Leonidas, the Spartan king, and leader of the Greek force, has gone down in history for his bravery and ultimate sacrifice at Thermopylae. In many ways, he is the model for the classic idea of the hero. He was also a soldier of great skill and a leader with insight into the realities of his situation. In the dual kingship system of Sparta, Leonidas was one of the two that ruled Spartan society. Sparta was a unique citystate. Geared for a perpetual state of war, the Spartan society was plain and strived to be more equal than the other Greek societies, at least among the full-fledged Spartans. At the time of Leonidas, there were 8,000 such Spartans with many others in the nonSpartan Helot class. Helots did not have an equal place in Spartan society, filling subservient roles. Spartans, as they aged to the point where they were no longer able to fulfill their military repsonsibilities fell into an underclass similar to that of the Helots. To the Spartans, physical perfection was central to their culture. Young men and women displayed their physical abilities while exercising nude in the public. Regimented, Spartan men ate in communal messes isolated from the rest of Spartan society. Leonidas appears to have fit in perfectly with this regimented life. He epitomized the Spartan saying that a warrior should either return with his shield or upon it. The Greek army centered on the hoplite. The hoplite, a heavy infantryman, carried a lance up to nine feet tall and tipped with iron, with a butt spike at the other end. They were not used for throwing but for thrusting at opponents. They could be used to ward off horses and push back opposing infantry. Also, the hoplite carried a three-foot sword for fighting at close quarters. Of more importance was the Greek hoplite's defensive equipment. Unlike his Persian counterpart, the Greek hoplite carried into battle an array of protective equipment. First and foremost was the hoplon, or shield, from which the hoplites gained their name. Made of bronze around a central wooden core, the hoplon could shield an area from the neck to the knee of the soldier. To carry the shield (which weighed eighteen pounds or more), the soldier slid his arm through the bronze band on the inside and his hand wrapped around the leather handgrip below. Sometimes, the hoplite would add a leather curtain at the bottom of the shield to provide some protection against arrows. Around the head, a bronze helmet with cheek guards gave protection for close action. The trunk of the body was protected by a cuirass. The materials used for the cuirass ranged from bronze to the more common linen or canvass type that had glued layers of material reinforced with metal plates. The lower legs, from the knees down, were protected by metal greaves. All in all, the hoplite was well armored. Against the Persian infantry, he had a distinct advantage in weaponry and defensive equipment. Greek battlefield formation also took advantage of the hoplite. Greek soldiers formed the phalanx, which was a series of files 4 to 8 men deep with each having about six to eight feet of space. When in battle, the space would compress to three feet and the front line would go into battle with each soldier covering the left side of his neighbor. As soldiers in the front line died, soldiers were expected to step forward and fill in. One peculiarity of the phalanx was that the formation tended to drift to the right in battle as soldiers tended to move to the protection of their neighbors shield in combat. The phalanx was not highly maneuverable given its structure and was best when performing a straight-ahead push. Many times, the phalanx would succeed more from pushing the enemy rather than through the use of its weapons. Therefore, each side had its own advantages. For the Persians, their army far outnumbered their opponent and was much more mobile. For the Greeks, their infantry was far superior to the Persians and the defensive ground gave them a vastly superior position. It was because of this that Xerxes halted for three days when his army reached Thermopylae. Battle of Thermopylae Introduction The Persian Army The Greek Army The Battle Jumbo Map of Operations (extremely slow: 486K) Jumbo Map of Thermopylae Pass (extremely slow: 466K) Back to Table of Contents -- Against the Odds vol. 2 no. 2 Back to Against the Odds List of Issues Back to MagWeb Magazine List © Copyright 2003 by LPS. This article appears in MagWeb.com (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com * Buy this back issue or subscribe to Against the Odds direct from LPS.