Dictionary of Battles / From the Earliest Date to the Present Time

by Thomas Benfield Harbottle

Thermopylæ (Third Persian Invasion).

Fought 480 B.C., when 300 Spartans and 700 Thespians, under Leonidas, defended the pass of Thermopylæ, leading southwards out of Thessaly, against the Persian host, under Xerxes. They kept the Persians at bay until a considerable force having passed the mountains by another part, they were attacked in the rear. They then retired to a hillock, and fought till the last man fell.