“Beyond Glory and Guts: Unveiling the Untold Secrets of the Spartan 300”
Given the power structure among the Spartans, it should come as no surprise that it was Spartan foreign policy to depose these tyrants and democratic reformers in order to return power to the aristocracy of foreign city-states. This happened in Athens in 507 when Sparta attempted to remove the reformer Cleisthenes. On this one, however, the people successfully forced the Spartans away.
Nevertheless, for the purpose of Xerxes’ invasion, Spartan foreign policy in these matters around this time in support of other aristocratic leaders meant that it was relatively easy to organize a force against the Persians under Spartan leadership, although the Spartans’ track record did isolate some rivals and neighbors such as the Argives. Other city-states were either allied with the Persians or were busy with other conflicts around Italy and Carthage.
The allies that ultimately did band together formed a league of sorts historians call the Hellenic League, but it was by no means a unified Greece, and even amongst themselves they had a bit of trouble getting on the same page about where to allocate their resources and where to stand their ground, owing to the league city-states being spread across very different parts of Greece. In short, not all points could be easily defended and so nobody wanted to send the bulks of their armies too far from their respective homes.
Further, leading up to Thermopylae, under Sparta, the league already lost a fight when Xerxes’ army entered Thessaly in 480. So everybody was being a bit cautious.
