Saturday, October 18, 2008

The truth behind 300 movie - Final

It's been a long time, as I promised here is the continue or second part to the Truth Behind 300 Movie. I will tell you the story of Xerses and why he starts a war with the Spartans. We have seen Xerses in the 300 movie, portrayed as an ugly man sitting on his throne while hundreds of men become his mobile. He also brings with him a special skilled warrior known as the Immortal. In my previous post I have stated that the 300 movie was concentrating more to the Spartans as the movie is about their battle and how they fought to protect their land, therefore it didn’t include the other historical parts of why the war started. I have also mentioned that Spartans are excellent warriors, hoplites to be exact and are used to battles since at a very young age.

In my previous post I have mentioned that Xerxes is a man of pride who wishes to install the teachings of Ahuramazda thought by Zarathustra (Zoroastrians), and demolish the sanctuary of demons. This have been stated in the “Daiva Inscription”, an old Persian text from three slabs of stone found from Persepolis and Pasargadae. To prove my point, I quote parts of the translated text as follow:

  • I am Xerxes, the great king, king of kings, king of countries containing many kinds of men, king in this great earth far and wide, son of king Darius, an Achaemenian, a Persian, son of a Persian, an Aryan, of Aryan stock.
  • King Xerxes says: when I became king, there was among these countries one that was in rebellion. Ahuramazda bore me aid. By the grace of Ahuramazda I smote that country and put it down in its place.
  • And among these countries there was a place where previously demons (daiva) were worshipped. Afterwards, by the grace of Ahuramazda I destroyed that sanctuary of demons, and I proclaimed: 'The demons shall not be worshipped!' Where previously the demons were worshipped, there I worshipped Ahuramazda at the proper time and in the proper manner. And there was other business that had been done ill. That I made good. That which I did, all I did by the grace of Ahuramazda. Ahuramazda bore me aid until I completed the work.

In the beginning of his reign, Xerxes have no desire to march his army to attack the Athens as he was already in a war with the Egypt. It is his cousin Mordoniu (Marduniya) who approached him and persuade him to go into war with the Greek, this was later supported by Alueadea, the princes of Thessaly who came to the city of Susa, and Pisistratidae from Athens, who urged Xerxes to the attack. All three appears to have a personal selfish interest. After his campaign in Egypt, Xerxes was ready to attack Greek. You might have wondered why Xerxes brought along with him a large number of troops to battle with a small number of Spartans. Well as I have mentioned, Xerxes was out to battle the Athens in general not Sparta, and prior to his defeat in Marathon city where his 25,000 Persians army lost to a mere 10,000 Athenians, he had to be cautious. The Greeks have miraculously managed to overcome their struggles in battles, however they understood that if they wanted to survive the invasion, they first had to annihilate the Persian transport fleet. Therefore, the Greek navy made a stand at Artemisium while the Spartans and their allies were to keep the coastal road at Thermopylae. This is how Xerxes came into contact with Leonidas as seen in the movie.

Xerxes brought along with him his best Persian army, the Medes and The Royal Guard. The Royal Guard were magnificently equipped, wearing a coat of scales mails and trousers, carrying a light wicker shields, powerful bows with cane arrows and short swords swinging from their belts. They came in big number around 10,000 men. Scholars believe they were called Immortals because during battle if a man was killed or fell sick, the vacancy he left was at once filled, never to allow any weakness. Regardless of how skillful these troops were, they were no matches to the Spartans’ hoplites who equipped bronze longer spears and armor (headgear and shield), especially in the narrow pass. This army was not living corpses as often stated in books and movies. Logically if they were a living corpses they would not need to be replace in battle as they would not die or fell sick. These needs proven that they are humans. Scholars believes that Herodotus' informant has confused the name Anûšiya ('companions') with Anauša ('Immortals'). They also suspect that this is the same army mentioned by historians in the Alexander the Great chronicles based on the similarity in description of their armor and weapons.

Leonidas in my personal opinion was a great leader and a king who never abandoned his country and his people and fought to his death for Greek. He went ahead with his 300 men to Thermopylae, later joined by the 400 Thebans. This action was taken by Leonidas to ensure that his allies might join in the campaign, and not to side with the Persians if Sparta put off their action. It is because the Greeks naturally do not unite to meet an enemy in battle, this have been foreseen by Leonidas. The Greek however, promised to sent allies everyday but only a few appears and in such small number. It was believed the Thermopylae Battle to be coinciding with the Olympic festival that was held. They have kept the festival and sent only the forerunners of their force. Some article are saying that including the allies he gathered Leonidas managed to have around 4000 men, while some said it was about 7000 men. However in his book Herotodus stated that including the Spartan 300 hoplites the allies were as follows:

500 men of Tegea and 500 of Mantinea;
120 from Orchomenos in Arcadia;
1000 from the rest of Arcadia;
400 from Corinth;
200 from Phlius;
80 from Mycenae;

These were they who came from the Peloponnese, and from the Boeotians

700 Thespians,
400 Thebans.

In addition to these, the Locrians had been summoned to come in their full force, while the Phocians a thousand men. However when Xerxes army had come near to the pass, the Leocrians and Phocians began to dread and thought of retreating. Leonidas however voted to stay while at the same time sending a messenger to a several states for aid. Staying with them was the 700 Thespians, 400 Thebans and some of the Greeks warrior. The battles as you know it resulted in Leonidas death. After the death of Leonidas and the end of Thebans resistance, the surviving Spartans and Thespians retreated to a small hill where they were killed by Persian archers. Modern archaeologists have also found several arrowheads on the particular hills.

Sometimes I wonder if the Greeks purposely send only a few of their forces to aid Sparta, as they could still be seen as a threat. Sparta was after all have the dominant military power in the region, and was once the principal enemy of Athens in the Corinthian War. Moreover the Spartans were not saints after all, they would mistreat, humiliate and slaughtered the Helot, the unfree peasants under feudalism that work their land whom economically supported the Spartans. What a great ploy to rid Sparta by having their king Leonidas and his men killed at war and put the blame to Xerxes who was expected to attack. This will make great sense why Epialtes would reveal the secret path to the Persian. He was a Malians tribe, which was under the hegemony of Sparta. This is however merely my personal toughs on the subject.

The story of the 300 Spartans and their usually forgotten allies have become famous worldwide and made into a movie and books. Two monument was built one dedicated to Leonidas and another to the Thespians. On one of them a memorable words were written:

"Ω ξείν αγγέλλειν Λακεδαιμονίοις, ότι τήδε κείμεθα,

τοις κείνων ρήμασι πειθόμενοι".

"Oh stranger tell the Lacedaemonians, that we lie here,

obedient to their laws".

3 comments:

Mu Rong said...

boring..

AragangTandik said...

I would like to see the film if I can get hold of its cd. Don't quite like to spend time seated in a cinema hall.

Anonymous said...

excellent points and the details are more precise than somewhere else, thanks.

- Thomas