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";s:4:"text";s:19015:"The Greek fleet—seeking a decisive victory over the Persian armada—attacked and defeated the invaders at the Battle of Salamis in late 480 BC. As exemplified by the Spartans at Thermopylae, the true warrior never hesitates in performing his duty. The virtue of selflessness that they embodied has persisted in select individuals through the ages and remains the central tenet in the life of the true warrior throughout every corner of the world. .” In the end, Leonidas and his Spartans fell to the last man along with most of their Greek allies. ( Log Out /  After the second day of battle, a local Greek resident named Ephialtes came to king Xerxes. Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Plataea 479 BC: The Most Glorious Victory Ever Seen by William Shepherd. The Spartans and their fellow Greeks stood together and fought on until the very end. Surrounded by the Persians, Leonidas ordered the bulk of the Greek troops under his command to withdraw. As former U.S. Marine and author Steven Pressfield writes in The Warrior Ethos, the true warrior knows in his heart that, “The group comes before the individual.” From the time of spears and shields to the modern age of bombs and bullets, the virtue of selflessness has always flowed through the veins of the true warrior. The great Greek biographer and philosopher Plutarch asked, “Why do the Spartans punish with a fine the warrior who loses his helmet or spear but punish with death the warrior who loses his shield?” His answer, “Because helmet and spear are carried for the protection of the individual alone, but the shield protects every man in the line.” Using this example from the Spartans of ancient Greece, one of the greatest warrior societies ever to walk the earth, Plutarch reveals the ultimate virtue of the warrior: selflessness. Wary of being trapped in Europe, Xerxes withdrew with much of his army to Asia (losing most to starvation and disease), leaving Mardonius to attempt to complete the conquest of Greece. For the true warrior, selflessness means standing together with your comrades through it all, no matter how profound the danger or the risk of death. Change ). During two full days of battle, the small force led by Leonidas blocked the only road by which the massive Persian army could pass. He is everything, and everything is contained within him.”, Spartans standing together at the Battle of Thermopylae. (Photo Credit: Weaponsandwarfare.com). In response, Leonidas issued a two-word reply: “Molon Labe,“ translating to, “Come and take them.” The Persian horde did come, but after two days of brutal fighting, they could not overcome Leonidas and his determined defenders. ( Log Out /  GreekReporter.com: Molon Labe: Anniversary of the Battle of Thermopylae (480 BC). It was up to them to buy time for their other Greek allies to organize and prepare their forces for the coming storm. PROUDLY CREATED WITH WIX.COM, Heroes Under Fire: Gary Gordon, Randall Shughart, and the Battle of Mogadishu, To Fight and Protect: The Heroic Sacrifice of Michael Monsoor, {"items":["5f864f5cfb536b0017155bdd","5f791bde76f5b10017d42e4e","5f73e0f6292ab20018dd06ef"],"styles":{"galleryType":"Columns","groupSize":1,"showArrows":true,"cubeImages":true,"cubeType":"max","cubeRatio":1.7777777777777777,"isVertical":true,"gallerySize":1000,"collageAmount":0,"collageDensity":0,"groupTypes":"1","oneRow":false,"imageMargin":15,"galleryMargin":0,"floatingImages":0,"chooseBestGroup":true,"smartCrop":false,"hasThumbnails":false,"enableScroll":true,"isGrid":true,"isSlider":false,"isColumns":false,"isSlideshow":false,"cropOnlyFill":false,"fixedColumns":0,"enableInfiniteScroll":true,"isRTL":false,"minItemSize":50,"rotatingGroupTypes":"","rotatingCubeRatio":"","gallerySliderImageRatio":1.7777777777777777,"numberOfImagesPerRow":3,"numberOfImagesPerCol":1,"groupsPerStrip":0,"borderRadius":0,"boxShadow":0,"gridStyle":0,"mobilePanorama":false,"placeGroupsLtr":false,"viewMode":"preview","thumbnailSpacings":4,"galleryThumbnailsAlignment":"bottom","isMasonry":false,"isAutoSlideshow":false,"slideshowLoop":false,"autoSlideshowInterval":4,"useCustomButton":false,"bottomInfoHeight":0,"titlePlacement":["SHOW_ON_THE_RIGHT","SHOW_BELOW"],"galleryHorizontalAlign":"center","galleryTextAlign":"center","galleryVerticalAlign":"center","scrollSnap":false,"itemClick":"expand","fullscreen":true,"allowSocial":true,"allowDownload":false,"allowTitle":true,"allowDescription":false,"loveButton":true,"loveCounter":false,"videoPlay":"hover","scrollAnimation":"NO_EFFECT","scrollDirection":0,"overlayAnimation":"FADE_IN","arrowsPosition":0,"arrowsSize":23,"watermarkOpacity":40,"watermarkSize":40,"useWatermark":true,"watermarkDock":{"top":"auto","left":"auto","right":0,"bottom":0,"transform":"translate3d(0,0,0)"},"loadMoreAmount":"all","defaultShowInfoExpand":1,"allowTitleExpand":true,"allowDescriptionExpand":true,"allowLinkExpand":true,"expandInfoPosition":0,"allowFullscreenExpand":true,"fullscreenLoop":false,"galleryAlignExpand":"left","addToCartBorderWidth":1,"addToCartButtonText":"","slideshowInfoSize":200,"playButtonForAutoSlideShow":false,"allowSlideshowCounter":false,"hoveringBehaviour":"NEVER_SHOW","thumbnailSize":120,"magicLayoutSeed":1,"imageHoverAnimation":"NO_EFFECT","calculateTextBoxHeightMode":"MANUAL","calculateTextBoxWidthMode":"PERCENT","textBoxHeight":60,"textBoxWidth":200,"textBoxWidthPercent":75,"textImageSpace":10,"textBoxBorderRadius":0,"textBoxBorderWidth":0,"textsVerticalPadding":0,"textsHorizontalPadding":-30,"titleDescriptionSpace":6,"customButtonText":"","customButtonBorderWidth":1,"customButtonBorderRadius":0,"loadMoreButtonText":"","loadMoreButtonBorderWidth":1,"loadMoreButtonBorderRadius":0,"imageInfoType":"ATTACHED_BACKGROUND","itemBorderWidth":0,"itemBorderRadius":0,"itemEnableShadow":false,"itemShadowBlur":20,"itemShadowDirection":135,"itemShadowSize":10,"imageLoadingMode":"BLUR","expandAnimation":"NO_EFFECT","imageQuality":90,"usmToggle":false,"usm_a":0,"usm_r":0,"usm_t":0,"videoSound":false,"videoSpeed":"1","videoLoop":true,"gallerySizeType":"px","gallerySizePx":1000,"allowContextMenu":true,"itemBorderColor":{"themeName":"color_12","value":"rgba(216,216,216,0)"},"galleryLayout":2,"modifiedGallerySize":true,"selectedLayout":"2|bottom|1|max|true|0|true","layoutsVersion":2,"selectedLayoutV2":2,"isSlideshowFont":true,"externalInfoHeight":60,"externalInfoWidth":0.75},"container":{"width":300,"galleryWidth":330,"galleryHeight":1440,"scrollBase":0,"height":null}}, The Virtue of Selflessness: Leonidas and the Spartans at Thermopylae. Leading the survivors from his original force of 300 Spartans, 700 Thespians, and 400 Thebans, Leonidas and this band of warriors would make a final stand and protect the retreat. The defeat at Plataea was the final nail in the coffin for the Persian invasion, shattering Xerxes’s hopes of conquering Greece. The defenders of Thermopylae would not back down. The Athenian politician and general Themistocles had proposed that the allied Greeks block the advance of the Persian army at the pass of Thermopylae, and simultaneously block the Persian navy at the Straits of Artemisium. The Persian invasion was a delayed response to the defeat of the first Persian invasion of Greece, which had been ended by the Athenian victory at the Battle of Marathon in 490 BC. Themistocles was in command of the Greek Navy at Artemisium when he received news that the Persians had taken the pass at Thermopylae. A Greek force of approximately 7,000 men marched north to block the pass in the middle of 480 BC. Leonidas had a notable participation in the Second Persian War, where he led the allied Greek forces to a last stand at the Battle of Thermopylae (480 BC) while attempting to defend the pass from the invading Persian army. Change ), You are commenting using your Google account. Hoping for a reward, he revealed a path that led behind Leonidas’s army. Change ), You are commenting using your Facebook account. Although many Greek states bowed down to the Persians and the historic city of Athens was sacked, the tide soon turned. After the second day, a local resident named Ephialtes betrayed the Greeks by revealing a small path that led behind the Greek lines. Both ancient and modern writers have used the Battle of Thermopylae as an example of the power of a patriotic army defending its native soil. and located at the Archaeological Museum of Sparta. 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