Ancient/Classical History/Battle of Thermopylae

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Expert: - 11/25/2007


Question
Is the idea behind fighting at Thermopylae that the Persians had to come through there, and it provided a good bottleneck through which to pick them off? The mountains reach down to the sea with only a narrow path between mountains and sea? Why couldn't the Persians go behind the mountains, to the landward side (Northern Greece had Medized)?

Answer
The Phocaeans: 2100-146 BCE and the Medio-Achaemenids: 550-330 BCE fought in the Graeco-Persian Wars from 500-479 BCE which consisted of the hoplomachies of: Marathon: 490 BCE, Thermopylae: 480 BCE, Artemisium: 480 BCE, Poliorcetics of Athens: 480 BCE, Salamis: 480 BCE, Plataea: 479 BCE, and Mycale: 479 BCE. The Phocaeans had 350 triremes, pentekonters and juggernauts (ships) whilst the Medio-Achaemenids had about 1,000 ships. Whilst the Phocaeans had concentrated their forces at the decisive point in a defensive stance overlooking key confluences, junctures and interstices i.e. key capitols of the multitudinous peripherals and palatinates, the Medio-Achaemenids were widely dispersed. (A negation to the maxims and promulgations of Karl von Klausewitz) Thus, even though the Medio-Achaemenids sought maritime supremacy for the establishment of secure communication, logistics and mercantile trade of valuable commodities within the Aegean Sea, their forces were too gargantuan to be cohesive and there was no singular concentration of force. The Phocaeans who were mainly defensive utilized scorched earth policy and Fabian attrition (asymmetrical warfare). (This form of battle was to follow until the combined use of arms, specifically used by Gustavus II Adolphus in the three arms theory  consisting of horse: ilai or 225 phalanx, pike: Swedish Voulge, and shot: Harquebusiers). Specifically, in the battle of Thermopylae: 480 BCE, the reason the Medio-Achaemenids could not outflank the Phocaeans in the beginning was due to the Athenian posession of the Euboean strait and the Maliacos bay.

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Conrad Jalowski

Ancient/Classical History

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Conrad T. Jalowski

Expertise

The First Athenian Hegemony: 478-404 BCE, the Second Athenian Hegemony: 378-355 BCE, the Peloponnesian War: 431-404 BCE, the Theban Hegemony (Epaminondas): 371-362 BCE, Hellenistic History: 335-30 BCE, the Roman Principate: 27 BCE-235 CE, the Roman "Barracks Period": 235-284 CE, the Roman Dominate: 284-395 CE, the Gallic Empire: 260-274 CE, the Palmyrene Empire: 260-273 CE, the Britannic Empire: 286-297 CE, the Illyrian Emperors: 268-284 CE, the Occidental Roman Empire: 395-476 CE, the Oriental Roman Empire (Early Byzantine Period): 330-802 CE, the Byzantine Empire (Middle Byzantine Period): 802-1204 CE, the Byzantine Empire (Late Byzantine Period): 1204-1453 CE, the Carolingian Frankish Empire under Charlemagne: 768-814 CE

Experience

I am an assiduous student of Greek, Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine, Medieval and Italian Renaissance history with an in-depth comprehension of Platonic, Aristotelian, Hellenistic (Stoicism, Epicureanism, Skepticism and Cynicism) and Ciceronian philosophy. My passions in the fields of philosophy and history converge in late antique Mediterranean culture (200-650/750 CE). My area of greatest interest spans from the collapse of the Roman Principate in 235 CE and extends to the Mussulman invasions of the Mediterranean. Particular topics within the period of Late Antiquity include the Gallienic Renaissance and the cultivation of Neoplatonism (253-268), the Diocletianic Tetrarchy (293-313), the collapse of the Occidental Roman Empire (476 CE), the reigns of Maurice Tiberius (582-602) and Flavius Heraclius Augustus (610-641) and the Byzantine-Sassanid War (602-628).

Publications
-(The Molloy College Student Literary Magazine): A short analysis on Niccolo Machiavelli's republican treatise titled "Discourses on the First Decade of Titus Livy".

Education/Credentials
-(Molloy College Undergraduate Philosophy Conference) Despotism in Greek and Roman Political Theory: http://www.facebook.com/events/176699492365438/

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