Battle of Thermopylae
 

A co-worker and I were discussing the upcoming film 300, and the conversation turned to the battle the movie is based on. I've been a bit of research and I can't find where it states how many soldiers the Persian army lost in the battle. Can anyone direct me to that information?

According to the book I have on The Battle of Salamis (there's a chapter about the battle of Thermopylae), the Persians lost 20,000 soldiers. The source is most likely Herodotus (Will see if I can find that in The Histories)

Yep, 20,000 according to Herodotus.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Thermopylae

I read up on that before I posted, but I must have missed that. Thank you.

I have to say reading up on this battle is absolutely facinating.

Remember that you aren't going to find anything that will give you a very accurate number of casualties. It was an overwhelming victory to be sure, but the numbers of dead Persians are almost certainly exaggerated.

Not sure if you read the comic book, but it's pretty good...and for the most part I don't like Frank Miller.

The movie got an excellent review on ign. I have been walking around the house kicking stuff yelling "THIS....IS......SPARTA!!!!!!!!!1!1!!!!!111one!"

Most historians seem to accept 20,000 as a reasonably accurate estimate, and I can't find anything that suggests it would be lower.

Oh ya??

Name em'

I got interested in this battle from John Ring's reference to it. Interesting stuff.

We can always ask him. :D

The Achaemenid leadership really fell apart after the reign of Cyrus the great. Darius and Xerxes just couldn't beat the Greeks.

Herodotus also puts the size of the Persian army, including support troops, at over five million which seems way too high. From what I've read I gather that Herodotus is considered the most reliable of an unreliable lot.

Yeah, modern scholars believe the number is more along the lines of 5,000 or so dead Persians. The problem with ancient sources is that many times the figures given are not accurate to give an increased aura to the victor.

Misinformation from war would, uhhhh, never, ever happen today.

I wonder how many people have a clue about the other 300. The ones that kicked Sparta's ass.

You might check out the History Channel site: they had an excellent 2-hour special on this back a year or two ago, and it would be worth tracking down the DVD.

Let me help you educate the people. . .

As epic as the response to the Persian's challenge of "We shall fire so many arrows it will blot out the sun!" - "Then we shall fight in the shade" is (even uttered by Colin Farrell) my favorite (apocryphal) Spartan story is when the Macedonians decided to invade Sparta. The Macedonian king sent the following message:

"If I enter Lacedaemon, I shall raze it."

The Spartan reply consisted of one word - eiper - "If"