Truls Ljungström’s Reviews > Beyond the Gates of Fire: New Perspectives on the Battle of Thermopylae > Status Update

The inadequacy of the Persian rations to meet the daily requirements of the individuals engaged in combat for a protracted period of time, and their inability to supply more food to their men due to the Greek strategy, would have greatly affected each man’s level of performance in battle.

Användandandet av den persiska arméns storlek mot dn - logistikfrågan.

What could a holding action, conducted in so narrow a pass and by an army with superior armament but inferior numbers, have hoped to accomplish? Two of the objectives are clearly detailed in the ancient sources: to prevent the Persians from advancing further into Greece, and to hold the Persian army in place until the remainder of the greek army arrived.

There is also the elite hippeis (ἱππεῖς) contingent within the Spartan army to consider. Both Xenophon and Plutarch recount how the three best men ‘in the prime of their life’ were chosen by the ephors to each command one contingent of the hippeis. These three chosen commanders each ‘selected’ 100 men to form their respective unit of hippeis

However, one benefit of the selection of such men is that they would all be somewhat older than those who had no children; constituting the selection of the 300 most experienced hoplites of the Spartan army for the most difficult of assignments (hence Nepos’ reference to them as picked men.

If the stated time of meeting for the Spartan ecclesia is correct, this then has important consequences for the examination of the chronology of the events leading up to the battle of Thermopylae.

Interestingly, the scholia on a passage of Thucydides’ History (Schol. Ad Thuc. 1.67), states that it was the Spartan custom for the citizen assembly (the ecclesia) to meet on the full moon of every month (εἰωθỏѵτα λἑγει ξúλλoγoѵ, ὄτι ἐѵ nαѵαελήѵψ ἐγíγετo ἀἑί). It was this assembly that met to discuss issues pertaining to war and the mobilization of troops.