Here's the thing about the Battle of Thermopylae — the most famous last stand in history. It wasn't lost on the battlefield. Three hundred Spartans and a few thousand Greek allies held a narrow coastal pass against the entire Persian Empire, and the Persians couldn't break through. What ended it wasn't a better army. It was one man, a local named Ephialtes, who knew a secret path through the mountains.
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Ghosts & Curses·1/3·1′
The place
Thermopylae - The Hot Gates
The Betrayal of Ephialtes
The man who sold Greece for Persian gold
480 BCEThermopylae - The Hot Gates
Moral of the Story
“Betrayal is the most destructive force in war — more deadly than any army. One man's treachery undid what 300 Spartans' courage had achieved.”
Characters
E
Ephialtes of TrachisX
XerxesT
The Persian ImmortalsT
The Phocian guardK
King LeonidasSource
Herodotus's Histories (Book 7, chapters 213-218), Plutarch's Moralia