The Stand at Thermopylae: 300 Against an Empire
480 BC · event
King Leonidas and a small Greek force held the narrow pass of Thermopylae against the vast Persian army. They knew they would not survive. Their sacrifice bought Greece time, and gave history its most enduring lesson in courage: go tell the Spartans, stranger passing by, that here, obedient to their laws, we lie.
The pass was so narrow that numbers meant nothing, which was the whole point. For two days the Greek line held against everything Persia could send, until a local shepherd showed the invaders a mountain path around it.
Leonidas sent the allies home and stayed with his three hundred Spartans and a few hundred allies who refused to leave. They fought with spears, then swords, then hands. The stone epitaph at the site is one sentence long, and armies still study the battle 2,500 years later.