Why did Leonidas went to Thermopylae and fought against Xerxes and did not organize defense in Corinth?
Hells Gates was the only place he could hope to gain strategic advantage over the insurmountable odds. Xerxes brought to the fight numbers that would have crushed anyone, Leonidas knew time was short and all lives would be lost if he did not take what advantages he could. He knew the warriors being brought to the table by Xerxes would not likely be battle trained and would fall like butter under the knife. As all history knows, his 300 Spartans did at Hell’s Gates what 3000 warriors in an open field would have failed at, they fended off the hordes long enough to let all of Greece know what they were against and organize their might. Hell’s Gates was the only answer for Leonidas, those natural defenses offered the only hope for all of Greece. Had he not taken matters into his own hands, who is to know if any of us would even know he or Sparta ever existed.
King Leonidas had to delay the Persians from rolling over the Greek countryside until the Greek states could build up their naval and land forces to combat the invasion. His Spartan warriors were considered the best of Greek soldiers and with a few allies he accomplished what was the most lopsided fight against insurmountable odds in history. Spartawo…
Leonidas was a King and not a politician (a member of the Greek senate). He took things into his own hands to circumvent the stagnant senate and just took a little walk with his 300 man body guard and retinue, and just ‘happened’ to have met the Persian Army at Thermopolae. The fearsome Spartans were just as helpless against politically correct intrigue as today’s generals. Look at what happened to Marine Corp. General Peter Pace!!!!
Leonidas was not alone there with his 300. At the beginning of the battle there were significantly more troops, but after the betrayal to the Persians of a secret way around the pass the rest of the army retreated. Leonidas remained behind to delay the Persians, allowing the remaining Greeks to prepare other defenses. The reason that the defense occurred where it did was the same reason that he and his 300 men could hold the pass against literal hordes of Persians, the terrain was perfectly suited for defense.
