Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff you missed in History Class from how
Speaker 1: Stuff Works dot com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 1: I'm to bring a truck rewarding and I'm fair Dowdy
Speaker 1: and you are joining us today for a very special episode.
Speaker 1: It is our three hundredth episode. Yeah, we started way back,
Speaker 1: well not we personally, but um the podcast started way
Speaker 1: back in two thousand eight, and there have been many
Speaker 1: many episodes since then. So for this very special anniversary,
Speaker 1: we thought it would only be fitting. We thought it
Speaker 1: would be a great time to fulfill a listener request
Speaker 1: regarding this. A very number over the past couple of
Speaker 1: years several people have contacted us regarding the two thousand
Speaker 1: six movie three hundred, directed by Zack Snyder, and it's
Speaker 1: about a battle between the Greeks and the Persians. A
Speaker 1: king named Leonidas or Leonidas as the movie as they
Speaker 1: pronounced it in the movie, leads three hundred spartans, all
Speaker 1: with perfect abdominal muscles for some reason, into battle against
Speaker 1: the army of Xerxes, the first which outnumbers there's exponentially. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and the screenplay was of course based on a graphic
Speaker 1: novel by Frank Miller, but listeners wanted to know if
Speaker 1: there was some historical truth behind this story, and in fact,
Speaker 1: there was some truth. That's the Battle of Thermopoli and
Speaker 1: it took place in four a d b C. And
Speaker 1: it was instigated at least in part by another battle
Speaker 1: that we've already covered, the Battle of Marathon. And this
Speaker 1: really is perfect podcast symmetry because probably none of you
Speaker 1: know this, but Dablina's test episode was the Battle of Marathon.
Speaker 1: And here we are at episode number three hundred. Yes,
Speaker 1: and this is this could really be a part two
Speaker 1: to that episode. The Battle of Marathon took place in
Speaker 1: four nine d b C between the Athenians and the Persians,
Speaker 1: and it was another one in which the Greeks were
Speaker 1: greatly outnumbered, but they still managed to win, and so
Speaker 1: that meant major humiliation for the then Persian king Darius
Speaker 1: the First. So in this episode we're going to fast
Speaker 1: forward ten years and Darius his son Xerxies the First
Speaker 1: as king and he'd taken over the Persian Empire when
Speaker 1: Darius died in four eight six BC. Yeah, and at first,
Speaker 1: Serxies wasn't that interested in avenging his father's defeat at
Speaker 1: the Battle of Marathon. It was kind of the last
Speaker 1: thing on his to do list, but a couple of
Speaker 1: things might have changed his mind. According to Encyclopedia Britannica,
Speaker 1: this is kind of a standard reason. His cousin and
Speaker 1: brother in law Mardonius, who was supported by this strong
Speaker 1: party of exiled Greeks, might have talked him into it.
Speaker 1: The other, more colorful reason, according to an article in
Speaker 1: Military History by David Fry, was that there was this
Speaker 1: mystical cause behind it. A phantom supposedly appeared in serxies
Speaker 1: dreams urging him to invade Greece and avenge his father
Speaker 1: and his magi interpreted it as a portent for world conquest.
Speaker 1: So Erxies, being an ambitious guy, decided to go for it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and so he spent the next three to four years
Speaker 1: building the Ultimate Army. He enlisted soldiers and gathered supplies
Speaker 1: from pretty much every part of his empire, which is substantial,
Speaker 1: as we mentioned in the Battle of Marathon of the
Speaker 1: Quite And according to Herodotus, the Greek historian who gives
Speaker 1: us the earliest account of a lot of these episodes
Speaker 1: that we we cover, but of this story as well,
Speaker 1: he says that an effort like this had never been
Speaker 1: undertaken before, and he estimated the Xerxes army included about
Speaker 1: two point six million people, including the navy, and once
Speaker 1: he added in the servants, cruise and all the rest
Speaker 1: of the people involved, that number might have been doubled. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but Herodotus is of course prone to sort of overestimating things,
Speaker 1: and modern historians think that the number is probably more
Speaker 1: around two hundred thousand to three hundred sixty thousand, but
Speaker 1: still a really enormous number and a really frightening army.
Speaker 1: So with such an army, because he's probably didn't expect
Speaker 1: much resistance at all from the Greek, So like Darius,
Speaker 1: he sent messengers to the Greek city dates, demanding surrender
Speaker 1: in the typical fashion, with the typical tokens of submission
Speaker 1: at the time, which were earth and water. So what
Speaker 1: this meant is that you were conceding that the land
Speaker 1: and the sea belonged to the Persian king. Many Greek
Speaker 1: towns did surrender in this case. Yeah, but Xerxes didn't
Speaker 1: even bother sending messengers this time to Athens and Sparta
Speaker 1: because of the trouble they faith last time. If you
Speaker 1: remember in the Marathon podcast, the messengers were just killed outright,
Speaker 1: so he figured between him and Athens and Sparta, they
Speaker 1: were all on the same page. They knew it was
Speaker 1: going to be a fight. Yeah, and you might actually
Speaker 1: remember this part from the movie. That's one sort of
Speaker 1: difference in the story. In the movie, he does send
Speaker 1: the messenger to Sparta, and that's kind of the famous
Speaker 1: scene where Leonidas kicks the messenger into the well. Some
Speaker 1: good movie drama. Definitely. Yeah, so his intentions known at
Speaker 1: this point, Xerxes has a bridge built of boats built
Speaker 1: across the Hell of spont which is the narrow strait
Speaker 1: of water that separates Europe and Asia. A storm, however,
Speaker 1: destroyed that bridge before they could cross it. Xerxes is
Speaker 1: so mad about this he ordered that the waters be whipped.
Speaker 1: They were given three hundred lashes to be exact, and
Speaker 1: then he beheaded the engineers. So they didn't come out
Speaker 1: so well in this. But then he gets some new
Speaker 1: engineers and builds two new bridges of ships tied side
Speaker 1: by side, and his army marches across them to advance
Speaker 1: into Greece. Yeah. Meanwhile, though, of course, the Greeks aren't
Speaker 1: just sitting around waiting for it to happen. They knew,
Speaker 1: or at least the cities who didn't submit, knew, that
Speaker 1: they had a better chance defending themselves against the Persians
Speaker 1: if they banded together and coordinated a defense. So they
Speaker 1: decided they'd meet the enemy at Thermopoli, which was a
Speaker 1: mountain pass that was the best and the easiest route
Speaker 1: to get into central Greece. So they knew that Xerxes
Speaker 1: and his army would have to go through that pass
Speaker 1: if they were going to attack Athens are Sparta. Fortunately
Speaker 1: for the Greeks, it was a really good defensive spot
Speaker 1: because the pass was very narrow, is only fifty ft wide,
Speaker 1: and it had water and mountains on each side, so
Speaker 1: it made it easier for a very small force or
Speaker 1: a smaller force like the Greeks to hold back this
Speaker 1: large Persian army, and the Greeks figured that this was
Speaker 1: their best chance to at least delay the Persians if
Speaker 1: nothing else right. But the total number of Greeks who
Speaker 1: went out to Thermopoly may vary depending on what source
Speaker 1: you look at. It was probably somewhere around seven thousand,
Speaker 1: though maybe as few as four thousand, nine hundred. But
Speaker 1: one thing we do find that's consistent is that there
Speaker 1: were three hundred Spartans involved, and the three hundred were
Speaker 1: handpicked by King Leoni. Does he chose these men basically
Speaker 1: to die? They were all middle aged men with children
Speaker 1: that they could leave behind his heirs and as far
Speaker 1: as his own destiny was concerned, And Oracle had told
Speaker 1: him Sparta must either lose a king or see the
Speaker 1: city destroyed. So we're guessing in this case he figured
Speaker 1: he wasn't coming back as well. I found it interesting
Speaker 1: too that the requirement of children is so it ends
Speaker 1: with how we would normally think of picking a troop
Speaker 1: of men to die. You'd pick younger, unattached men. But
Speaker 1: they had certain different values in Sparta clearly. Yeah. Well,
Speaker 1: they were warriors and they wanted to have people there
Speaker 1: to take their place once they were gone. Yeah. So
Speaker 1: Leonidas was not just in charge though, of these three
Speaker 1: hundred elite fighters. He was also in overall command of
Speaker 1: the entire Greek army. And he led them to Thermopola,
Speaker 1: and fortunately they got there first, it was still unoccupied
Speaker 1: and they just sort of started getting ready. There were
Speaker 1: hot springs there, which gave the past its name, and
Speaker 1: there was a ruined wall and a gate, and they
Speaker 1: rushed to rebuild these two increasingly fortify their defense. Right,
Speaker 1: so they're getting ready and before the Persian army actually
Speaker 1: makes it onto the scene, they sent had a scout
Speaker 1: to check out what the Greeks are up to, and
Speaker 1: they were shocked at what they found and a little
Speaker 1: bit amused as well. They found Spartans naked and exercising
Speaker 1: or lounging about, combing their hair, assumably doing ab exercises
Speaker 1: right exactly, But I mean Xerxes may have laughed tear
Speaker 1: but what he didn't know is that Spartan warriors always
Speaker 1: did this kind of stuff before they went into battle,
Speaker 1: fixing their hair and so forth. And the Greeks they
Speaker 1: also got a little intel on the Persians as well.
Speaker 1: They sent out a scalt, but they're they're I guess
Speaker 1: information that they found wasn't quite as little more was
Speaker 1: a little scarier. They found out about the size of
Speaker 1: the Persian army in particular, And just to kind of
Speaker 1: give you an example of the reaction. Before the battle,
Speaker 1: a Spartan name Dionysis was told that when Persian archers
Speaker 1: let loose a volley, their arrows would hide the sun
Speaker 1: just because of the sheer volume of them Dionysis, though
Speaker 1: he wasn't that impressed by it. He said, quote for
Speaker 1: if the Persians hide the sun, we shall fight in
Speaker 1: the shade. Yeah. So they're they're all tough on both sides, clearly,
Speaker 1: But Xerxes expected the Greeks to be a little more frightened. He,
Speaker 1: after all, did have this huge army that he had
Speaker 1: been assembling for years and years, and so when the
Speaker 1: Persians finally arrived, they camped a short distance from the
Speaker 1: past and basically had a stand off for four days.
Speaker 1: And it's interesting this happens a lot in these ancient
Speaker 1: battle podcasts. Both sides finally get there and then they
Speaker 1: just wait for days and days, And I cannot comprehend
Speaker 1: the agony that that would be, just sitting around waiting
Speaker 1: for something to happen. But Xerxes expects the Greeks to
Speaker 1: turn tail and run, to just get frightened by the
Speaker 1: overall size of the Persian army. Yeah. They didn't, though,
Speaker 1: and this makes Cerxies really angry. I mean, this is
Speaker 1: the guy who lashed the water for ruining his bridge,
Speaker 1: so he's ready to take it out on them. So
Speaker 1: on the fifth day, which may have been around Auguste
Speaker 1: for a d b C. The Persians sent in their
Speaker 1: first wave of troops and they suffered really terrible losses.
Speaker 1: So Xerxes is even more mad at this point, so
Speaker 1: he sends in his toughest guys, his most esteemed unit,
Speaker 1: which was the Immortals. Yeah, and they're called the immortals
Speaker 1: not because they were invincible, but because they seem that way.
Speaker 1: It always seemed to be a ten thousand men strong
Speaker 1: group when whenever one was killed or wounded or sick,
Speaker 1: they would just replace him before anybody could tell the difference. Yeah. So,
Speaker 1: if you've seen the movie three hundred, they're the ones
Speaker 1: who are wearing all black and they have these metallic
Speaker 1: masks on and they're described in the movie as having
Speaker 1: their teeth filed two points and no souls. That's my
Speaker 1: favorite part. I watched the clip from the movie before
Speaker 1: before going into recording, and it was a little bit
Speaker 1: amusing and a little bit like the dementures almost they
Speaker 1: were spooky, though they were definitely spooky, but the Greeks
Speaker 1: didn't have much trouble with them either, And it all
Speaker 1: came down to the battlefield being such a tight space,
Speaker 1: which gave the Greek's real tactical advantage here. First of all,
Speaker 1: it prevented the Persians from fighting the way that they
Speaker 1: were trained to fight. They couldn't use their bow and arrows,
Speaker 1: and they only had wicker shields, daggers, short spears, and
Speaker 1: pretty much no arm or very little armor, so they
Speaker 1: just weren't equipped for hand to hand combat, which is
Speaker 1: what it came to. Yeah, and the Greeks, on the
Speaker 1: other hand, had their heavy armor and their long spears
Speaker 1: that could reach the shorter Persian swords, and they could
Speaker 1: create these walls with the shields locking them all together.
Speaker 1: And military history describes this standard tactic of Greek fighting
Speaker 1: is shock warfare, and the experienced Spartan warriors could just
Speaker 1: come out from behind the walls and fight fiercely for
Speaker 1: a few minutes and then pretend to retreat in order
Speaker 1: to further draw the Persians in, making it worse and
Speaker 1: worse for them. Yeah, and if you want to learn
Speaker 1: a little bit more about these Greek fighting tactics, that
Speaker 1: Battle of Marathon episode that we mentioned has a lot
Speaker 1: of those details in there, so check that out if
Speaker 1: you want to find out a little more along those lines.
Speaker 1: But this fighting style worked for the Greeks for the
Speaker 1: first two days, and they successfully held the Persians off.
Speaker 1: And there's there's really no telling how long it could
Speaker 1: have worked if they had had the chance to keep
Speaker 1: doing what they were doing. But we'll never really know
Speaker 1: because on the third day, a local man named of
Speaker 1: Faalties betrayed the Greeks and gave away this little secret
Speaker 1: that they had. Yeah, and that's the The Greeks few
Speaker 1: days earlier, when they had arrived, had discovered that there
Speaker 1: was this small path through the mountains that led around
Speaker 1: the path, so basically behind the Greeks and Leonidas of
Speaker 1: course knew about this path and he had left a
Speaker 1: small contingent there to guard it, but the contingent was
Speaker 1: really just to give warning in case the Persians did
Speaker 1: discover it. There were no natural defenses there, and they
Speaker 1: knew that if the Persians found it, it was gonna
Speaker 1: be a big blow to their fighting style. When they
Speaker 1: found out about the secret path, a Zerxes immediately sent
Speaker 1: the immortals at the path if Feyalties, probably motivated by greed,
Speaker 1: probably getting paid somehow, he led them there and they
Speaker 1: surprised the Greeks who were guarding the path, but lookouts
Speaker 1: managed to race down and warn Leonidas, so he had
Speaker 1: to make a decision at that point. So he had
Speaker 1: a little pow wow, and he made a decision that
Speaker 1: some people still kind of question. He decided to send
Speaker 1: most of the city state's contingents home so they could
Speaker 1: live to fight another day to defend the city's right,
Speaker 1: but he decided that he and his three hundred Spartans
Speaker 1: would stay behind and pretty much face certain death. The
Speaker 1: Thespians also stayed along with them. They volunteered to They
Speaker 1: basically just considered it an honor to die fighting. Besides Spartans,
Speaker 1: Thebans were also kept there, but they were kept as hostages.
Speaker 1: They were kept that way because they were suspected of
Speaker 1: having Persian sympathies, and basically that turned out to be
Speaker 1: true because they ended up surrendering to the Persians before
Speaker 1: the fighting really began. Yeah, but all the Greeks who
Speaker 1: stayed to fight in that last battle died, including Leonidas.
Speaker 1: His his oracles prediction was was true and Erxies won
Speaker 1: that battle. But the Greeks did eventually defeat the Persians,
Speaker 1: and later they put up memorials commemorating this big sacrifice
Speaker 1: at Thermopoli, and one is dedicated to the three hundred
Speaker 1: Spartans specifically, and it reads, quote, go tell the Spartans
Speaker 1: stranger passing by that here obeying their commands, we lie. Yeah.
Speaker 1: That pretty much sums up pretty dramatic the story, and
Speaker 1: overall it seems like the movie stays pretty true to
Speaker 1: the basics of the battle, although some of the characterizations
Speaker 1: maybe a little bit off. The Persians, for example, they
Speaker 1: didn't bring along elephants and rhinos to charge along with
Speaker 1: them Erxes. According to a little comparison done and Entertainment Weekly,
Speaker 1: which I found kind of interesting, they said that Xerxes
Speaker 1: probably had a long zz top beard instead of being
Speaker 1: totally bald and kind of tattooed car right, and the
Speaker 1: Failties probably wasn't a hunchback. And we're not even really
Speaker 1: sure if he was truly a Spartan as he's portrayed
Speaker 1: in the movie. We just know the only thing that
Speaker 1: greed was clearly a motivation, so and that he was Greek. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that he was Greek. So there were some casting changes
Speaker 1: to make things a little more dramatic and add a
Speaker 1: couple minor storylines, but the essence of the story seems
Speaker 1: pretty close. There's courage against horrible odds and and ultimately
Speaker 1: a victory. Yeah. And I love those stories as courage
Speaker 1: against underdog stories, underdog stories. Yeah, and we've done a
Speaker 1: lot of great stories in this podcast throughout these three
Speaker 1: hundred episodes. And I would love to know since I
Speaker 1: haven't been on the podcast that long, I really want
Speaker 1: to know, Sarah, what are your favorite episodes? Well, I'm
Speaker 1: not going to just tell you some of my favorite episodes,
Speaker 1: but I went and asked a few people involved in
Speaker 1: the podcast, old podcast hosts, our producer, our editor, you know,
Speaker 1: people who have been there from the beginning, what their
Speaker 1: favorite episodes were. Yeah. Can we just mention also all
Speaker 1: the people who have been involved since the beginning. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it started with Candice and Josh. I didn't get to
Speaker 1: ask Josh he's not at work this week, but I
Speaker 1: did talk to Candice and she said that her favorite
Speaker 1: episodes were, hands down, quote Marie Antoinette and the French Revolution, which,
Speaker 1: if any of y'all know Candice, she's a big French
Speaker 1: history buff. So that's Katie's favorite episodes are along a
Speaker 1: kind of different line. She really loved the expeditions and
Speaker 1: adventure tales like Franklin's Lost Expedition, Ghastly Blank, and Race
Speaker 1: to the South Pole. She also love the shipwreck that
Speaker 1: Saved James Town and real life Moby Dick Sinks the Ship. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and I didn't get to talk to Jane either because
Speaker 1: she just got married. I figured she didn't want to
Speaker 1: gab about some old podcast episodes. But I did ask Lizzie,
Speaker 1: who who has edited the podcast for a long time.
Speaker 1: She had a lot of old favorites. Why did Lady
Speaker 1: Godiva take a naked horse ride that's probably one of
Speaker 1: goody Body's favorites. Had a respute and really Die, which
Speaker 1: was also our producer Jerry's favorite, How Lord Byron worked,
Speaker 1: how Charlie Chaplin worked, the Craft's Escaped to Freedom, which
Speaker 1: is one of my favorites from from recently, and Don't
Speaker 1: Cross the Dragon Lady, which Deplina that was? That was
Speaker 1: when you picked out and um, I guess my own favorites.
Speaker 1: I have so many. I had a huge list and
Speaker 1: I really had to to narrow it down a little bit.
Speaker 1: But I really like the really weird Royalty episodes like
Speaker 1: the Elizabeth and Mary series and Ludvig the second. I
Speaker 1: think everybody probably knows that's one of my favorite. I
Speaker 1: also like the adventure literary combo episodes like the Jamestown
Speaker 1: one that that Katie had had mentioned, the Astor Place riots,
Speaker 1: and the real life Robinson Crusoe, and strangely, you know,
Speaker 1: some of the sports ones I've I've really enjoyed, like
Speaker 1: the recent Jimmy Winkfield one and Satchel Page and battle
Speaker 1: Horses holds a very special place in my heart. I
Speaker 1: just remember having so much fun not just researching that
Speaker 1: episode but picking out the entries that were going to
Speaker 1: be on it. And I still have the little list
Speaker 1: where I've I've like jotted down different battle Horses trying
Speaker 1: to trying to pick them out. But what are some
Speaker 1: of your favorites. I love the ones where we research
Speaker 1: the real person behind the literary characters, so Sherlock Holmes
Speaker 1: one of the first ones I did. That was still
Speaker 1: one of my favorites, and the real life Robinson Crusoe
Speaker 1: that was a fun one to do. I also really
Speaker 1: love just the mysteries, the mysterious deaths and mysterious disappearances.
Speaker 1: I know those are kind of morbid, but they're really
Speaker 1: fascinating to research and find out what people's theories are. So,
Speaker 1: Christopher Marlowe, that was a fun one. Sontic SUPERI that
Speaker 1: was a really fun one to do too. So I
Speaker 1: have so many favorites like you, and I've only been
Speaker 1: on it a few months, so so, I mean, we've
Speaker 1: had a great time doing the the small percentage of
Speaker 1: those three hundred episodes that we've worked on, and um,
Speaker 1: we're just we're glad to ring in such a big
Speaker 1: number with everybody. Thank you so much for listening, and
Speaker 1: send us more suggestions, suggestions for three one. Actually we'll
Speaker 1: probably have recorded that one by the time we care,
Speaker 1: you know, but um, definitely keep sending things. In Battle
Speaker 1: of Marathon was a listener suggestion. The real three hundred
Speaker 1: clearly a listener suggestion. Some of y'all give us our
Speaker 1: best ideas. Absolutely keep sending them and tell us what
Speaker 1: kind of podcasts you like to listen to. We've talked
Speaker 1: about that a little bit here, but we'd love to
Speaker 1: know what you like to find out about. You can
Speaker 1: write us at History Podcast at how stuff works dot com,
Speaker 1: or you can look us up on Twitter at Myston
Speaker 1: history or on Facebook yeah, and instead of throwing to
Speaker 1: an article like we usually do, since this is our
Speaker 1: three hundredth anniversary celebration, we're gonna throw to the podcast.
Speaker 1: So go check out our archive. We have three hundred
Speaker 1: episodes now starting June nine, two eight, back when it
Speaker 1: was Fact or Fiction, the little two or three minute podcast.
Speaker 1: They're kind of fun to listen to now, and I
Speaker 1: won't take you long to get through. No, you'll cover
Speaker 1: probably about twenty podcasts within a very short amount of time,
Speaker 1: So go check us out. We are on iTunes. We
Speaker 1: have an RSS feed on our podcast page and you
Speaker 1: can find a lot of that at how stuff Works
Speaker 1: at www dot how stuff works dot com. For more
Speaker 1: on this and thousands of other topics, visit how stuff
Speaker 1: works dot com. To learn more about the podcast, click
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