The OTHER Battles of Thermopylae

iaberius (61)in #history • 7 years ago (edited)

Thermopylae, the "Hot Gates". This narrow pass has always been the gateway to Boeotia, Attica and Peloponnese, the heart of Greece. The battle of the Thermopylae is well known. Greek army, captained by Leonidas, defended there against the enormous Persian army of King Xerxes. The famous battle took place in 480 BC, during the Second Medical War. It has become popular lately, thanks to Frank Miller's comic book 300 and its cinematographic adaptation. But, throughout history, there were six other battles in the strategic passage of the Thermopylae. They are less known battles, so I will enlighten you about them.

_{Map of the area. We can see the coast line in the time of Herodotus, and the coast line at 1876 .

Public Domain. Source}

353 BC Battle of the Thermopylae. It took place during the Third Sacred War. Phocis and Thebes clashed over Delphi's control. The Phocians made heroic resistance in the Thermopylae against the ally of the Thebanians, King Philip II of Macedonia, father of Alexander the Great.
279 BC Battle of Thermopylae. An alliance of the Greeks (Beotians, Phocians, Etholians, Megarenses and Athenians) defended the passage against the invasion of the Breno's Celts. Breno tried to use the hidden path used by Persian army two thousand years earlier, but the Greeks were prepared this time. A garrison defends the rough road, so Breno deviates to Delphi. In a second attempt, he succeeds in passing thanks the fog. However, the Greeks had been evacuated in the Athenian ships. Every one of the contingent goes to defend their city.
191 BC Battle of Thermopylae. In this battle, the Seleucids clashed Romans, who came to Greece as allies of Macedonians. Marco Acilio Glabrio surrounded with his troops the army of King Antiochus III. They used the old mountain pass, and thus won the battle.
267 AD Battle of Thermopylae. Several barbarian tribes assaulted the Roman Empire. First, they looted the Balkans, and then they extended their raid for Greece. One of these people, the Heruli, arrived at Thermopylae passage, where they tried to stop them without success. As a result, they devastated the entire Attica and the Peloponnese peninsula. Even the city of Sparta was plundered.
Battle of Alamana (Thermopylae, 1821 AD). It took place during the Greek War of Independence of the Ottoman Empire. Athanasios Diakos led 1500 Greeks. Together with the bishop of Salona, he tried to resist in the Thermopylae an army of 8,000 Turks who marched to crush the revolts in Roumeli and Peloponnese. Overwhelmed by the numerical superiority of the enemy, Athanasios put a last desperate defense on the bridge of Alamana with 48 men. He was finally captured, tortured and impaled the next day.

_{Athanasios Diakos captured by the Turks. Source}

Battle of Thermopylae, 1941, during World War II. After the invasion of Greece by the German Wehrmacht, the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps delayed the advance of the invading army in this famous passage. They gained precious time that allowed the retreat and evacuation to Crete of the British expeditionary force.

Perhaps we could add to the above another battle that took place near there. In 997 AD, a Byzantine army went out to encounter the Bulgarian invaders and crushed them. The Bulgarians were no longer any danger.

Thank you for reading.

Sources

Isaac Asimov: The Greeks; a great adventure. Houghton Mifflin. 1965
Jem Duducu: The Sultans: The Rise and Fall of the Ottoman Rulers and Their World: A 600-Year History. Amberley Publishing Limited. 2018
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Thermopylae_(1941)
https://www.muyhistoria.es/curiosidades/preguntas-respuestas/cuantas-batallas-de-las-termopilas-hubo-en-realidad-851468399788

Author: Javier G. Alcaraván (@iaberius). If you liked this article, you can follow me.