Thermopylae 480BC, Spartan and Thespaian Hoplites by Chris Collingwood [Print]

So Tell The Spartans, Stranger passing by that here, Obedient to their laws, we lie. In 480 BC the Spartans tried to defend the pass at Thermopylae against the Persians led by Xerxes. The Persian fleet had sailed along the coastline from northern Greece into the Gulf of Malia on the eastern Aegean Sea towards the mountains at Thermopylae. The Greek General and King Leonidas led the Greeks and tried to defend the pass of Thermopylae. All the defending Spartans were killed during the Battle of Thermopylae. Their defence and courage provided inspiration to the Greeks, and the following year the Greeks won battles against their old enemy the Persians.