Pelletier - Against All Odds Great Underdogs in World History

AGAINST ALL ODDS

Great Underdogs in World History

by

Mike Pelletier

2015 by Mike Pelletier, POB 4841, Maryville, TN 37802, 865-233-5057, , mikepelletierwriter.com

Introduction

As an amateur historian underscore amateur -- one of my favorite subjects is underdogs battling overwhelming odds in various contexts. The military is the most obvious and we will deal with several of those, but there are others -- athletic, political, scientific, legal to name just several.

The purpose of this little tract is to examine historys most famous and some not so famous -- underdogs, and see what made them tick. Not all prevailed. The 189 defenders of the Alamo in San Antonio, Texas were killed to the last man on March 6, 1836. Yet I remember it as the greatest day in American history. Technically speaking, they werent even Americans; they were Texans they called themselves Texians -- who hadnt joined the Union yet.

This tract will, therefore, not always be about victory. It will concern the decision made by people in various contexts to struggle against all odds, and to see what, if anything, they have in common. Perhaps nothing. Perhaps something which can teach and inspire us to be like them.

Join me on this journey of exploration.

The Battle of Thermopylae

480 B.C.

Defiance

If 189 Texians against 3,000 Mexican soldiers seems like long odds, try 300 Spartans up against a MILLION Persians. Yes, Thermopylae, undoubtedly the greatest military stand in world history.

Like the Alamo, legends have grown up around the Battle of Thermopylae, most notably the numbers of combatants. It is true that 300 Spartans, led by their King Leonidas, formed the core of the Greek defense, but they were initially joined by as many as 7,000 Greeks from other city-states and regions. Ancient historical accounts, most notably that of Herodotus, put the Persian count as high as 4,000,000, but that seems just ridiculous, if only from a logistics and supply standpoint. Modern historians guesstimate the Persian force at 150,000 maximum, which is still a heck of a lot more than approximately 7,000 Greeks, even if 300 were the fearsome Spartans.

One (1) striking difference between the two battles is that the Alamo defenders were surprised by the sudden appearance of the Mexican army at San Antonio, and sought refuge in the Alamo. Thermopylae was a battle of choice for the Greeks. They met the incoming Persian hordes there precisely because it was a narrow pass along the southern edge of the Bay of Mali, which the Persian army had to traverse from west to east if they were join up with the Persian navy, which simultaneously crossed the Aegean Sea and sought to navigate the Straits of Artemisium at the eastern edge of the Bay of Mali. The goal was the invasion of southern Greece, known at the Peloponnesian Peninsula, home to both Sparta and Athens.

The great Persian Empire had designs on Greece for years. King Darius led an invasion ended in 490 B.C. by the Athenians at the Battle of Marathon. It lives in history because, as legend would have it, an Athenian messenger named Pheidippedes ran from the battle to Athens to proclaim the victory. The distance was 26 miles hence the modern marathon. 385 yards was added at the 1908 London Olympics so the race would finish in front of the Royal Box. You cant make this stuff up.

Anyway, Darius died shortly after Marathon, and his son, Xerxes, decided to make good on his fathers dying wish. He assembled another massive army and invaded again in 480 B.C., a decade after Marathon. The Spartan army was unavailable because tradition forbade the City go to war during the annual Feast of the Carneia, so Leonidas assembled his 300 best -- all with living sons left behind, so their lines would not die even if they did -- and headed for Thermopylae, hoping to pick up fellow Greek soldiers along the way. The Greek navy was headed for the Straits of Artemisium to tackle their Persian counterparts.

Approximately 7,000 Greeks met around 150,000 Persians at the Pass of Thermopylae in August of 480 B.C. The Pass was miles long, hugged the Mali Bay coastline, was 100 meters wide at its widest point, but narrowed to barely chariot width at three (3) points called the Hot (Thermo) Gates (Pylae) because of the hot springs near each. Leonidas chose to defend the middle gate where local Greeks had already built a defensive wall across the pass from the overlooking cliffs to the Bay.

The two (2) sides just stared at each other for four (4) long days. Legend has it that one of the Greeks lamented during the stalemate that, The Persian arrows will number so many, they will blot out the sun, to which Leonidas reputedly replied, Then we can enjoy fighting them in the shade. Before initiating his attack, Xerxes offered preferential status to the Spartans if they could induce all the Greeks to lay down their arms. It is said Leonidas famously replied, Then come and take them.

Xerxes did just that in the ensuing three (3) days of battle. The first day was marked by simply astonishing Greek success against three (3) onslaughts of Persian archers, then infantry, then mounted warriors called The Immortals, Persias elite. The Greeks withstood the barrage of arrows, and then slaughtered the infantry and cavalry. The second day was more of the same for Persia. Their casualties numbered in the thousands, while the pass limited Greek losses to a relative handful. The Greeks spanned the pass with their impenetrable phalanx, which featured warriors side by side with spear and interlocking shields. The Persians could not breach the phalanx for two (2) long days. Herodotus reports that Xerxes was greatly perplexed. Indeed.

The day was saved for the Persians by one of the great traitors in history rivaling the Norwegian Nazi collaborator, Vidkun Quisling, the namesake for treason -- a Greek named Ephialtes. In hopes of a reward which was never forthcoming, Ephialtes told Xerxes of a mountain path atop the cliffs overlooking the pass by which the Persians could outflank their foe on high ground. When the Greeks defending the high path reported its loss, Leonidas knew the game was up. He ordered the retreat of most of the Greeks so they could live to fight another day, and fought a rearguard action to protect the retreat with his remaining Spartans, 700 Thespians and 400 Thebans. They fought in the wide areas of the Pass to kill as many pursuing Persians as possible, and were slaughtered to the last man. It is said Leonidas himself was pierced with many arrows, then beheaded and crucified; his bones were later recovered, and he was buried with honors in Sparta.

Like the Alamo, it is difficult to say whether Thermopylae was a victory or a defeat for the Greeks from a strategic standpoint. Yes, they inflicted 20,000 casualties almost all KIA on the Persians, while losing only 2,000 men themselves, among them virtually all 300 Spartans. And yes, they held for seven (7) days, three (3) of battle. But the Persians eventually poured through and had their way for a time with southern Greece, finally sacking an abandoned Athens.

On the third hand, while after Thermopylae the Greek navy was forced from its intended interception point for the Persian armada at the Straits of Artemisium and withdrew to Salamis, there they inflicted a telling defeat on the invaders, forcing Xerxes to withdraw his army to Asia, where it withered and nearly died. His last hurrah was a third invasion in 479 B.C., where he was crushed by a smaller Greek army at the decisive Battle of Plataea. Persia would invade Greece no more, and Alexander of Macedon would subjugate the Persian Empire for Greece 150 years later.

Leonidas is honored to this day as a most stalwart Greek with a statue at the modern site of the Battle, on which are inscribed his defiant challenge to Xerxes: [If you want our weapons], come and take them. A poet and contemporary of Herodotus, Simonides, uttered some of the most famous words in the history of the world in his epigram on a stone tablet at the site: Go tell the Spartans, stranger passing by, that here, obedient to Spartan law, we lie.