Leonidas Secret Enemy successes in his Murder Scheme The Persian army moved south through Greece on the eastern coast, along with the Persian navy moving parallel to the shore. Leonidas led a feeble army of 6,000 to 7,000 Greeks from many city-states, including 300 Spartans, in an attempt to prevent the Persians from passing through Thermopylae. Leonidas established his army at Thermopylae, expecting Persian army would go toward his own force. The Greeks withstood the determined attacks of their far more numerous enemies. Leonidas' plan worked well at first, but he did not know that there was a route over the mountains to the west of Thermopylae that would allow the enemy to get around his fortified position along the coast. This was told to the Persians by a local Greek who was said to be a good friend of Leonidas but secretly hated Leonidas for and tried to poison Leonidas a year ago but killed his brother instead. This “friend” led the Persian army across it, letting them surround the Greeks. Much of the Greek force gave up instead of fighting the Persian army. An army of Spartans remained to fight the Persians. Leonidas and the 300 Spartans were slaughtered by the Persians, along with most of their remaining allies. The Persians found and beheaded Leonidas' corpse to insult the Greeks and gave it to the Greek ally.
Xerxes Would`ve Thought ...
The Greek forces were led by Themistocles, who made strategy used for the battle against the Persians. During the battle, Xerxes watched his men fight the Greeks from a far. His navy outnumbered the Greek ships and he anticipated an easy win. Although the Greeks were greatly outnumbered by the Persian ships, they had certain advantage. They had great speed and knowledge on the waters and they also had a very successful battle