Thermopylae (34 page)

Authors: Ernle Bradford

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BOOK: Thermopylae

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The extent of the Persian and the Greek losses in the campaign and in the final battle has provoked many an argument among scholars. Certainly Herodotus grossly underestimates the number of Greek dead, as well as equally overestimating the number of Persian and pro-Persian Greeks who were killed. Most scholars seem to settle for the figure given by Plutarch of 1360 Athenian, Spartan and allied Greeks killed - this very probably being the figure for hoplites only. There were Helots, for instance, among the Lacedaemonians, and there can be no doubt they were in the thick of the action along with the Spartiates, but there is no record of their casualties, although Plutarch relates that they had their own burial-mound on the field of battle. As for the Persian losses there seems to be more or less general agreement, pace Herodotus, that they lost somewhere in the region of 10,000 men at Plataea. One of the reasons that Xerxes did not execute or disgrace Artabazus for his rapid withdrawal of the Persian centre was that he retired to Asia with the best part of an army corps, possibly some 40,000 men. After the disaster of Plataea, had he attempted to fight a rearguard action through country which, though nominally pro-

Persian, would probably have risen up against him, the losses would have been infinitely worse - or even total.

The Greeks encamped on the battlefield, burying their dead as well as garnering the spoils of war. These were considerable, for Persian armies did not travel light like the Greeks, who were relatively poor in any case, but with gold and silver vessels, silken tents, women, and slaves. All these had to be apportioned out, and Pausanias seems to have used his authority with considerable skill for, if he had not, one can be sure that later Athenian historians would have accused the Lacedaemonians of taking more than their fair share. Looting was forbidden on pain of death, and Helots were despatched all over the area to gather together the innumerable - and to them almost incomprehensible - valuables that had been left behind by the fleeing army. Of course, in the first hours of triumph, quite a lot of obviously precious things, like gold cups or ornaments, must have disappeared into many a private ‘kit-bag’ -but this has happened in every war. One cannot help suspecting that there must have been a good deal of cheating on the side, but it seems more than likely that had the commander-in-chief been an Athenian or a Corinthian there would have been very much more. The Spartiate class, at that time, corrupt though they were to become at a later date, were still so strictly indoctrinated with the iron laws of Lycurgus that they saw in wealth and golden objects the very things that caused corruption and softness amongst men and nations. To take one instance of correct and chivalric behaviour, Pausanias refused to allow the body of Mardonius to be desecrated - as that of Leonidas had been - but had it quietly and secretly buried at night. The Greek mistress of one of the dead Persian commanders, having carefully dressed herself up in her best clothes, and accompanied by her handmaids, fell at the feet of Pausanias, imploring mercy. Although, as his life was to show, Pausanias was very attracted to women, he had her sent back under escort to Aegina. He could not send her to her native island of Cos, because this was still under Persian domination. The colour of all later accounts of the whole of Xerxes’ invasion was to show the Athenians in the best of all possible lights, while denying to their allies any true evaluation of their particular contribution to the defeat of Persia. It is rather as if some future historian, searching through the records of the Second World War in our century, should only come up with the accounts of one of the victorious allies.

Despite a somewhat futile attempt to besiege Thebes and exact that tithe promised in the Oath of Plataea, the allies soon realised that, with the summer coming to an end, this would prove almost impossible. The exact date of the Battle of Plataea is difficult to ascertain, for calendars in those days varied widely between city and city, but it would seem to have been in mid-August of 479. To have proceeded to tithe not only Thebes, but all the other northern Greek states which had sided with the Persians, would have proved quite beyond the capabilities of the Greek allied forces. In any case, all had work to do in their native states. It was time for ploughing, while the Athenians, in addition, had yet again to start rebuilding their city. It is melancholy to record that only a very short time after this victory, which had temporarily united so many of the city-states of Greece, dissension between them all too soon began. Their brilliance, which still funds the whole of what is left of Western civilisation, stemmed from their anarchic individualism.

For the brief moment, though, in the elation of such a victory and in the mutual realisation of the danger from which they had escaped, they set up many memorials in honour of the event: a bronze Poseidon at the Isthmus of Corinth, for instance, and a Zeus at Olympia. Most famous of all these monuments was dedicated to Apollo at Delphi: a bronze pillar formed of three entwined serpents supporting a tripod of gold. It is hardly surprising that the golden tripod vanished long ago in one of the interminable, internecine Greek wars, but the column still survives. The visitor to modern Istanbul can see it in the dusty, tourist-occupied Hippodrome. Few recognise it for what it really is: a memorial to those ancient Greeks who, so many centuries ago, ensured that the patterns of freedom and individual liberty should survive in the West.

SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY

Aeschylus, The Persians, trans. H. W. Smyth, Loeb Classics (London, 1922). Bengston, H., The Greeks and the Persians (London, 1968).

Bradford, E., Mediterranean (London, 1971).

Burn, A. R., Persia and the Greeks (London, 1962).

—, Greece and the Eastern Mediterranean (Berlin, 1977).

Cambridge Ancient History, vol. iv, The Persian ‘Empire and the West (London, 1926).

Diodorus Siculus, Works, trans. C. H. Oldfellow (London, 1946).

Frye, R. N., The Heritage of Persia (London, 1962).

Green, P., The Year of Salamis (London, 1970).

Grundy, G. B., The Great Persian War (London, 1901).

Hammond, N. G. L., Studies in Greek History (London, 1973).

Herodotus, The Histories, trans. A. de Selincourt (London, 1976).

Hignett, C., Xerxes’ Invasion of Greece (London, 1963).

Jones, A. H. M., Sparta (Oxford, 1967).

Morrison, J. S. and Williams, R. T., Greek Oared Ships (London, 1968). Plutarch, The Rise and Fall of Athens, trans. I. Scott-Kilvert (London, 1976). Powell, J. E., The History of Herodotus (London, 1939).

Snodgrass, A. M., Arms and Armour of the Greeks (London, 1967).

Toynbee, A., Hellenism (London, 1959).

INDEX

Abydos, 27, 37, 174 Acanthus, 97, 98 Aceratus, 168 Achaea, 81, no, 168 Achaemenes, 150, 180 Achaemenid Empire, 40, 44 Acharnae, 226 Acragas, 156

Acropolis, 88, 89, 170, 172, 173, 174, 175, 176, 179, 180, 190, 204, 205 Adeimantus, 179, 196 Aegean Islands, 53, 56, 79, 94, 100,

167, 180, 183, 212, 216, 221 Aegean Sea, 13, 26, 49, 53, 76, no,

130, 170, 219, 221, 224 Aegina and Aeginetans, 57, 89, 105, 108, 167, 178, 179, 187, 195, 197,

198, 199, 208, 214, 244 Aelius Aristides, 166 Aenos, 87

Aeschylus, 51,188,189,193,197,198,210 Africa, 44, 79, 94, 156, 162, 171 Agesilaus, 66 Aglaurus: shrine of, 173 Ahriman, 28

Ahuramazda, 22, 23, 24, 36, 38, 50,

82, 140, 169, 174 Akkad, 43

Alcmaeonids, 54, 126 Aleman, 60 Aleuadae, 81, 91

Alexander of Macedon, 91, 92, 98, 99,

100, 167, 215, 217, 220, 233, 234, 235 Alexander the Great, 27, 40, 156, 164 Alexandrian Empire, 5 5

Alpeni, 115, 141 Alpenos, 117 Alpheus, 142

Ambelaki Bay, 195, 197, 198 Ameinias of Pallene, 198 Amestris, 86 Amompharetus, 237 Amphissa, 165, 168 Amphyctionic League, 147 Amyntas, 46 Anatolia, 41

Anaxilas of Rhegium, 157 Anazandrides, 242 Andros and Andrians, 205, 206 Aphetae, 113, 123, 132, 144 Apollo, 49, 50, 82, 168, 169, 174, 197, 198, 207 Arabs, 21

Arcadia and Arcadians, 58, 84, 104, 163, 164, 185, 189, 231 Arcania, 139 Architeles, 124 Areopagus rock, 172 Arethusa of Syracuse, 161 Argives, see Argos Argolid, 105

Argos and Argives, 48, 59, 80, 81, 82, 148, 163, 168, 223 213, 224 Ariabignes, 198 Arimnestus, 228, 240, 242 Aristeides, 83, 93, 193, 201, 208, 210, 217, 226, 232, 233, 239 Aristophanes, 75 Aristotle, 62, 65, 161 armour, 70, 127, 135, 145

Artabanus, 37, 38, 93, 94, 98, 164,

174, 179, 232, 239, 243 Artabazus, 211, 212, 213, 233, 239,

240, 242, 243 Artachaees, 97 Artemis, 49, 63, 95, 146 Artemisia of Halicarnassus, 182, 184, 185, 189, 199, 203 Artemisium, 14, 36, 89, 95, 101, 105,

108, 109, 113, 118, 123, 124, 125,

131, 132,138, 144, 145, 146, 148, 150, 151, 152, 162, 163, 165, 166,

175, 180, 182, 183, 191, 219 Arvad, 37, 182

Asia, 52, 146, 206, 242, 243 Asia Minor, see Ionia Asonides, 108

Asopus, River, 117, 119, 133, 134, 163,

224, 225, 228, 230, 231, 233, 238 Asopus ridge, 231, 235, 239 Assyrian Empire, 41

Astarte, 155

Athene, 102, 171, 174, 175, 226 Athens and Athenians, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53-7, 62, 64, 65, 79, 82, 83, 88, 89, 93, 103, 112, 131, 143, 146, 155,

158, 163, 166, 167, 168, 169, 170,

172, 174, 177, 180, 186, 188, 189,

207, 208, 209, 213, 215, 216, 218,

220, 221, 222, 224, 226, 227, 228,

229, 232, 234, 238, 239, 240, 243, 244, 245; army, 88, 91, 136, 166,

225, 229, 237, 243; Athenian Popular Assembly, 50, 89; co-operation with Sparta, 32, 92,

167, 209, 216, 218, 222, 223, 227; and Congress of Corinth, 80; ‘Golden Age’, 14, 40, 76, 232; navy, 32, 48, 78, 88, 92, 105, 108,

109, 125, 130, 131, 145, 148, 151,

¹76, 178, 195, 197,
^J98, 199, 210, 214, 215, 216, 218, 220; treatment of envoys, 31, 49

Athos, Mount, 25, 27, 31, 48, 95, 121, 181, 190 Athos canal, 96

Attica, 50, 51, 53, 56, 89, 105, 165,

166, 167, 170, 174, 179, 187, 200,

206, 209, 213, 214, 218, 220, 222, 224, 228

Attis/Adonis rituals, 222

Babylon, 24, 42, 43, 45

Bactrians, 21

Balearic Islands, 171

Behistun, 45

Belbina, 210

Bessarabia, 46

biremes, 27, 29, 75

Black Sea, 28, 29, 45, 47, 48, 94

Boeotia and Boeotians, 92, 105, 166,

167, 169, 189, 218, 225, 226, 228,

230, 239, 240, 242

Boreas, in, 112 Bosporus, 45, 48, 86 bows, 73

Burn, A. R., 16, 26, 33, 44, 104, 133,

145, 161, 175, 195, 197, 226 Byzantium, 55, 242

Callicrates, 240, 241 Calogero, Mount, 160, 161 Calymnos, 183 Cambyses, 43, 44 Caria and Carians, 35, 182, 183 Carneia, 50, 93, 101, 104, 107, 119,

133, 164

Carthage and Carthaginians, 47, 79,

154, 155, 156, 157, 158, 159, 161,

162, 190, 213 Carystus, 131, 170, 206 Casthanea, in, 112 Caucasus, 21 Cephisus valley, 165 Chalcidice, 95, 98, 211 Chalcis, 109, 112, 122, 131 Chaldeans, 41 Chersonese, 46 Chileus, 222 Chios, 26, 48, 219 Cicilia and Cicilians, 35, 132 Cithaeron, 228

Clausewitz, Karl von, 67 Cleombrotus, 167, 242 Corey ra, 75, 88

Corinth, 26, 62, 64, 69, 75, 88, 89, 151, 195, 196, 197, 200, 214, 231, 237, 244; Congress of, 80, 90, 92, 101; Gulf of, 167; Isthmus of, 89, 113, 178, 184, 186, 213, 223, 224, 245; League of, 80, 94, 101 Corsica and Corsicans, 42, 155, 171 Corycian cave, 168 Cos, 183, 244 Crathis, River, 47

Crete and Cretans, 55, 59, 81, 82, 168, 182, 183 Croesus, King, 41 Croton, 47, 15 5 Cumae, 15 5

Cyclades, 31, 35, 49, 53,
²°5,
²°6,
²²* Cycladic expedition, 54 Cyme, 137, 219 Cynics, 66

Cynosura, Cape, 191, 195, 196, 199,

207

Cyprus and Cypriots, 35, 44, 48, 56, 113, 125

Cyrus, 21, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 47, 134,

171

Cythera, 59, 149

Daevas, 23 Damarete, 161 Damaretia, 161 Danube, River, 46 Dardanelles, 37, 47 Darius, 21, 23, 24, 25, 31, 38, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 52, 82, 87, 93, 142, 167, 171, 174, 214 Datis, 49, 50, 52 Daulis, 169 Decelea, 225

Delos and Delians, 49, 82, 167, 169, 221, 232

Delphi, 42, 50, 81, 82, 95, 167, 168, 169, 207, 228; Oracle of, 81, 82, 83, 88, 103, hi, 131, 138, 168, 172

Demaratus, 23, 84, 119, 120, 121, 126, 130, 149, 180, 186 Demeter, 228, 241 Dicaeus, 186 Dieneces, 142

Diodorus, 119, 137, 161, 162 Diogenes, 66 Dion, 226 Dionysus, 186, 187 Dithyrambus, 142 Dorians, 216 Doriscus, 87, 96, 211 Dryoscephalae pass, 232, 236 Dunkirk, 148

Egypt and Egyptians, 22, 23, 27, 28,

29, 35, 43, 44, 45, 46, 56, 7
⁸, 79, no, 130, 145, 150, 174, 180, 184, 191, 193, 194, 202, 204, 219 Eion, 211 Elamites, 129

Eleusis, 184, 186, 187, 226, 228;

Bay of, 191, 194, 195, 196 Eleutherae pass, 228 Elis, 224 Enna, 158

Ephialtes, 117, 126, 133, 135, 136

Ephors, 62, 222, 223

Ephorus, 126, 137, 202

Erechtheus, 175

Eretria, 48, 49, 50

Eryx, Mount, 15 5

Ethiopians, 21, 67, 79

Etna, Mount, 116