 300
Esther 2:1
In between Esther chapter 1 and chapter 2, is a several month gap.
Xerxes’ father, Darius the Great, had an intense hatred for the Greek people.
The Persian Empire had spread to what is known as Turkey. On the coast was the Ionian coast. The Greeks colonies decided to rebel against the Persians. Against the huge Persian war machine the colonies had not hope, so they requested help from their mother country, Athens. With these supplies, they burned down a Persian capital, Sardis in that region.
At this time Greece was not united. They were fractured into city-states. These city-states for years were embroiled in fights between each other.
The two leaders of the city states were Athens and Sparta. Athens had developed an early form of democracy and set up as a republic. Most of our country’s government and constitution, laws and courts are based from the Athenian government.
The Spartans are a war-like society. They are set up as a state run government. All people are property of the government and give their entire lives for the purpose of helping the state.
The only two people that had gravestones were soldiers who died in battle and mother’s who died giving birth, both acts are high sacrifices for the state.
Xerxes plans his revenge and desires to burn down Athens.
When Athens hears of the Persian plan, they go to the other city states and beg for help.
The Spartan hear that request, but only decide to 300 soldiers of their army of thousands. Leonidas is the leader of the Spartans and becomes the commander of the 7000 others Greek troops.
Xerxes starts with a great advantage. He has numbers and technology. Instead of marching around the Black Sea which will add a year march with troops, he decides to walk across water.
The Hellespont is a 1 mile wide waterway between Europe and Asia, near the Black Sea.
Xerxes had his engineers construct a mile long bridge out of boats, anchors with a strong cord rope and planks across the boats. This type of ingenuity had never been seen by the Greeks before.
Xerxes also raised a land army consisting of nearly 2 million soldiers. This vastly out numbered the weak 7,000 Greek soldiers.
Leonidas choose the battleground, a small mountain pass of Thermopylae. On one side have the sheer cliffs of the mountains and the other side the Aegean Sea.
As both parties prepared to meet on the battlefield, Xerxes offers the Greeks to surrender peacefully. The Spartans tell them no. The Persian ambassador then declares they will be wipes out by millions of Persian arrows. One of the Leonidas’ army replies then they will have the battle in the shade.
On the first day, Xerxes starts by sending his archers to send arrows into the Greek forces. The Greek armor and Phalanx formation allows the arrows to have no effect. Xerxes sends his first wave. Because of the narrow pass, the numerical advantage is nullified and as the Persian soldiers were bottlenecked
The Persian army is stuck and is not able to get troops of the other side of the pass to surround the small unit of Greeks.
On day two, Xerxes brought out his main unit, the Persian Immortal. The Persian Immortals were well trained units, who had a thin black vail over their faces. They were trained not to speak and not to utter a sound in efforts to intimate the forces they faced. They too were not able to collapse the Greek lines.
On the second night, Xerxes was tipped off that there was a small mountain pass that would allow some of his soldiers to go around the mountain and surround the Greek forces.
When the Greeks realized they there going to be surrounded, Leonidas began to order a tactical retreat of most of the Greek soldiers. He and his 300 Spartans, along with a small unit of other Greek soldiers, stayed behind to give as much time for the rest of Greece to prepare for the invading army.
The results of this battle
It helped move the Greeks from a bunch of city states to a national unified nation
It also provided a safe heaven for democracy to grow and these ideas blossom.
Later as the Greeks continued to desire to destroy the Persian, it was passed on to a young man named Alexander the Great. As he went and conquered the world, he brought Greek culture to every part of the world he went. This became the center of Western Civilization.
Daniel 8:1-8; 20