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300

The 300 at Thermopylae (Greek: "Hot Gates") were proverbial. The 300 Spartans who fell at Thermopylae is the number hallowed for war, their own all-sufficient host, the Three Hundred. One may imagine the 300 Spartans saying to each other: "We may be only 300; but it would be hard to find a 300 as numerous". The name of the Pass of Thermopylae has been immortalized by the heroie death of Leonidas and his 300 Spartans.

The main source for the battle of 480BC is Herodotus, Histories, 7.201-233. The Greeks, awaiting the advance of the Persians from the N., abandoned the defence of Tempe as useless, and posted themselves in the more easily defended pass of Thermopylae. Besides 300 Spartans, their forces consisted of 500 hoplites from Tegea and as many from Mantinea, 120 from Orchomenos in Arcadia, 1060 from the rest of Arcadia, 400 from Corinth, 200 from Phlius, 80 from Mycenae, 700 from Thespise, 400 from Thebes, and 1000 from the Opuntian Locris.

Xerxes crossed the Spercheios, advanced towards the pass, and encamped on the plain of Trachis (p. 202), where the Asopos dashes forth from the cliffs of Trachis, which rise in an imposing crescent on the S. verge of the bay. The hostile camps thus lay but 3 M. apart. Xerxes, who wished to avoid unnecessary bloodshed, expected that the Greeks would retire from Thermopylae as they had retired from Tempe. The latter, however, remained in their position, exhibiting themselves in front of their trenches, strengthening their limbs by gymnastic exercises, and adorning their long hair as for a banquet.

At last, on the fifth day, the Persian monarch ordered his troops forward to punish the arrogance of his opponents and for two days, from morning till evening, the battle raged in the small coast-plain. Again and again the Medes advanced against the Greeks as against the ramparts of a fortress; their foremost ranks, thrust forward by the pressure of the myriads behind, met certain death. They had no protection against the Grecian lances, while the Median missiles rebounded like hail from the bronze armour of their foes. The onslaughts were repeatedly repulsed, and Xerxes, overloooking the battle from a height, saw the blood of his choicest troops flowing like water across the path.

Ephialtes, a Malian, offered to guide the invaders through the heights which stretch upwards from the pass. The Persians, leaving the gorge of the Asopos in the evening, climbed upwards all night through the oak-forests, and when day broke found themselves on the crest of the hill. The stillness of the morning air favoured their march. The sleeping Phocians were only aroused by the tread of the enemy. Unable at once to assume a posture of defence, their hearts failed them, and they withdrew to the summit of Kallidromos (see above), believing that the attack was directed against themselves. The Persians, however, had no thought of delaying for any such purpose, and pushed on in order to fall upon the rear of the Spartans.

Leonidas could not hesitate as to what he had to do. He was not there as a general to carry on the war according to circumstances after his own plans; he was there simply to defend the pass. "Whatever just reason he had to be indignant with the Spartans who had left him in the lurch, to remain at his post was only the fulfilment of his duty as a citizen; and that to the true Spartan was second nature. In order to avoid useless bloodshed he permitted the contingents from the other states to depart. The Thespians, however, and the Thcbans remained; the former, according to unanimous admission, from a spirit of heroism, which deserved all the more credit because no exterior claim of duty chained them to the spot; the latter, says Herodotus, because Leonidas would not let them go. He was aware that if they survived that day they would only serve to swell the ranks of the Persians.

Leonidas led them into the midst of the foe, that they might sell their lives as dearly as possible, but when they were exhausted with fighting, and their lances were shattered, they withdrew to a small hillock, which rose about 30 ft. above the springs (p. 201). Here they fell one by one under the arrows of the Medes, standing by each other like brothers to the end. Their self-devotion was not in vain. It was an example to the Hellenes; to the Spartans it was a stimulus to revenge; and to the Persians a proof of Grecian valour, the impression of which could never fade. Their grave became an imperishable monument of heroic patriotism, which preferred death to violation of oath and duty.

300 is a 2006 American epic period action film based on the 1998 comic series of the same name by Frank Miller and Lynn Varley. The Miller graphic novel (with coloring by Lynn Varley) was a faithful, if jazzed-up, version of the battle of Thermopylae. The action and much of the dialogue were taken from Herodotus' near-contemporary history. The movie is cartoonish, but myths are cartoons. The Spartans' rhapsodize about "a beautiful death". Leonidas exhorts his troops: "Eat hearty. For tonight. We dine, In hell." The authorities in Iran said the movie was about them, since their country is the descendant of ancient Persia. An adviser to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad charged the film with "plundering Iran's historic past and insulting this civilization."

Roman 300

It is not in the slightest degree probable that the Romans should have suffered three memorable defeats under the leadership of the Fabii — those, namely, of the Cremera in 477 BC, of the Allia in 390 BC, and from the Tarquinienses in 358 BC. On the contrary, everything causes the belief that one single event was, at various times, cast and recast according to the caprice of the annalists. Perhaps we would better say according to the fancy of the family historian. That this reduplication (in the case of the Fabian gens) was most strangely abused is proved by the absurd story of the 300 Romans under Fabius Maximus, who perished together in the war against Hannibal. It is clear that this fanciful tale (related by the novelist Aristides, the author of the Milesiaca) is merely a later and grotesque recasting of the better-known legend of the Fabii at the Cremera.

The legend of the Fabii at the Cremera bears a striking resemblance to the heroic defence of Thermopylæ by Leonidas and his 300 Spartans. The number of the 306 Fabii and 4000 clients (according to Mommsen and Ihne) was suggested by the strength of the legion and its cavalry. But it is more natural to observe that also Leonidas had with him, in addition to the 300 Spartans, 4000 Peloponnesians. If the number of the Fabii at the Cremera is at times given as 300 rather than 306, it seems admissible to believe (as in the case of Calpurnius Flamma) that an attempt was made to bring closer together the two heroic events. The similarity between the two events is not limited to the number of combatants. It extends to other particulars as well. Leonidas and his men perish because of their betrayal by Ephialtes ; the Fabii die through the jealousy of the consul Menenius, who was less than four miles away (30 stadia), and who (like Ephialtes) was afterwards punished for his treacherous inactivity.

Gideon's 300

Gideon was a judge over Israel, seemingly around the year 1250BC. While this story antedates the Greco-Roman stories by about 800 years, there is no particular reason to believe it inspired the later writers. Although the Bible describes him as timid, Gideon is known as the greatest of all the 15 judges. Gideon, received a call from the Lord to take on the Midianites, a nomadic and huge group of people who depleted Israel’s supplies. When the Lord wanted Gideon to bring an army to take on the enormous Midianite army, he brought 32,000 men. The Lord had other plans. Judges, Chapter 7 [KJV]:

And the LORD said unto Gideon, The people that are with thee are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hands, lest Israel vaunt themselves against me, saying, Mine own hand hath saved me.

3 Now therefore go to, proclaim in the ears of the people, saying, Whosoever is fearful and afraid, let him return and depart early from mount Gilead. And there returned of the people twenty and two thousand; and there remained ten thousand.

4 And the LORD said unto Gideon, The people are yet too many; bring them down unto the water, and I will try them for thee there: and it shall be, that of whom I say unto thee, This shall go with thee, the same shall go with thee; and of whomsoever I say unto thee, This shall not go with thee, the same shall not go.

5 So he brought down the people unto the water: and the LORD said unto Gideon, Every one that lappeth of the water with his tongue, as a dog lappeth, him shalt thou set by himself; likewise every one that boweth down upon his knees to drink.

6 And the number of them that lapped, putting their hand to their mouth, were three hundred men: but all the rest of the people bowed down upon their knees to drink water.

7 And the LORD said unto Gideon, By the three hundred men that lapped will I save you, and deliver the Midianites into thine hand: and let all the other people go every man unto his place.

8 So the people took victuals in their hand, and their trumpets: and he sent all the rest of Israel every man unto his tent, and retained those three hundred men: and the host of Midian was beneath him in the valley.

9 And it came to pass the same night, that the LORD said unto him, Arise, get thee down unto the host; for I have delivered it into thine hand.

12 And the Midianites and the Amalekites and all the children of the east lay along in the valley like grasshoppers for multitude; and their camels were without number, as the sand by the sea side for multitude.

19 So Gideon, and the hundred men that were with him, came unto the outside of the camp in the beginning of the middle watch; and they had but newly set the watch: and they blew the trumpets, and brake the pitchers that were in their hands.

20 And the three companies blew the trumpets, and brake the pitchers, and held the lamps in their left hands, and the trumpets in their right hands to blow withal: and they cried, The sword of the LORD, and of Gideon.

21 And they stood every man in his place round about the camp: and all the host ran, and cried, and fled.

In the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) the ones who kneel put their hands to their mouths and are disqualified. But in the New International Version (NIV), the ones who kneel don’t put their hands to their mouths. Rather, the lappers put their hands to their mouths. The King James Bible and the English Standard Version, incidentally, agree with the NIV.

A popular interpretation is the men who scooped the water up with their hands and lapped it were the real soldiers, the crack commandos. They didn't bend down and expose themselves to attack like the others. They stayed alert and vigilant. But the object was not to reduce Gideon’s army to a force of a particular kind, but of a particular number. A small corps of crack troops is precisely what the Lord did not want. The three hundred were meant to be not an elite, but as a group so inadequate that when the battle is won (the Lord declares) it cannot be a case of Israel’s saying “My own hand has delivered me…” Until the numbers are reduced to the level at which it is clearly the Lord and not Israel who wins the battle, they are too many.