Sparta – The Battle of Thermopylae – Sabaton History 041 [Official]

Sparta what can I say it hardcore [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] the great king of Persia had called and his empire had answered in the year 480 BC an endless stream of marching feet made its way from Asia Minor westward not just Persians but back friends and Metis men from the Caucasus in Arabia men on horseback camels chariots men from the mountains in the steppe men from the ancient cities in the sea Babylonians Phoenicians Assyrians contingents from places as far away as India Ethiopia and Egypt all were called to war by Xerxes King of Kings the son of Darius the great their God appointed ruler and king of the world and he called them to war against the people of Hellas the Hellenic people I'll call them Greeks for simplicity had been offered an ultimatum by Darius bend the knee and offer the King of Kings what is rightfully his earth and his water many had done so but others most importantly the two mightiest city-states Athens and Sparta had refused Sparta had even thrown the Persian envoys into a well to get their water and their earth from down there this had provoked the Persians to war as you may imagine so begins the story told by the father of historians Herodotus a story that would be told for over 2,000 years the Greeks had won the first round against King Darius at the Battle of Marathon but Xerxes was determined to even the score he would not bother to send more envoys he would send his armies instead sitting on a throne made of white marble Xerxes watched his hosts move to the Hellespont where a mighty bridge supported by ships would bring them to hel us the head of the army marched his guard the Immortals with wreaths of victory on their heads to bless this day he threw a goblet into the sea alongside a golden bull and a Persian sword the gods will be watching Xerxes great victory for bridging the Asiatic and European world an army of three million men was on the march at least according to Herodotus modern historians narrow that force down to a maximum of 250,000 men which is still really massive for the time and it was an enormous feat of logistics to keep them some slide while many northern Greek cities cooperated with the Persians for fear of being destroyed Athens and Sparta had made a pact with each other the powerful triremes of Athens would challenge the Persian fleet while Sparta would march out to meet the Persians in the field the Greeks wanted freedom so they said but the Spartans were not truly freemen but bound to the law of their state only a small fraction of Sparta could call themselves spartiates those were the citizens of Sparta the ones allowed to vote who reigned over the perio coast the free neighbors and the helots a servant class Spartacus were the warrior class disciplined by a system of rules that set them apart from other men they were not permitted to own silver or gold we're not allowed to trade or take a profession instead they trained their whole lives to serve the state a training which only the strong the cunning and the tough would survive their bodies and minds were toughened by a lifetime of military drills and athletics by the time of Xerxes invasion there were only around 8,000 adult male spartiates they were few they were professionals they wore their hair long and a proud scarlet coat and were capable of carrying out the most complex of military maneuvers with ease it was already late July and autumn was not too far off with the strong storms of the Mediterranean Xerxes had to move if he wanted to keep up with his supply fleet the Spartans went north to meet the Persians but could only bring a portion of their forces since the holy festival of carnea was around the corner which forbade the spartan host to go to war only 300 Spartans led by their King Leonidas were sent northwards each Sparty 'it was personally chosen by the king and had to have a living heir since there was a good chance who's not coming back now they were accompanied by around a thousand perioikoi and hey lots and were soon joined by by other allied contingents mostly Thebans and thespians so around 3,000 men assembled at Thermopylae the hot gates Thermopylae got its name from being near sulfuric hot springs in terms of technical warfare the Spartans did not fight much differently than their fellow Greeks but much differently than the Persians the Greeks favored the shield wall of tightly packed heavily armored warriors who would stand as a single block relying on weight and solidity of their formation the armor was extremely heavy especially compared to the Persians Corinthian bronze helmets covered their head fully but for the characteristic T their composite leather breastplates and shoulder corsets were reinforced by metal scales and sheets the large shield was covered with bronze and known as the Hopalong making the warrior a hoplite on it the Spartans bore the lambda symbol for Lassa diamond the Greek name for Sparta armed with a 6-foot spear and with a sword for close quarter combat they were the most formidable of opponents while the Spartan right flank was guarded by the sea the left was blocked by the steep slopes of Mount Khalid Roma's there was even an ancient wall guarding the pass it was the perfect place for hoplite warfare coming south from Macedonia the first Persian scout who approached the hot gates told Xerxes of a group of half-naked men readying themselves for battle and seemingly unbothered by the large host assembling in front of them Xerxes wanted them swept aside and ordered a frontal attack because of a lack of technical choices and well a lack of patience okay on the 18th of August 480 BC the battle began the Persian host though they were used to battles in vast open areas or in mountains where speed and agility brought the advantage much of the Persian force was was only lightly armed with short Spears daggers they had wicker shields their main weapon was the bow not the sword some elite units wore leather armor or reinforced Jerkins but most wore no armor at all at first the Metis attack and front Lee ran into a wall of gleaming bronze it was a terrible slaughter as their weapons could not penetrate the shield wall the Metis withdrew without making much of a dent in the Greek formation next were the men of Susa proud warriors who filed a hail of arrows into the hoplites before they charged over the dead bodies of the Metis the men of Susa fared no better and broke like a wave against a rock by the afternoon there was a second wall this time it was made out of corpses Xerxes was losing what little patience he had in the first place but clearly this was no ordinary force he faced he ordered the Immortals forward the Spartans performed a feigned retreat stopping and racing only at the last moment when the enemy charged them then after the slaughter they again pushed and advanced a short pace to tear into the enemy Spartans were made for this kind of battle Xerxes watching from his throne is said to have sprung three times into the air out of rage that even his beloved immortals could not break the Greek lines with heavy losses the were called off for the night by now the Greek defense and defiance had caused a traffic jam the whole host was halted by a few thousand men in the narrow pass the Spartans and their allies tended their wounds they too had casualties but not much compared with the mass of corpses in front of them the next morning Xerxes put more troops into the past promising rich rewards for success it was another day of hard fighting and the Greek line held fast no hail of arrows no frontal assault could break the Defiant defenders it was close to nightfall that the Persians learned of the secret pass over mount Khaled Ramos that would lead to the Spartan rear now this was of course not a secret pass at all it was just a secret to the Persians who like all invading forces throughout all of history did not have local knowledge in Herodotus history this betrayal would be attributed to a certain Ephialtes probably a local who simply told them about it for money Leonidas had positioned a small defense on the pass with men from Lamia he certainly would have preferred to have his trusted Spartans in that position but he could not afford to remove any of them from the main battle and though the men of Lamia had just one job to keep an eye out and warned the Spartan King in time if the Persians were coming they messed it up they got totally surprised during the night news that The Immortals were upon them reached Leonidas too late their rear was in danger and even if they fled the Persian horsemen would pursue them but since the word flight did not exist in the Spartan lexicon anyways Leonidas offered his allies a withdrawal option while his Spartans would hold the Persians off as long as possible send a message to Sparta to tell them how they died still many men chose to stay with the Spartan King so their numbers were still around twelve hundred men strong Leonidas told the remaining men to have a good breakfast because tonight they would dine in Hades with their lives now forfeit it would go out to inflict as many casualties upon the enemy as as The Immortals appeared behind them Leonidas forced form a hedgehog of Spears and the Persians had to be whipped into battle out of fear of thus Martens the final hours of the Spartans and their allies were hours of relentless battle they killed and killed driving the enemy against the mountain walls and down into the sea they fought until their Spears broke their shields and their helmets were dented and the swords went blunt at one point Leonidas was killed and a savage battle over his body and sued the Persians trying to claim his body as a trophy and the Spartans desperately fighting for the honor of their king it is said the two of Xerxes brothers died in the attempt before the Persians retrieved the body the Spartans defended themselves to the last until overwhelmed by Spears and arrows they died to a man there were no Spartan prisoners by midday of the third day it was all over Xerxes himself went down to inspect the battlefield he cut off the head of Leonidas and impaled it on a spear for his army to see the Spartans were mortal the Spartans could be killed but their last stand had given the Persians a taste of what was to come Greece was not a pushover the war was far from over and would eventually be decided at sea and on the battlefield of Plataea in greek favor but the last stand at Thermopylae at the hot gates was a symbol to the rest of Hellas a rallying call and a legend to stand through the centuries as for the Spartans and their bravery and their might after the war there would be a plaque at Thermopylae bearing the words tell them unless a daemon passer-by adhere obedient to their laws we lie okay so all joking aside Sparta I mean it's a popular topic why how did this develop okay so it's actually you I came sitting in our studio I'm working and I'm sitting in my office working in the same building and he's working on a new song together with the guy Ken who has been helping us out with writing a couple of songs over the years they have some little idea they asked me for my input and I come over and I'm like guys I'm not hearing a metal song I'm hearing the soundtrack to the movie 300 I hear that in the song I hear I I hear this and I see it in front of me and they were like all right the song became very popular right and it's a song I really love to perform live and when we were performing it on the tour we of course needed to bring a little bit of theater to the stage so we brought Spartans and we put York in a helmet like that similar to this that he was wearing it and he was wearing the costume maybe not but he was wearing the helmet and he was trying to sing the song and he was always complaining because inside of this one you will hear very very strange noises and it will distort your voice and you can't really take the tones perfect or it's semi mess up the actual yeah so your team was not really happy about singing inside our helmet and since then we have not seen from helmet but what about the actors playing Spartans and stuff they were an interest yeah we had a couple of our crew members who really enjoyed it yeah and obviously they needed because they barely wear any clothes under that yes so they needed to be a little bit fit so we needed to just carefully select the the toughest crew members who could wear the spears and the shields look at those bodies brutal guys yeah I wouldn't have been faked I mean I look good but you know I think I'm older than any of the Spartans live to be down 52 now those guys were long dead yep they were along that well it was a tougher life back then it was a brutal life so how should we answer we say it we can do it okay this is sparta all right everybody that's it for today hope you enjoyed this week's episode of Cybertron History Channel don't forget to subscribe don't forget to become a patreon and see you soon [Music]

Channel: Sabaton History

Views: 174,401

Keywords: Sabaton, Sabaton History, TimeGhost, Indy Neidell, World War Two, Documentary, Historian, History, War, Powermetal, Band, Pär Sundstrom, Joakim Broden, Sparta, 300, Battle of Thermopylae, Last Stand, The Last Stand, This is Sparta, Sabaton Sparta, Sparta Sabaton, 300 Sparta, Battle, Greek Nation State, King Leonidas, Spartans, Persians, Second Persian War, 480 BCE, Xerxes, Myth, 300 Spartans

Id: Y_hBHlPkeoU

Length: 15min 22sec (922 seconds)

Published: Thu Nov 14 2019