This battle is called "Bloody Hot Springs Pass" or "Hot Springs Pass Campaign"
Battle of Wenquanguan
Battle of Maupile
"A passer-by in a foreign land,
Please take a message to the Spartans,
Say that we keep our promises in a down-to-earth manner,
Sleep here. "
This is an inscription on a lion-shaped monument standing at the Demobil Pass (commonly known as Hot Spring Pass) in Greece, commemorating the Battle of Hot Spring Pass in 480 BC. The battle of Wenquanguan was another historic confrontation between Persian Empire and ancient Greece in 10 after the first Bo Shi War Marathon. The Greek army resisted in this narrow pass for three days and stopped the Persian army, which was dozens of times its own.
[Edit this paragraph] Activity background
Persian surrender and Greek reunification
After the death of Persian King Darius I, his son Xue Xisi succeeded to the throne. In order to realize his father's last wish, Xue Xisi vowed to crush Athens and conquer Greece. To this end, he carefully prepared for four years and mobilized the military power of the entire Persian Empire. Before this battle, Persia sent envoys to Greece to persuade the polis to give up resistance and surrender to the Persian Empire. The representative of the Persian messenger even shamelessly claimed that "we only need your soil and water". The Greek city-states did not yield. Athens directly threw the Persian emissary into the deep pit, and Sparta threw the emissary into the big well, saying that there was enough water and soil in the well, and ironically suggested that the Persian emissary at the bottom of the well should try to be self-reliant and dig a passage to save himself.
Since then, Xue Xisi once again sent diplomatic envoys to persuade other Greek city-states, but did not dare to send people to Athens and Sparta. However, the Greek city-states were unified under the leadership of the two most powerful city-states. In 48 1 BC, the city-states held an alliance meeting in Corinth, and formed a confederation of Greek city-states, which made it possible to uniformly distribute the military forces of the city-states in the face of strong enemies and send them to various strategic points as needed. Herodotus called this temporary military alliance "λ λ ν ε", which means "sworn Greeks". Athens and Sparta are the leaders of this alliance, but all military actions must be decided by all the city-states after discussion. But the internal mechanism of this alliance is rarely recorded in history. About 70 city-states sent representatives to participate in this wartime alliance.
◆ Pre-war preparations of the Greek Union
At first, the Greek Union decided to send 10000 troops composed of heavy infantry and cavalry to be deployed in Beixi Valley. The alliance believes that Persian troops will definitely pass through here. This army consists of Spartans led by Onetus (not the Royal Guard) and Athenians led by Dimitristok. However, the Macedonian city-state pointed out that the North Valley was easily infiltrated by Persian troops from other directions, which enabled the Persian army to quickly defeat the Greek army with overwhelming numerical superiority. The league adopted his suggestion, quickly withdrew the troops defending Beixi Valley, and reconsidered the defensive points.
After careful study and consideration, the alliance found that the best place to stop the Persian army was Wenquanguan, so it should send troops to focus on defense, and send a fleet to Artemisson Point (because Xue Xisi's army mainly relies on supplies from the sea), otherwise Xue Xisi's fleet can cross Mariakos Bay and outflank the Greek army. George grotte, a famous British historian, pointed out that "the Greek navy's control of the Northern Strait is very important and essential, because it can use its fleet to prevent Persian troops from landing from the rear of the Hot Springs garrison".
◆ Exceptions to Kanye Festival
During the festival of Cania, according to Spartan law, any military action must be stopped. In the last marathon, the Spartan army came late because of this festival. When they arrived at the marathon battlefield, the Athenians were already immersed in the joy of victory. This time, the elder of Sparta (ephor) decided to make an exception and sent the elite troops led by two Spartan kings, Leonidas, to the hot spring pass in advance. Herodotus wrote: "This short and pithy army led by Leonidas hopes to inspire the whole alliance with their spirit. Although all Greeks can't send troops in the commandments of Cania Festival and the next Olympic Festival, they don't want to see the hot spring pass fall into the hands of Persians soon, so the alliance agreed to send a small army to the hot spring pass in advance. "
◆ The Oracle of Delphi
According to Herodotus' records, the Spartans requested the Oracle of Delphi before departure, and the Oracle wrote:
"Oh, people living in the wide streets of Sparta!
Your glorious town will either be looted by the descendants of Poerxiusi,
Otherwise, it will spread all over the vast land of Lagonia.
Mourn the fall of a king, descendants of Hercules! "
◆ Tragic expedition
As the commander-in-chief of this advance unit, King Leonidas of Sparta was widely respected. Herodotus wrote: Leonidas clearly realized that this expedition was doomed, and the number of troops he led was too small to win the final victory, so he selected elite soldiers who had given birth to sons from the army and incorporated them into the expedition. Plutarch mentioned in his book Spartan Women's Words that Leonidas's wife, Gorgo, encouraged her husband before going out to war. Finally, when asked what else she wanted, Leonidas simply replied: "Marry a good man and raise a group of good children." (Marry a good man and have a good child)
[Edit this paragraph] Comparison of military strength between the two sides
Persian army: 200,000-500,000 troops from various servant countries, including Persians.
The soldiers of the Persian Empire who participated in this expedition came from 46 countries and more than 65,438+000 nationalities who surrendered to Persia. There are Persians and Medes, who wear colorful robes and scales and hold short swords and spears; Assyrians wear bronze helmets and carry linen shields and sticks; Parthians and spiny mannequins with bows and axes as the main weapons; There are Indians in robes; There are Arabs wearing tunics and long bows on their right shoulders; Some Ethiopians wear leopard skin or lion skin and red and white bodies. Their weapons are bows made of palm trees and arrows made of flint and antelope fox skin. Thracians wore bright red cloaks and held javelins and shields; There are also soldiers of all ethnic groups in the Caucasus. Their helmets are decorated with ox ears and they are armed with leather shields and short spears. The Persian army has so many people, so many kinds and so many weapons and equipment that it looks like a big exhibition of armies and armaments of all ethnic groups.
◆ Greek army: about 6,700 people (according to Herodotus).
299 Spartan Royal Guards,
900 Spartan "black workers" (Spartan slaves),
500 Mandingha city-state warriors
500 Tegia city-state warriors
400 Corinthian city-state warriors
1 120 Acadian warrior
200 soldiers from the city-state of Fuehles.
80 Macedonian city-state fighters
The above-mentioned * * * warriors from the Peloponnesus numbered about 365,438+000, and were dispatched under the command of Spartan King Leonidas.
700 Sesby city-state warriors
400 Thebes city-state warriors
65,438+0,000 soldiers of the city-state of Forsyth
But in some early legends and modern movies, it is exaggerated to say that there are only 300 people in Sparta.
At the last alliance meeting before going to the hot spring pass, the Peloponnesians put forward new suggestions, pointing out that they could retreat to Ismes in Corinth for defense, so as to seize the passage for Persians to enter the Peloponnesian Peninsula. However, the fox and Locke people expressed their anger and opposition, because their city-state was just near the isthmus. They insisted on setting the defensive point at Wenquan Pass, and offered to provide military assistance to Wenquan Pass. Leonidas agrees with the latter and thinks that we should fight in hot springs. At this point, under the compromise of many parties, the temporary Coalition forces led by Spartan Royal Guard soldiers went to Wenquan Pass and quietly waited for the arrival of Persians.
[Edit this paragraph] activity flow
◆ The arrival of Persians
In the spring of 480 BC, the Persian army gathered in Little Athadis and set out for Greece by sea and land. Persian troops arrived in Hellers Strait (now called Da Daniil Strait), and Xue Xisi ordered the construction of the bridge. The bridge will be built soon. These are two cable bridges, one is Egyptian and the other is Phoenician. Hardly had the bridge been repaired when it was blown away by a strong wind. Xue Xisi was furious. He not only killed the craftsman who built the bridge, but also ordered to throw the chain into the sea, saying that he would lock the sea. He also ordered someone to whip the sea 300 times to punish the sea for stopping him from moving forward. His pretensions and arrogance are obvious.
Of course, the bridge was finally built. But it changed from a cable bridge to a pontoon bridge. The craftsmen neatly arranged 360 warships and connected them with thick ropes. There are two roads paved with planks on the ship, one is walked by people and the other is walked by mules and horses. Railings are installed on both sides of the pontoon bridge to prevent people from falling into the sea.
It took the Persian army seven days and seven nights to cross the channel. A local witnessed all this and said in horror, "Zeus, why did you become a Persian and change your name to Xue Xisi to lead all mankind to destroy Greece?"
◆ surrender
After crossing the Hellers Strait, Persian troops quickly swept across northern Greece. In July and August of that year, I came to Wenquanguan, which was very narrow and could only pass through a chariot. This is the only passage from northern Greece to southern Greece. After the Persian army camped on the plain not far from Wenquan Pass, Xue Xisi first launched a psychological offensive. He sent a message to the Greek defenders, saying that there were countless Persian soldiers, and just shooting arrows could cover the sun. The brave Spartans were not afraid at all. They laughed and said, "Great, we can kill ourselves in the shade." .
Two days later, Xue Xisi sent someone to inquire about the movement of the Greeks. It was reported that the Greeks piled weapons aside, some combed their hair, some did exercises, and there was no sign of war. Xue Xisi was surprised, and asked the insider to know that it was the habit of Spartans to comb their hair before the war, which meant a bloody battle. Xue Xisi waited patiently for another four days. Seeing that the Greeks guarding the customs showed no signs of surrendering, he ordered the ungrateful Greeks to be captured alive by force. But before the war, Xue Xisi still refused to give up. He sent a special envoy to tell Leonidas for the last time that if he and his army were willing to surrender, the Persian king could make him king of all Greece. Leonidas replied: "If you know what is the most precious thing in this life, you won't covet what others have all day;" For me, it is more important to sacrifice for the glory of Greece than to be my head of state! "Xue Xisi became angry from embarrassment, and the ultimatum made the Spartans surrender immediately. Leonidas replied contemptuously, "want? Then come and get it! (Come and get it) "
◆ The first day of a bloody battle
According to the dangerous terrain of Wenquanguan and the narrow mountain road, the troops could not take action, and the cavalry and cars were useless, Xue Xisi adopted the storm tactics of sending heavy infantry to attack in turn, in an attempt to defeat the Spartans by numerical superiority. On the first day of the war, Xue Xisi sent servant troops, Armenian and Thracian troops, and soldiers who lost their loved ones in the marathon ten years ago to form the first wave of attack formation, putting the Greek prisoners who had been obtained as cannon fodder in the forefront, hoping to quickly defeat the hot spring defenders with numerical superiority. The Greeks, on the other hand, took advantage of the geographical advantage of "one person guards it, but ten thousand people can't force it" and condescended to stab the enemy with a sharp spear and a Persian knife. The defensive formation used by the Greeks is the famous "Greek phalanx", which consists of a large shield and a spear stacked between them. Thracians and Medes could not compete with the Greeks for their small shields and short spears, and a large number of soldiers fell in front of the Spartans' shields. Seeing this, Xue Xisi stood up from his throne three times, frowning, shaking his beard and shouting wildly. According to the ancient Greek historian Ctesias at that time, the first wave of Persian attacks was completely shattered, and the Greeks only lost 2-3 Spartans.
According to Herodotus, after the first wave of attacks collapsed, Xue Xisi was fully aware of what a terrible army he was facing. So on the same day, he sent a second wave of offensive consisting of 10000 "Immortality", which was his most elite personal bodyguard. However, according to another version of Ctesias, Xue Xisi used 20,000 soldiers in the second wave of attacks, of which 65,438+00,000 were "immortals" and the other 65,438+00,000 were Medea soldiers pushed by officers' whips. But the second wave of attacks also failed.
◆ The second day of a bloody battle
According to Ctesias, the next day, Xue Xisi sent * * * 50,000 men to storm the Greek defenders, but it still didn't work. Therefore, Xue Xisi was very confused and decided to temporarily stop the attack and ordered the troops to withdraw to the camp.
◆ The third day of bloody battle
Just when Xue Xisi was at his wit's end, a local farmer named Ebie Arthus came to report that there was a path leading to the back of the pass. Xue Xisi was overjoyed, and immediately ordered the Greek traitor to lead the "immortal" body-guard along the thorny road into the back hill. They crossed canyons, streams and climbed cliffs. At dawn, I walked through an oak forest and approached the top of the mountain. It turns out that Leonidas has already arranged the 1000 defenders of the city-state of Foces on the mountain beside the highway. When there is no war, they let their guard down until there are noisy footsteps in the silent darkness, and then they rush into battle. Persian generals were dumbfounded at these hastily dressed Greek troops, because it was very different from the terrible killing machine they had confronted two days ago. But the Persian general once dared not order his troops to attack immediately, but the traitor Epibatius reminded him that these people were not terrible Spartans, so the Persians immediately attacked these Greeks with dense arrows. The fox failed all the way to the top of the mountain. However, the Persians did not pursue it, but went straight to the rear of the hot spring pass, thus completing the siege of the main force of the Greek defenders.
King Leonidas of Sparta knew that the foxes were defeated, and the Persian army went around behind him, but he still held the last wartime meeting. In order to save his strength, he transferred the troops of other city-states without fighting spirit to the rear, leaving only the Spartan Royal Guard soldiers he brought to fight. Because according to Spartan tradition, soldiers can never give up their positions. 700 soldiers from the city-state of Sesby, led by General Modi Feros, volunteered to stay and fight alongside the Spartans.
The Persians in a dilemma rushed to the weak defense, and the Spartans fought bravely between Scylla and Charybdis. They stabbed with spears, and the spears broke, and then they drew their swords to cut them. When the sword was broken, the Persians swarmed. Spartan repelled the enemy's four attacks, but Leonidas also died heroically. The soldiers fought to protect the body of their commander-in-chief. Their number is getting less and less, and they are gradually compressed into a small hill. The psychological defense of the Seth people gradually collapsed. Many Setters trembled and raised their hands to surrender to the Persians, but despite this, the Persians who were killed with red eyes did not hesitate to slaughter them. Finally, the Persian army surrounded the remaining Spartans, dropping javelins and arrows on them in the password until the last Spartan fell. At this point, Wenquanguan was finally captured by the Persian army. According to Herodotus, Xue Xisi's two brothers, Abrocomas and Hyperanthes, were also killed in the last bloody battle.
[Edit this paragraph] After the war
◆ Xue Xisi's nightmare
For Xue Xisi, a bloody battle in Hot Springs was like a nightmare, which cost the lives of about 20,000 Persian soldiers (7,000 according to records). At the thought of Spartan who would rather die than surrender in a bloody battle, he asked with trepidation, "Are all Spartans like this?"
Narrow-minded and cruel Xue Xisi ordered the head of Spartan King Leonidas to be cut off and the body crucified (Herodotus pointed out that such post-war behavior was rare in Persian tradition, and Persians usually respected those who died bravely and unyieldingly). These heinous acts directly exposed Xue Xisi's cruelty and extreme anger after suffering heavy losses.
Xue Xisi then interrogated some prisoners captured in the Greek Arcadia city-state after the war. Xue Xisi asked, "What do you Greeks want? Why only send so few troops to defend? " These prisoners of war said that everyone else had gone to the Olympics. When Xue Xisi asked the winner what he would get if he won the sports meeting, the prisoner of war replied that the winner would be awarded the crown of olive branch. Hearing this, the Persian general glanis couldn't help saying to Persian commander Madoni, "My God, Madoni, who are you facing these days?" In fact, they are only fighting for these illusory achievements, not money! "
◆ The hero's funeral
It is said that the Persians only found 298 bodies of Spartans when cleaning the battlefield. It turns out that two Spartans didn't take part in the battle. One is because of eye disease, and the other is because of being ordered to go out. After the war, they returned to Sparta, and people in their hometown despised them and ignored them. One of them couldn't stand the humiliation and committed suicide. The other died in the later battle, but the Spartans refused to bury him in the cemetery of the glorious victims.
After the Persians left the hot spring pass, the Greeks collected the bodies of other Greek war dead and buried them on the hill where the last fierce battle took place. People built a stone lion to commemorate the heroic Spartan king Leonidas forever. Forty years after the battle, Leonidas's body was sent back to Sparta. The grieving people awarded the great king the highest honor and reburied his bones on the mountain. Sparta held a ceremony every year to commemorate this human hero.
Victory of the Greeks
At the same time as the battle of Wenquanguan was going on, the Athenian fleet bound for Cape Artemisson met with the Persian navy, and the battle was deadlocked. Soon the Athenian fleet withdrew from the battlefield, and the Persians completely controlled the Aegean Sea and all the Greek peninsulas as far south as Attica. In this situation, Sparta began to prepare to defend the isthmus of Corinth and save the Peloponnesus. However, Xue Xisi insisted on destroying Athens first. At that time, the residents of Athens had fled to Salamis island, and the Persian navy was in hot pursuit. In September, the Athenian navy completely defeated the Persian navy in the Salamis naval battle, so Xue Xisi hastily withdrew some troops to Asia, but left commander-in-chief Madoni to lead some Persian troops to continue fighting in Greece. But in the subsequent battle of Platia, this army was completely defeated by the Greek Coalition forces led by the Spartan city-state led by General Pausanias. At this point, Xue Xisi's power has all been withdrawn to Asia.
[Edit this paragraph] The influence of Wenquanguan campaign on culture
◆ Literature
For a long time, the battle of hot spring pass has been one of the enduring themes in western history and literature. This tragic story was written in many languages and handed down in the form of poems, biographies and proverbs. People praise and eulogize these heroic and unyielding Greek heroes who died. Their deeds, as a spirit, will last forever through people's records.
At present, the main books describing the hot spring pass campaign are:
Peter green (1996). Greek-Persian war. (Persian War), University of California Press.
Enle Bradford (2004). Sai Maupile: The Battle of the West. Da Cabo Publishing House
Paul Cartledge (2006). Cecil Maupile: The Battle to Change the World. Woodstock, new york: Overlooking Press.
Ian McGregor Morris (2000). "Creating a New Cyprus Maupile: Greek Culture, Greek Liberation and the Battle of Cyprus Maupile". Greece & Rome
◆ Mass media
telecine
1. 1962 "Sparta 300 Warriors" is a film that truly reflects the battle of Wenquanguan, which was jointly completed by 20th century Fox Company and the Greek government. Richard Eggen, a famous actor, plays Leonidas, king of Sparta.
2. 300, which was released in 2007, is an entertainment film based on Frank Miller's famous comic book 300, which was produced by Warner Brothers. This film uses advanced computer stunts, which greatly exaggerates the bloody degree of the Hot Spring Pass campaign, and is also too disloyal to historical facts to some extent, causing dissatisfaction in many Islamic countries.
3. This is not Sparta, spoof 300.
video game
1. The Gate of Troy 1982, produced by Slitherine Company, is a game about the history of Sparta. One of them is mainly about the hot spring war. In this level, players have to resist 20 rounds of Persian attacks to win.
2. "300: Expedition of Honor" produced by Collision Studio in 2007 is a computer game based on the movie of the same name, and the main scene is located in Wenquanguan.