Thermopylae's Patriots
A tyrant once ruled a vast and mighty empire,
who thought himself a god.
To the West his eyes turned,
eager to expand his realm.
Clothed only in gold and jewels,
a god-king raised an army beyond reckoning.
Set to conquer new domains. Greece, a fledgling center of freedom
democracy, lay at his doorstep.
His father had failed with his invasion,
and so Xerxes gathered his armies, a host so great that it
drank the rivers dry. Divided into many small city-states,
how could they stand against his might?
Athens and Sparta, titans of the Greek world,
were given the chance to surrender. Others were already swearing
allegiance, but they and their allies chose defiance.
Only slaves existed besides the nobility of Persia,
hordes of desperate men far from home in this great invasion. Some
could even be called soldiers, among them the dread Immortals.
Though slavery was present Greece, there were also freedmen,
those who had the right to to choose for themselves. Only
free men willing to protect their freedom counted themselves,
among the small host at Thermopylae.
Sparta's own King Leonidas led this
brave stand against Persia's legions
with 300 Spartans of his own personal guard.
While the rest of the Greek force held the
rear path, the 300 stood ready in the main pass.
Narrow, where numbers would count for nothing,
only skill and sheer ferocity.
Spartans were and remain to this day the finest warriors in our history,
Thermopylae is the greatest testament to their courage.
Disbelieving that such a force could halt the march of his empire,
Xerxes launched a careless assault.
Time and again they battered the line only to be slaughtered
by the unbroken phalanx of Spartan spears and blades.
Though many hundreds, perhaps thousands, of his had perished,
Xerxes was only impressed. These men could prove useful.
Promising untold wealth and power, even the glory of leading
Persian armies into Europe's very heart and become his most favored warlord
to the Spartan King.
Leonidas refused, and so the battle continued as wave after wave of men
broke like the sea against rock.
Mountains of slain men
lay as testament to Xerxes' failure.
At the last, the brave men of Greece were
not to live to see the next dawn as the fourth day came.
The path was found and despite a valiant defense,
these men were not Spartans. Skilled
though they were, only the descendants of
Hercules would have stood a chance.
And so they died, to a man,
defending what was right in the face of annihilation.
Leonidas, his 300, and the Greeks that fought beside them,
did not ask for mercy. Nor did they bemoan their fate.
They died as men, and they made the ultimate sacrifice
as they fought for a new future for all of humanity.
An inspirational stand...one that has lived on for over a thousand years.
It will be remembered for many more to come.