The performance of the defenders at the battle of Thermopylae is often used as an example of the advantages of training, equipment and good use of terrain to maximise an army’s potential, as well as a symbol of courage against extremely overwhelming odds.
The disproportionate losses of the Persian army alarmed Xerxes so that when his navy was later defeated at Salamis he fled Greece leaving only part of his force to finish the job of the conquest of Greece, which was defeated at the Battle of Plataea. With the rest of the army dismissed, King Leonidas stayed behind with his bodyguard of 300 Spartans and the 700 man Thespian army even though they knew it meant their deaths, to allow the rest of the army to escape. This continued on the second day but on the third day of the battle a local resident named Ephialtes betrayed the Greeks, revealing a mountain path that led behind the Greek lines. After several days of confrontation the Persians attacked but were defeated by heavy losses, disproportionate to those of the Greeks. A small force led by King Leonidas of Sparta blocked the only road through which the massive army of Xerxes I could pass.
Vastly outnumbered, the Greeks held back the enemy in one of the most famous last stands of history. In the Battle of Thermopylae of 480 BC an alliance of Greek city-states fought the invading Persian army in the mountain pass of Thermopylae.
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