English 11 Blog #1

If i could go back to any point in history it would be August of 480 BC to the Battle of Thermopylae in ancient Greece. The Battle took place between the Spartans and the Persian army. The Persian army at the time was largest force ever assembled at a rough number of 300,000 infantry, Calvary and ranged units, while the Greeks had only 300 Spartans, 700 Thespians, 400 Thebans, possibly up to 900 helots and 1,000 Phocians for a grand total around 3,000- 3,300 meaning the Greeks were outnumbered 100 Persians to 1 Greek. now based on facts in the movie and other historical facts When the Spartan king was trying to gather an army to fight the coming Persians and he was denied by the elders of the Spartan civilization, if Leonidas was given the army he had requested, the following days would have been a completely different story. Though there are few records remaining about what happened at the Battle of Thermopylae if the Spartans and other Greeks had shown up with a force strong enough to even the odds to at least 50 to 1 the out come of the battle very well could have ended very differently. How the history books are written it says that the Greek force of 3000 after 3 days of fighting had killed 20,000 - 30,000 Persian soldiers, so each Greek warrior killed between 7 and 10 Persians. Since the Greeks lost the Persians went forward and destroyed everything in there path burning Sparta in the process. What i would change about that is i would have convinced the Spartan council to send more men as many as they could muster up to send at least 5000 Spartans plus all the others that joined the Greeks would have had a force of around 8000 to fend off the Persians, now The Persians were running low on food and were counting on passing right through unnoticed to land were they could gather more food. But with the Greeks showing up and slowing them down they were in jeopardy of running out of food. If the original battle had lasted any longer they would have had to retreat to get more food but the Persians were able to push through the Greek force and move on to later destroy everything in there path. But with the new force that would be sent if I changed how things happened they defiantly would have had to turn back and Greece would have been saved. The Battle of Thermopylae was known for the unbelievable odds of a small Greek force holding off the largest army ever assembled for 3 days. If i were to change it, would it still be one of the most famous battles of ancient Europe? Yes and for some of the same reasons. It would have been remember as the battle were an army that was enormously outnumbered held off the Persian army by strategically placing themselves were they had to all be killed for the Persians to pass were they lost more men than they killed and had to retreat due to low food supplies and being unable to make any ground on a Greek force that should have never stood a chance.