Thermopylae

Thermopylae (Greek, “Hot Gates”), pass in ancient Greece, southeast of Lamiá, between Mount Oeta and the Malian Gulf and leading from Thessaly (Thessalia) into Locris. The name of the pass is taken from hot sulfur springs in the vicinity. Thermopylae was the main route by which an invading army could penetrate from the north into southern Greece. In ancient times it was a narrow track about 15 m (about 50 ft) wide passing under a cliff, but alluvial deposits have so altered the coastline that it is now a broad swampy plain from 2.4 to 4.8 km (1.5 to 3 mi) wide. During the Persian Wars, Thermopylae won eternal fame as the scene of the heroic death of Leonidas I and his 1400 men, 300 of whom were Spartans, in their attempt to stem the tide of Persian invasion in 480 bc. The Greeks were betrayed by Ephialtes, a Thessalian, into the hands of the Persians, who, by following a path over the mountain, attacked the Greeks from the rear. The Battle of Thermopylae was recorded by the Greek historian Herodotus in his History. Again, in 191 bc, the Seleucid king Antiochus III (the Great) was defeated while attempting to check the Romans at this point.