A Heroic Spartan Stand Undone by Betrayal
A small Spartan led Greek force, under the command of Sparta’s King Leonidas, occupied and fortified the pass at Thermopylae. The Persians, forced to attack directly up the pass on a narrow front, were unable to use their advantages in numbers and cavalry. They were repeatedly bested by the more heavily armed and armored Greeks, especially the elite core of superbly trained Spartan warriors. For three days, the Persians launched futile attacks, but could not make the Greeks budge. The Persians were stuck. Then Ephialtes told Xerxes that he knew a track through the mountains that bypassed Thermopylae, and reemerged to join the road behind the Greek position.
In exchange for the promise of rich rewards, Ephialtes showed the Persians the way. Alerted that he was about to be outflanked, Leonidas sent the rest of the Greeks away. He stayed behind with what remained of a 300-strong Spartan contingent. They fought to the death, until they were wiped out. Ephialtes’ was reviled, and his name came to mean “nightmare” in Greek. He never collected his reward. The Persians were defeated at Salamis later that year, at Platea the following year, and their invasion of Greece collapsed. Ephialtes fled, with a reward on his head. He was killed ten years later over an unrelated matter, but the Spartan authorities rewarded his killer anyhow.