Leonidas
by Si Bass
In 480 B.C., Xerxes son of Darius King of Persia was in full preparation to invade Greece. At this time, Atheus, the leader of the Greek City states, manifested the whole Western civilization through her architecture, drama, poetry, sculpture, philosophy and more. This was the prize that Xerxes had to have.
Sparta, another city-state, yet Greek by blood, was absolutely a militaristic society. She personified DUTY-HONOR-COUNTRY. Mothers would tell their sons "bring your shield home or be on it." King Leonidas, a Spartan, had agreed to help stop the invading Persians, and took 300 hand picked troops plus 1000 helots (citizen soldiers) and marched to Thermopylae on the North coast of Greece. Leonidas would have taken far more soldiers except for a religious holiday that apparently was more important. On the way to Thermopylae he picked-up about 7000 more troops as had been preplaned.
Thermopylae was the best of three possible defensive areas in which Xerxes invading army had to advance. This mountain gap along the coast was about 60 feet wide, and was the best location for a blocking action. The word was "stand and die," but this was only meaningful to the 300 Spartans. After three days of fighting and having killed countless Xerxes elite troops. They were finally overrun and the 300 Spartans were killed to the man, including King Leonidas. The other 7000 either departed or surrendered.
These three days of fighting are most similar to the Texas "Alamo." It gave the rest of Greece more time to mobilize, it increased their morale it threw the invasion time table completely off. And, because of several storms at sea and several failed battles with his Navy, Xerxes finally had to withdraw as there were no supporting logistics. Washington defeated Cornwallis at Yorktown for much the same reasons.
On the cigar label "Warrior King," note the FASCES (a bundle of sticks with an axe) The point is you can break one stick but united you cannot break it. Also, the word fascist comes from this Latin word.
