The Battle Of Thermopylae Dissected - The Last Stance, Sources & Scholarly Debates

The Battle of Thermopylae is often talked about in scholarly works or in pop culture. Be it in movies such as the 300 film or scholarly literature, the battle of Thermopylae is omnipresent. In this video we dissect the battle of Thermopylae and look at the sources from antiquity, ancient Greek and ancient roman alike. We also analyze why Leonidas chose to stay at Thermopylae, when he could easily have retreated. There are many scholarly opinions to consider here. The reasons for his last stance are very much still discussed by historians and there is probably no clear cut answer, but of course we can falsify a lot of opinions. A third major part of the video will deal with the number of Greeks and Persians who actually were present at the battle of Thermopylae. Herodotus lists way to many Persians, that seems clear, but how many were there? And why were not more Greeks at Thermopylae?

#history #sparta #ancientgreece

Sources:
Albertz, A., Exemplarisches Heldentum. Die Rezeptionsgeschichte der Schlacht an den Thermopylen von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart, 2006.
Cartledge, P., Thermopylae. The Battle that Changed the World, 2006.
Lotze, D., Griechische Geschichte. Von den Anfängen bis zum Hellenismus, 8th edition, 2010.
Macan, R., W., "Herodotus: The Seventh, Eighth & Ninth Books with Introduction and Commentary: Commentary on Herodotus, Histories, book 7, chapter 228". The Perseus Digital Library (Tufts University).
Morris, I., Scheidel, W., The Dynamics of Ancient Empires: State Power from Assyria to Byzantium, Oxford 2009.
Thommen, L., Sparta. Verfassungs – und Sozialgeschichte einer griechischen Polis, 2003.
Watt, R., "Wanderer, kommst du nach Sparta" - A Postscript, in: Forum for Modern Language Studies, Vol. 23; no. 3; p. 274.

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Видео The Battle Of Thermopylae Dissected - The Last Stance, Sources & Scholarly Debates канала SandRhoman History