10. The 300
You all know the story, the brave King Leonidas and his 300 Spartans stopped a million men Persian army at Thermopylae. Only, there weren’t just 300 Spartans (and there weren’t million Persians either, but that’s another myth) blocking the narrow passage. In fact, the Spartan contingent may be the smallest one among the Greek cities that formed an army 20,000 strong, according to modern estimates. For two days, the Greeks repelled relentless Persian attacks, causing huge casualties in King Xerxes’ army. Even the fabled Immortals, his personal guard, couldn’t penetrate the Greek phalanx. On the third day, Persian scouts, with the help from local shepherds, found a way around the Greek positions and started a flanking makeover. However, the Greeks found out and quickly retreated, avoiding encirclement. Now, this is where the myth originated. King Leonidas decided to stay back and fight a delaying action, to provide enough time for the rest of the Greek army to reach safety. The Oracle prophecy that he must die in order for Sparta to survive may have provided an additional motivation for Leonidas to choose a certain death. Now, this is where the things start to get really interesting. The 700 men strong contingent from Thespiae, a city near Thermopylae, knew that their home is lost if Persians make it through the pass, so they decided to stay as well. Being quite smaller than Athens or Sparta, their contingent represented every man of fighting age from their city, so their sacrifice is perhaps even greater than the Spartan one. 400 men from Thebes also choose to stay behind and face Xerxes. So, when Persians finally made it across the mountain, Leonidas had at least 1,500 men under his command. With the exception of few Thebans that surrendered, the rest of them were killed to the last man.
