“Beyond Glory and Guts: Unveiling the Untold Secrets of the Spartan 300”
Another relatively accurate thing was that although probably not a deformed person like in the movie, the traitor Ephialtes did exist and he informed the Persians of the pass that led behind the Greeks. The Persians were thus able to push through the natives who guarded it and successfully flanked the Greek forces.
Before they were flanked, however, Leonidas held a council where many of the Greeks wanted to disband and return to their homes. It is debated who left and who stayed at this point, but Leonidas seems to have disbanded most of the Greeks except for his own people who were comprised of the surviving among the original 300 Spartans, along with untold numbers of Dwellers-Around and Helots, 700 Thespians, and Theban hostages who were there against their will.
As for the Spartans’ decision not to retreat in the face of sure defeat, they had a very strict ethos about cowardice. If a Spartiate was branded a coward, he was essentially demoted to a type of pariah called a Trembler. So great was the fear of being branded a coward, that there are references to mothers beating their adult Spartiate sons to death for turning their backs on their comrades. Thus, Leonidas was probably holding to this ethos in his decision to send back the other Greeks but make his last stand with his fellow Spartans and support force who weren’t given a choice.
Ultimately, so vastly outnumbered, Leoniadas did indeed die during this battle, and the Greeks and Persians fought over his corpse several times before the battle was over. However, in the end, all the Laconians and Thespians died in the battle, while the Thebians begged Xerxes to recognize they were held as captives and their loyalty belonged to him, an act he also treated as a sham.
