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June 6, 2005
ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ
In 480 BC, Xerxes, then the king of Persia, brought one of the mightiest armies the world had ever seen to attempt to finish a war his father Darius had started with the Greeks. After detecting the scouts and advance troops of Xerxes army, the Greeks mustered a tiny response of 7000 soldiers, led by 300 Spartans. They used the mountain pass of the pass of Thermopylae, narrow and mountainous settle in against the pending Persian attack. Xerxes didn't understand the situation, and growing impatient, sent his army of variously estimated of 100,000, three million or 5 million men to the slaughter. The force was so mighty that it was said that Persian arrows blocked out the sun. A Greek simply remarked, "So much the better, we shall fight in the shade." Xerxes, stunned at the ferocity of their defense, offered the Greek soldiers the option to be spared if they would simply give up their arms. To which General Leonidas of the Spartans replied "ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ" (Molon Lave) which means "Come and get them." In the ensuing battle, 20,000 Persians perished.
The defense was ultimately flanked and overrun, resulting in the death of the Spartan general, and most of the few thousand defenders. However, it rallied the Greeks and set in motion a series of events that let to a Greek triumph over the Persians. This set the groundwork for Alexander the Great's military conquest and the Hellenization of much of the west. A few men, asserting their rights as free men changed the face of history.
Posted by OneEyedMan at June 6, 2005 12:08 PM
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