ET CETERA ANTIQUA

📝 Classical Civilisation essay, Year 11. Mark: 13/15. Teacher feedback: “A very good first 15-mark essay. Great accurate and detailed knowledge. You explain well how these different features contribute to success but now need to focus a little more on discussing their relative contributions and arguing throughout why things contributed more or less than their training.”

I partly agree that Spartan success at Thermopylae was due to their training. Other reasons for their success are the geography of Thermopylae and their equipment.

Spartan training started at the age of seven, and even though the Spartans lost the Battle of Thermopylae and were all killed, it can still be considered a success for the Spartans because they managed to hold off an army that was thousands of men bigger than them for a whole three days.

Spartan training began at the agoge at the age of seven, and consisted of rigorous exercise. This meant that the Spartans had much more experience at fighting than the Persians — it was the focus of their lives, while the Persians probably had very little experience, because they were mainly people from different areas of the empire all called up to fight by Xerxes. This meant that the Spartans could fight much better and more efficiently than the Persians at Thermopylae. Spartan training also encouraged men to think that death was better than being a coward. Herodotus said that “it became clear to everyone… that Xerxes had plenty of combatants but very few warriors”, which emphasises this. When someone told a Spartan warrior, Dienekes, that when the Persians shot their arrows, there were so many that they blacked out the sun, he replied “So much the better… then we shall fight in the shade.” This shows just how remarkably little the Spartans cared about death, as long as they died a glorious death in battle. Overall, training contributed a lot to Spartan success at Thermopylae because they were physically stronger than the Persians, but they also had a different mindset, so they were prepared to do anything as long as Greece didn’t fall under Persian rule.

Another reason for Spartan success was the geography at Thermopylae. Thermopylae was a narrow pass — on one side were the cliffs, and on the other was the sea. At the entrance of the pass, it is “two wagons” across, and at its widest it reached around fifteen metres. This meant that the main advantage of the Persians — their numbers (the ratio of Persians to Spartans was around 6:1) — was useless because they were narrowed down so much by the natural bottleneck of the pass. This meant that the Spartans didn’t fight all of the Persians at once, so they were much more efficient. The shape of Thermopylae also negated the Spartans’ main weakness — their right flank was exposed in the phalanx formation. Because of the narrowness of the pass, the Spartans could go right up to the edges of the mountains, so that their sides weren’t exposed. This contributed to Spartan success because it meant that they used every advantage they had, and negated every weakness they had. Overall, the geography contributed quite a lot to Spartan success because it meant that they maximised all their advantages.

Another reason the Spartans succeeded was their equipment. The Spartans had long spears (doru), which meant that they could reach Persians who were further away, even if they weren’t on the front line, while the Persians had short swords. The Spartans also had strong bronze shields (hoplon) which were extremely difficult to break through for the Persians, especially in the phalanx formation. The Spartans also wore clothes that were better suited to a Greece climate — heavy armour and light tunics — which was another advantage. Overall this contributed a little to Spartan success because they were much better equipped to deal with the Persians.

In conclusion, I think that Spartan training contributed the most to their success because they were both better physically and mentally prepared to fight the Persians.