Imagery In Steven Pressfield's Gates Of Fire

Xeones joins the Spartan military and becomes a squire he starts to serve his whole country rather than his family and his home. When Sparta learned of the Persian invasion, they sent out a small force of three hundred troops to slow the enemy’s advance. “By Zeus and Eros, by Athena Protectress and Artemis Upright, by the Muses and all the gods and heroes who defend Lakedaemon and by the blood of my own flesh,

The story provides gritty, graphic detail of life and combat in Fifth Century BC Greece. It fleshes out the history of the actual event at Thermopylae as recorded by Herodotus, and gives the reader a true feel for what it must have been like to fight as a Spartan hoplite in a phalanx against the Persians. Connection between your book and the field of history/social studies This book shows a battle between free men and slaves, many against few, and they both fight for different reasons. King Leonidas of Sparta fights for freedom and his country, on the contrary King Xerxes of Persia fights for individual power and slavery trying to cement his name in the

Aeschylus’ The Persians is an Athenian tragedy with a moral purpose designed to reaffirm the power of the Greek gods. In the play, Xerxes’ invasion of Greece is presented as an example of hubris or excessive pride, which must be punished by the gods. Xerxes actions lead to the downfall of his empire and the demoralization of Xerxes. The Persians was written for a Greek audience so naturally it is biased and inconsistent.

This was a naval battle between about 370 greek ships from various city states, and about 1200 Persians. The Greeks were led by their commander, Themistocles. The Persians were once again led by Xerxes. The Greeks lined their ships up between two river banks at a narrow point. The Persians charged ahead, but the Greeks were ready. The Persians got too bunched up at the blockade and were soon defeated. This is similar to what happened at the Battle of Thermopylae. We know this happened because we have a knife with a wood handle and an iron blade that was used in the battle. This battle proves yet again that numbers mean little when your opponent has a good

The Role of Themistocles in the Greek Defeat of the Persians in 480 - 479 BC.

The Battle of Thermopylae, which Herodotus recorded in his writing The Histories, was one of the most arduous and notable battles of western history. Herodotus was an extremely significant historian who lived during the 5th century B.C. In this primary source writing, he portrays how Xerxes was superstitious and tyrannical, how the battle informs you about the Spartan culture, how the values of Greek promoted society, and he displayed how significant the Persian invasion was on Greek development, for example, their political and intellectual expansion. The Persian King Xerxes

The second invasion of Greece came at the Battle of Thermopylae and Artemesium under King Xerxes, the son of King Darius. Thermopylae was the gateway to central Greece and was chosen as the desired battleground

The Battle of Thermopylae was fought between an alliance of Greek city-states, led by King Leonidas of Sparta, and the Persian Empire of Xerxes I over the course of three days, during the second Persian invasion of Greece. It took place simultaneously with the naval battle at Artemisium, in August or September 480 BC, at the narrow coastal pass of Thermopylae. The Persian invasion was a delayed response to the defeat of the first Persian invasion of Greece, which had been ended by the Athenian victory at the Battle of Marathon in 490 BC.

The Battle of Thermopylae began in 480 BC and was a product of the Greeks attempt help defend the Ionians from the Persians. This irritated the Persian Emperor, Xerxes, because he thought of Greece as a small kingdom that had no place revolting against the Persian Empire. The Athenians sympathized with the Ionians because the Persians had also tried to invade Greece on multiple occasions. The Athenians provided feeble help to the Ionians and in retaliation the Persians struck at athens (23B). Xerxes was known to be irrational with his temper, and may have thought of his invasion as retaliation for the fact that his father, Darius the Great, was defeated at the Battle of Marathon against the Greeks. His temper was so great that at Hellas

In 480 BC, when the Persian horde, estimated by some historians to range from 300,000 to 1.7 million soldiers, landed on the shores of Thermopylae, the Persian King Xerxes sent emissaries to the leaders of the Greek city-states demanding their surrender and patronage to the Persian Empire (Frye, 2006). Despite the massive threat that was encamped on the shores off the Gulf of Maliakos in small town known as Trachis, the Greeks refused. Sparta, known for their superior military might, were chosen by the Greek leaders to lead a coalition of Greek warriors to defend their homeland from the invading Persian army (Frye, 2006).

Moreover, in the Battle of Thermopylae, Persian forces led by Xerxes outnumbered the Greeks yet again. However, the militant Spartans took up arms and were able to defeat the large Persian army. Thermopylae allowed the Greek forces to come up with various tactics and strategies in order to defeat Persia. Next, the Battle of Salamis was a naval battle between several Greek city-states and Persia. This battle forms the turning point of the Greco-Persian Wars since it ultimately “saved Greece from being absorbed into the Persian Empire and ensured the emergence of Western civilization as a major force in the world.” The ending of the Battle of Salamis left the Persian army trapped in Greece, which paves the way for the final battle of the war, the Battle of Platea. In the battle, the “Greek army came and defeated the weakened Persians, the Persian Wars were over”. The mark of the ending of the Greco-Persian wars gave way to Athens arising from the ashes as the dominant and central city-state of Greece, which then provides political and cultural advancements during its golden age.

In 499BC, the Persians attacked Greece mainland but they were defeated and pushed out of mainland Greece, this was The Battle of Marathon. In 480BC, The Persians decided that they needed to expand their empire and to do so they had to come back to attack the Greeks again. This time nothing would stop them, at least that’s what they thought. The Persians poured into Greece and lit Athens on fire while stealing their valuable goods, the Greeks quickly fled to Salamis leaving behind only the sick and infirmed which were killed by the Persians as the others left. The Greeks had no other option but to turn to their secret weapon, Themistocles. The Greeks were traveling in their ships while arguing about what their strategy was until Themistocles

Due to Egyptian revolts and the death of King Darius, it took his successor, King Xerxes, around ten years to follow up on his father’s goal of conquering Greece (Butler). In August of 480 BCE, Xerxes took a force of nearly 300,000 men to the second main battle point at Thermopylae to cross into Greece (Dutton 54). In the years it took for Xerxes to return, the Greeks were able to prepare and were able to amass a troop size of 7,000 men led by King Leonidas of Sparta (Butler). The Greeks were ready to fight Xerxes and had a chance of winning given their knowledge of the land and the only known pass through it. The Greeks fought the Persians as they funneled into the small pass for two days. Unfortunately, a traitor named Ephialtes of Trachis gave the Persians knowledge of another way of getting past them, which enabled them to surround the

The 2006 film titled 300 puts the legendary war between the Persians and Spartans into action on the big screen. Although action-packed and exciting, 300 quickly became controversial due to its lack of historical accuracy and overly exaggerated visual details. Steven Pressfield’s epic novel Gates of Fire also tells the tale of the Battle of Thermopylae. Both the film and epic novel recreate the famous battle by mixing fiction and nonfiction components; however, they each have their own way of telling the tale.

The battle of Thermopylae in year 480 BCE was a major part in the Greek victory of the Graeco-persian wars and for the battle of Greece as an independent nation leading to the Greek golden age and Hellenism forever changing the western world and its culture. (Frye)The start of the Graeco-Persian hostilities can be traced back to 499 BCE at the beginning of the Ionian revolt when Ionian Greeks revolted against their Persian leaders in a bloody civil war that lasted over seven years. The most significant event that would eventually lead to further hostilities was when the city states of mainland Greece mostly Athens started to support the Greek rebels both financially and militarily. Even with the help of mainland Greece the rebellion was crushed by Darius the great and the rest of the Persian Empire allowing it to become whole once again. But unfortunately this would not stop hostilities between these two nations for Darius wanted revenge on Greece most notably the city of Athens for supporting the Ionians during the revolt. But it wasn’t all about revenge the Ionian revolt severely threatened Darius’s Empire and Darius saw that mainland Greece would continually cause turmoil in this region of his empire unless they were dealt with thus leading to the first Persian invasion of Greece and The Greco Persian wars.