Spartan Victory: The inside story of the Battle for Brexit

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The first years of the Peloponnesian war are known as the Archidamian War (431–421 BC), after Sparta's king Archidamus II. Goodman predicted, correctly, that “this time round, the Spartans may actually win”. May failed to get Brexit done, and Boris Johnson then got it done in a form more acceptable to the ERG. Both ancient and modern writers have used the Battle of Thermopylae as a flagship example of the power of an army defending its native soil. The performance of the Greek defenders is also used as an example of the advantages of training, equipment, and use of terrain as force multipliers. Morris, Ian Macgregor (2000). "To Make a New Thermopylae: Hellenism, Greek Liberation, and the Battle of Thermopylae". Greece & Rome. 47 (2): 211–230. doi: 10.1093/gr/47.2.211.

A well-known epigram, usually attributed to Simonides, was engraved as an epitaph on a commemorative stone placed on top of the burial mound of the Spartans at Thermopylae. It is also the hill on which the last of them died. [72] The original stone has not survived, but in 1955, the epitaph was engraved on a new stone. The text from Herodotus is: [72] Ὦ ξεῖν', ἀγγέλλειν Λακεδαιμονίοις ὅτι τῇδε κείμεθα, τοῖς κείνων ῥήμασι πειθόμενοι. Ō ksein', angellein Lakedaimoniois hoti tēide keimetha, tois keinōn rhēmasi peithomenoi. O stranger, tell the Lacedaemonians that we lie here, obedient to their words. [145] One of the many virtues of this book is that he quotes the actual words of speeches and other important documents: he realises that the actual words matter, and in the case of the Withdrawal Agreement he concludes that in Article 174, the superiority of the European Court of Justice in the dispute resolution mechanism means that once ratified, this provision cannot be “over-trumped” even by Act of Parliament. However, this alone does not explain the fact that they remained; the remainder of Thespiae was successfully evacuated before the Persians arrived there. [111] It seems that the Thespians volunteered to remain as a simple act of self-sacrifice, all the more amazing since their contingent represented every single hoplite the city could muster. [113] This seems to have been a particularly Thespian trait – on at least two other occasions in later history, a Thespian force would commit itself to a fight to the death. [111] Spartans surrounded by Persians, Battle of Thermopylae. 19th century illustration.

4th century BC Greece

Marozzi, Justin (2008). The Way of Herodotus: Travels with the Man Who Invented History. Da Capo Press. ISBN 978-0-306-81621-5. Before the third Meaningful Vote, Francois looked out a copy of If, read it, and found by the time he got to the end that “I was absolutely settled in my mind about what to do”. Facing the resurgence of Athens, from 408 BC, Darius II decided to continue the war against Athens and give stronger support to the Spartans. He sent his son Cyrus the Younger into Asia Minor as satrap of Lydia, Phrygia Major and Cappadocia, and general commander ( Karanos, κἀρανος) of the Persian troops. [34] There, Cyrus allied with the Spartan general Lysander. In him, Cyrus found a man willing to help him become king, just as Lysander himself hoped to become absolute ruler of Greece by the aid of the Persian prince. Thus, Cyrus put all his means at the disposal of Lysander in the Peloponnesian War. When Cyrus was recalled to Susa by his dying father Darius, he gave Lysander the revenues from all of his cities of Asia Minor. [35] [36] [37] Herodotus on Thermopylae - Livius". Archived from the original on 4 October 2023 . Retrieved 13 September 2023. Corinth, Sparta, and others in the Peloponnesian League sent more reinforcements to Syracuse, to drive off the Athenians; but instead of withdrawing, the Athenians sent another hundred ships and another 5,000 troops to Sicily. Under Gylippus, the Syracusans and their allies decisively defeated the Athenians on land; and Gylippus encouraged the Syracusans to build a navy, which defeated the Athenian fleet when they tried to withdraw. The Athenian army tried to withdraw overland to friendlier Sicilian cities, but was divided and defeated. The entire Athenian fleet was destroyed, and virtually the entire Athenian army was sold into slavery.

Bury, J. B.; Russell Meiggs (2000). A History of Greece to the Death of Alexander the Great (4th Reviseded.). Palgrave Macmillan. Encounter between Cyrus the Younger (left), Achaemenid satrap of Asia Minor and son of Darius II, and Spartan general Lysander (right), in Sardis. The encounter was related by Xenophon. [30] Francesco Antonio Grue (1618–1673).Morley, Neville (13 September 2021). "Thucydides Legacy in Grand Strategy". In Balzacq, Thierry; Krebs, Ronald R. (eds.). The Oxford Handbook of Grand Strategy. Oxford University Press. pp.41–56. ISBN 978-0-19-257662-0. Inevitably, Sparta and Argos collided. Initial Argive successes, such as the victory at the Battle of Hysiae in 669 BC, led to the Messenians' uprising. This internal conflict tied down the Spartan army for almost 20 years. [7] However, over the course of the 6th century, Sparta secured her control of the Peloponnese peninsula. The Spartans forced Arcadia into recognizing their power; Argos lost Cynuria (the SE coast of the Peloponnese) in about 546 and suffered a further crippling blow from Cleomenes I at the Battle of Sepeia in 494. Repeated expeditions against tyrannical regimes during this period throughout Greece also considerably raised the Spartans' prestige. [8] By the early 5th century, Sparta was the unchallenged master in southern Greece, as the leading power ( hegemon) of the newly established Peloponnesian League (which was more characteristically known to its contemporaries as "the Lacedaemonians and their allies"). [9] Persian and Peloponnesian Wars [ edit ] Greek hoplite besting a Persian, on the tondo of a kylix drinking cup from the 5th century BC ( National Archaeological Museum of Athens) Map of Thermopylae". Archived from the original (JPG) on 30 September 2007 . Retrieved 26 November 2014. The main historical source for most of the war is the detailed account in The History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides. He states that he began writing his history as soon as the war broke out and took his information from first-hand accounts, including events he witnessed himself. An Athenian who fought in the early part of the war, Thucydides was exiled in 423 BC and settled in the Peloponnese, where he spent the rest of the war collecting sources and writing his history. Scholars regard Thucydides as reliable and neutral between the two sides. [7] A partial exception are the lengthy speeches he reports, which Thucydides admits are not accurate records of what was said, but his interpretation of the general arguments presented. [8] The narrative begins several years before the war, explaining why it began, then reports events year-by-year. The main limitation of Thucydides' work is that it is incomplete: the text ends abruptly in 411 BC, seven years before the conclusion of the war.

Levene, D. S. (2007). "Xerxes Goes to Hollywood". In Bridges, Emma; Hall, Edith; Rhodes, P. J. (eds.). Cultural Responses to the Persian Wars: Antiquity to the Third Millennium. OUP Oxford. p.383. ISBN 978-0-19-155751-4. Archived from the original on 6 November 2023 . Retrieved 10 January 2023. Fehling, D. Herodotus and His "Sources": Citation, Invention, and Narrative Art. Translated by J.G. Howie. Arca Classical and Medieval Texts, Papers, and Monographs, 21. Leeds: Francis Cairns, 1989 Heftner, Herbert. Der oligarchische Umsturz des Jahres 411 v. Chr. und die Herrschaft der Vierhundert in Athen: Quellenkritische und historische Untersuchungen. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 2001 ( ISBN 3-631-37970-6). Map of Thermopylae". Uoregon.edu. Archived from the original on 24 May 2010 . Retrieved 26 November 2014. Many modern historians, who usually consider Herodotus more reliable, [75] add the 1,000 Lacedemonians and the 900 helots to Herodotus' 5,200 to obtain 7,100 or about 7,000 men as a standard number, neglecting Diodorus' Melians and Pausanias' Locrians. [76] [77] However, this is only one approach, and many other combinations are plausible. Furthermore, the numbers changed later on in the battle when most of the army retreated and only approximately 3,000 men remained (300 Spartans, 700 Thespians, 400 Thebans, possibly up to 900 helots, and 1,000 Phocians stationed above the pass, less the casualties sustained in the previous days). [75] Strategic and tactical considerations [ edit ] A flow map of the battleUnlike some of his predecessors, the new Spartan general, Lysander, was not a member of the Spartan royal families and was also formidable in naval strategy; he was an artful diplomat, who had even cultivated good personal relationships with the Achaemenid prince Cyrus the Younger, son of Emperor Darius II. Seizing its opportunity, the Spartan fleet sailed at once to the Dardanelles, the source of Athens's grain. Threatened with starvation, the Athenian fleet had no choice but to follow. Through cunning strategy, Lysander totally defeated the Athenian fleet, in 405 BC, at the Battle of Aegospotami, destroying 168 ships. Only 12 Athenian ships escaped, and several of these sailed to Cyprus, carrying the strategos (general) Conon, who was anxious not to face the judgment of the Assembly. The form of this ancient Greek poetry is an elegiac couplet, commonly used for epitaphs. Some English renderings are given in the table below. It is also an example of Laconian brevity, which allows for varying interpretations of the meaning of the poem. [145] Ioannis Ziogas points out that the usual English translations are far from the only interpretation possible, and indicate much about the romantic tendencies of the translators. By the late 6th century BC, Sparta was recognized as the preeminent Greek polis. King Croesus of Lydia established an alliance with the Spartans, [10] and later, the Greek cities of Asia Minor appealed to them for help during the Ionian Revolt. [10] During the second Persian invasion of Greece, under Xerxes, Sparta was assigned the overall leadership of Greek forces on both land and sea. The Spartans played a crucial role in the repulsion of the invasion, notably at the battles of Thermopylae and Plataea. However, during the aftermath, because of the plotting of Pausanias with the Persians and their unwillingness to campaign too far from home, the Spartans withdrew into relative isolation. The power vacuum resulted in Athens' rise to power, who became the lead in the continued effort against the Persians. This isolationist tendency was further reinforced by some of her allies' revolts and a great earthquake in 464, which was followed by a Herodotus, The Histories, Book 8, chapter 26, section 1". Perseus.tufts.edu. Archived from the original on 13 September 2014 . Retrieved 26 November 2014. Hanson, Victor Davis (11 October 2006). "History and the Movie "300" ". Private Papers. Archived from the original on 19 March 2009 . Retrieved 27 March 2009.