Did the Spartan King Leonidas lead his army into a "war of choice" at the Battle of Thermopylae?

Question

Seeing as how he did not have the approval of his government, was it a "war of choice"? Did he act wisely however, since if he did not, the Persian army would have destroyed Greece? Or would the Greeks have fought a defensive war at a different spot and had a chance?

Answer 1

Not very accurate historically. I didn't see it yet, but the version shown is that of Greek story tellers. The 300 were really about 4000. They were a diversionary force. They were left behind at a strategic point (at a bottle neck where an advantage of numbers was lessened) to stall the Persians. It was planned for them to fight, while the main spartan force maneuvered around, for more time to prepare. The Persians were later defeated by the Athenian navy. The Greeks basically rammed the Persian ships and sunk them. The Persians always had unthinkably superior numbers, and always lost horribly. Just look at the history. But yes, it was a planned fight.

Answer 2

Apparently he did act wisely for the Persians did not take Greece or Sparta. And I believe that King Leonidas was acting out of pride. For the Spartans did not come when called for ten years earlier at the Battle of Marathon where General Miltiades of Athens defeated Persian General Mardonius in 492. Sparta was was a very martial state/people and failing to fight at Marathon was a sore spot for many of them.

Persia was out for conquest and would have taken Sparta and the 6000 Spartans would not have been able to prevent that. Sparta was known for it's soldiers not it's sailors. The Persians were beaten when there fleet was defeated and their massive army was left without a line of supply.

Only the Dead know Peace.

Answer 3

The Greeks did win in the end. They drove them out after the sacking and burning of Athens. The Greeks abandoned the city to them and then Themistocles lured the Persian fleet into battle and destroyed enough of it to make the Persians position as conquerers untenable. Later the newly unified Greeks defeated them in several battles on Persian soil. This was the beggining of the end of the Persian empire.

The only choice Leonidas had was to fight or Die. Stupid Persians and their basket weave shields.....