[Music] ancient Greece is under attack from a vast invading Army just a small Force blocks its path but these are no ordinary soldiers they are bred for fighting trained to endure pain to kill or be killed these are the Spartan 300 the Spartans were without doubt the elite troops of their age Advance they attack in close formation they moved relentlessly like a tank at the enemy it's a killing machine it was a bit like being fed face first into a Mina this is the true story of the Spartan 300's toughest mission to save Greece from
the might of the Persian Empire [Music] the Persian Empire the largest the ancient world has ever known now has the free city states of Greece in its sights Athens the birthplace of democracy is about to be overwhelmed by the Persian hords only a small force of Warriors stands in their way the resolve of these men to fight knowing they were likely to die is just incredible led by their 60-year-old King it's the toughest Vision they've ever faced they were willing to lay down their lives for the motherland a dawn a Persian Scout is sent to
spy on these men he finds them oiling their hair and combing it out to the Persians it looks [Music] ridiculous they're womanish look at the way they're I'm worrying about their hair what the Persians don't know is that grooming is how these men prepare for battle they are Spartans this means they're the most masculine in the most um virile of All Greek [Music] warriors the Spy brings news of these girlish soldiers to his Emperor Xerxes he can't believe that these effeminate men are a threat Xerxes demands that they surrender they've got absolutely no chance give
up what's this all about guys and um lay down your arms but that's the one thing Spartans never do Spartan law dictated that a warrior on the battlefield had only two options that was Victory or death [Music] these Spartan warriors come from a rugged mountainous region Sparta is the only Greek state with a full-time professional army they are on a permanent War footing they were trained for war the state was geared for war and that's all the Spartans knew [Music] you Sparta's militarist regime starts at Birth every baby boy is handed over for a ruthless
selection if they showed any signs of weakness while the Spartans weren't squeamish about taking that child off to a pit outside spot outside the actual living space and throwing them in a pit where these children these babies these infants were Bound to Die those young children who are chosen to survive begin a lifetime of tough training starting when they are just 7 years [Music] old if two boys are fighting and one of them shows a sign of weakness it wasn't the young boy who got punished for crying out and breaking the code but it was
his older [Music] [Applause] Mentor there no soft life for a young boy in Sparta whatever the weather they go everywhere Barefoot to harden their feet the system was designed to instill obedience endurance resilience and everything else that the Spartan warrior would need on [Applause] campaign these Spartan qualities are very familiar to Today's Special Forces Ken Jones is a former soldier in Britain's Elite SAS like the Spartan youths he has been trained to push through the pain [Music] barrier I draw upon her a deep sense of Pride to keep going and to push myself and you
know uh Pride at my soldiering ability and uh uh I try and draw strength from all the training I've done and past experiences I just film ah head with all these maxims like pain is temporary and you know it's just weakness leaving the body and you just try and push yourself [Music] on it's this resilience that they are brought up with to endure pain in all of its forms whether physical and psychological that make the Spartan some of the best warriors in in the ancient [Music] world catching their own food is a core part of
Spartan training the boys have to become self-sufficient relying on their survival skills this self-reliance means that they are an army that can exist in the field where others would want to withdraw today's Elite forces are still put through survival training very similar to the Spartans soldiers are basically they're self- sustained for one week where they can only eat what they can catch rabbits pheasants or whatever Pig bearers or any food they can forage or steal if you fail this test in the SAS you could be out if a Spartan fails he could starve to death
basically they don't feed these boys enough food consequently the boys have to improvise they've got to be prepared to steal if you got caught stealing you were punished not because you were a thief but because you were a bad one and you actually got caught and this promoted the sort of scaming abilities that were needed by the ancient warriors on campaign the idea of not getting caught is reinforced in a brutal ritual held every year the Spartans head a festival which roughly sort of translates as the steel the cheese festival hungry young Spartans have to
grab hunks of cheese laid out on rocks the boys are encouraged to try and steal them to save their hunger at the same time though there are burly chaps with whips and and cels who are waiting to deter these chees thieves it teaches them stealth and skills of approach skills which are going to serve them well when they're facing an enemy the aim is to condition them for the brutality of [Applause] battle if the Spartan boys can learn to ignore pain then they can stand firm in the battle line and they can stand firm even
when they're wounded and carry on fighting [Music] resilience fighting through pain without fear Supreme Fitness this is the stuff which marks out Special Forces Through the Ages from the Spartans to the Navy Seals it's a direct line when you come out of training as a seal you're probably in the best shape of your life you're really like a world class athlete who's a warrior first and foremost the guys are extremely fit their mindset the combat mindset is unbreakable after 11 years intensive training a Spartan recruit is ready to graduate at 18 years old he is
issued with the armor and trappings of a Spartan warrior his most precious possession is the large heavy Shield so important to Spartan soldiers it is drilled into them before every battle die rather than lose it the mother says to the son come back with this Shield or on it in other words come back carrying your shield in Victory or being carried on it dead these new recruits are joining the finest military force in Greece it has a ferocious reputation they were terrifying quite often armies would see them and melt away Spartans marched to the fry
very deliberately they moved relentlessly like a tank at the enemy and all this contributes to the notion of um terrorizing the enemy before the fightings even started [Music] joining the Army is only the first stage every year the most fearsome Warriors are selected to join the elite Spartan Special Forces the [Music] [Applause] 300 but even within this Elite there is a more select group the best of the best known as the crypta or secret operations Force these guys are the Elite of the elite within the Spartan military [Music] system just as in the US Navy
Seals SEAL Team Six is the elite tasked with the toughest missions you know some people say SEAL Team Six are the best of the best when it comes to Close Quarters battle there's probably nobody better on the planet all they do is close Court as battle discover the past with exclusive ancient history documentaries and AdFree podcasts presented by world-renowned historians from history hit watch them on your smart TV or on the go with your mobile device download the app now to explore everything from the wonders of Pompei to the rebellion of buddika and the mysteries
of prehistoric Scotland immerse yourself in the captivating stories of this remarkable era by signing up via the link in the [Music] description to join the secret Force of the crypta the Spartan yous have to carry out their own vicious initiation [Music] Mission they are ordered to kill a member of the Spartan servant class the helops who do all the manual labor in Sparta it's state sanctioned murder it basically allows the state to use the helit almost as a training tool for the more Elite members of the Spartan [Music] military for a wouldbe member of the
crypta concealment is crucial if he gets caught he fails some things have remained constant throughout the ages and camouflage and consum is an essential element of War craft and uh and uh uh know survival in the battlefield for the crypte this is a right of passage designed to prove they can kill an enemy in Cold Blood they can demonstrate their skills and their press but more importantly demonstrate their commitment to the state are they ready to take life lives in the name of [Music] Sparta today's Elite forces are still trained to be ruthless to switch
off any sympathy for the Target you detach any sort of human association with them fact that they've got a family and they're you know a living breathing person you see it as as a distinct Target and uh you know it becomes easier to OB by it and to kill it but modern Warriors have it easy with a rifle or pistol they can kill at arms length the young Spartan just has a knife it would have been very difficult to get one stab and then slip away so he would need speed aggression and surprise the SAS
Acron he need to have physical force behind him to try and Flor whoever is is assailing it would have been extremely aggressive violent motion to kill without flinching to face death without fear it's what makes a member of the elite Spartan krypteia many of these men would be among the 300 Spartans preparing to take on the Persian army the massive Force invading Greece is led by the Persian Emperor himself for Xerxes the great this is personal just 10 years before his father's troops were humiliated by the Greeks now Xerxes Wants Revenge there was a combined
land and the invasion of Mainland Greece to actually subordinate the entire Greek Peninsula the mainland and incorporate it as a new province of the Persian [Music] Empire it's a major crisis for the Greek States they don't have the troops in place to confront the Persians the Greek summon a council they desperately need time to assemble their [Music] forces they turn to the Spartan King leonardus the commander of the only professional force in Greece eventually the council comes up with a plan they decide to use the size of the Persian army against itself by keeping it
in the field as long as possible the massive Persian host would quickly run out of supplies and resources it would literally strip the region bare of everything it needed to survive water food forage and so on and this would place them in quite a [Music] predicament the key to leonidas's plan is finding a location he can hold somewhere the Persians can't bring the weight of their numbers to Bear the place he selects is a natural choke point between Mount Cadron and the Sea known as theropo or hot Gates because of the thermal Springs nearby here
the only Road South now Narrows to a path just 20 M wide along the [Music] beach it's an ideal position to [Music] defend it would fannel the Persian troops onto the Greek formation this greatly favored the Greek fighting style which was designed for frontal face-to-face hand-to-hand combat what they didn't want was a position that could be outflanked where they could be hit from all sides to carry out this vital Mission King leonardus chooses to lead personally his Elite Force the Spartan 300 supporting his highly trained Warriors is a reserve of several thousand Greeks but it's
the 300 Spartans who will hold the front line and the key to their defense will be the Spartans most feared fighting formation known as the fanks a defensive Shield wall bristling with Spears this is a unit that can stand an awful lot of punishment being thrown at it but also is a killing machine it's a unit that can destroy enemy formations that it's sent against listen in modern officer Cadets test out the Spartan tactics with weapons expert John Naylor what gives a man the confidence to stand against the enemy in the first place is this
thing a large D wooden Shield it protects 2/3 of the target area so as a warrior he's got the confidence to fight where the Spartans win is with their discipline together they form a mobile wall of shields the strength of the fank lies in meshing together the force of individual Warriors gentlemen he's no longer a simple individual Warrior he's part of a fighting machine a machine where all the cogs work in unison where the men are not only protecting themselves but they're protecting the men either side of them as [Music] well if the shields are
the defense it is the spears which do the killing sp's primary weapon is this spear it's got an extensive reach so much so that even the second rank can still engage and deliver a killing blow under the heat of the August sun in the narrowest part of the pass at theropo line after line of Spartans form up their phalance is something from 35 men wide and eight or nine deep as they wait for the Persian attack they will be feeling the same surge of emotion that today's soldiers feel before going into action any solders going
to feel an extreme Rush of adrenaline a highly charged State and an injection of pure fear as as [Music] well it's going to be a culmination of many absolutely extreme emotions they be willing to die for a cause or of their very survival of their [Music] race as the Persians approach there was just time for King leonardus to remind his men of their Duty as Spartans this again shows just how fit these Spartans are that a king of 60 can still be out there leading his troops in the field the Persians launch their attack wave
after wave of infantry Storm Into The Narrow Path xerx is sent in first not his absolutely crack infantry troops but the second division as it were I mean not far below but below the absolutely tops it's thousands against 300 the Persians expect an easy [Music] victory at the spart stand [Applause] firm for the spots it's like a training exercise these guys are lining up to be killed because here's one and a half Spears aimed at every single Persian and the Persian might deflect one and that's where the canny switched on spoton just to the side
that spear licks in and that's another [Applause] kill the style of combat that the fanks engages in is some of the most brutal seen in any age most of your opponents are less than 2 m from you you'd be able to hear the screams of those that you attack you would feel the weapon impacts as they penetrated into an enemy's body it was a bit like being fed face first into a before you know it the Persians are fighting in pools of blood over the bodies of their fallen comrades they haven't even got stable footing
to attack from it's a Killing Zone and it just becomes a mechanical Slaughter rather than [Music] Warfare by the end of the first day the Spartans have slaughtered thousands of Persians and sustained only minor losses themselves leonodus and his men are confident they can hold on for the freedom of the Greek States every day [Music] counts but then leonidus hears some troubling news there is a secret part path across the mountains above theop if the Persians find this track they could sneak round the Spartan defensive line and attack them from behind leonardus needs his own
men at the front so he dispatches a reserve force of local Greeks Theon has sent a contingent of Greeks from the city of focus to hold the pass against the eventuality of the Persians coming around behind him the next morning the Persian Emperor orders fresh troops to prepare to attack and these are not ordinary soldiers these are his best men xeres ends up with only one choice he's got to commit his own elite special forces to try and counter the Spartans in this case it's the Immortals these are seriously good Fighters and they are the
the elite they are the crack troops of the enemy they were called The Immortals because they were 10,000 in number and whenever a member of this contingent died he was immediately replaced so that there was always 10,000 of them again the odds are high 10,000 against the Spartan 300 but the Immortals reputation doesn't worry the Spartans they welcome the new challenge this was their chance to prove to the Greek world and the Persians exactly what the Spartans were capable [Applause] of funneled into the narrow pass even the Immortals cannot shatter the Spartan [Applause] [Music] [Applause]
Defense the majority of the Persian Spears are less than 2 me long and they're lighter when you faced with the Spartan 2 and 1/2 M long spear you simply can't get by this wall of spear [Music] [Applause] points this is close quars combat at its most brutal the Persians were losing about one man every 3 to 4 seconds during the actual combat phases of the engagement but the battle takes its toll on the Spartans as well combat is always horrific the pressures on the body are immense your mouth becomes dry your heart's thumping the acid
build up in your muscles most people can only fight for a few minutes at a time before they need to take a [Music] breather thop in August is like a furnace reaching temperatures up to 40° [Music] Centigrade for the Spartans it's a long hot day of fighting a test even for their stamina marshalling his scarce resources in these harsh conditions is the biggest challenge for King leonardus you have him as the overall leader of the Greek army looking at which contingents come forward to fight at which time which ones go back to rest he would
also have overall command of logistics and everything else to do with the defense water is one of his top priorities fighting in full armor in the intense August heat his men need some 10 lers a day leonus have been clever he positioned his defensive Force just in advance of the main spring line for water prepare to advance [Music] advance the Spartans are so well drilled they control the battlefield they can carry out highly disciplined Maneuvers like figing a retreat there is a large amount of bodies piling up in front of the Spartans so what the
Spartans do is they Retreat back a small distance prepare to retire retire this means that the Persians who are advancing have to climb over the piles of their own dead disrupting their own formation and then down onto a small now level area of Battlefield where the Spartans can engage them again in hand-to-hand fighting the Spartans falling back can instantly reform that Shield wall that wall of metal and senu and muscle and wood a solid object for the enemy to hit against and then simply kill a few more for the Immortals it's a daunting sight as
they head towards the front line this is not the place where you're going to win this is the place you're going to die for the whole day the two Elite forces Clash neither prepared to give way but as the sun sets on theropo thousands more Persians are dead after 2 days of fighting the Spartans still hold the pass they just need to keep their discipline and their nerve but that night catastrophe strikes Xerxes is approached by a local Greek Who belongs to a people which has not joined the resistance and as often in Greece neighbors
don't get on well the Greek traitor reveals the secret path over the mountains if the Persians can sneak along the coast they will have the Spartans surrounded by [Music] Daybreak in the narrow path of thop leonardus and his Spartan warriors are exhausted but proud they have withstood the Persian threat for two long days but they have no idea of the new danger looming on the mountain above [Music] them that night the Immortals begin their climb up to the ridge above the Spartan position night missions are almost unheard of in Ancient Warfare due to the amount
of confusion that the darkness con cause and this shows just how desperate Xerxes is getting to push these Greeks out of the thop pass and how effective their holding strategy is actually working the immortal's plan is to outflank the Spartans and launch an attack from behind them at first [Music] light leonardus thinks he has this route covered but the Greeks he's placed up on the mountain are not Spartans they are part- timers no match for the Immortals the Persians start to descend down behind the Greek position Runners from the Greeks holding the path also race
ahead to inform Leonidas and the rest of the Greeks that they are about to be encircled this changes the entire Mission Leon received the worst possible news he was about to be outflanked his position would be [Music] engulfed but Spartans never give up leonodus has sworn to hold back the Persians as long as possible and that is what he's going to do on the one hand he couldn't easily simply flee because flight is not in the Spartans military vocabulary so he's got to stay and he's got to make the most of the way in which
he [Music] stays leonardus realizes he cannot win in open battle it's now so one version of The Story Goes that leonidus turns to men of the crypta the Spartan secret operations [Music] Force the plan is to decapitate the Persian army by killing the emperor Xerxes was he simply going out in a blaze of glory was he trying to kill Xerxes an attempt to as it were cut the head off the snake in the hope that the rest of the Persian army would wither away and March back to Persia if you can eliminate the command and
control mechanisms you eliminate the cohesiveness of the [Music] army this will be a mission very familiar to Today's Special Forces leonardus is ordering a nighttime assault Behind Enemy Lines with a specific Target to take out to operate at night you need to be fully alert and focused on all of your senses and your six sense as well so you can be more focused on your surroundings but also more aware of uh your own movements and actions from their base on the beach the Spartan's most obvious route to the Persian Camp is along the shoreline you've
always got the element of surprise especially attacking at night and that brings with it a surge of confidence in your ability to get the task done the first problem the Spartans face is how to infiltrate the outer lines of [Music] Defense Reflections in the Moonlight could betray them so they wrap up their polished iron [Music] swords this form of combat is is exactly what the crypta taught the young Spartans as they came up through their educational system the Persian guards are not expecting any trouble because night missions are so unusual to carry out a nighttime
raid on an enemy camp or position your adrenaline's absolutely [Music] surging the aim is to get to xery's tent which would be very conspicuous because he brought his Caravan he brought his slaves his women his you know that's how Persian kings did it the Spartans now prepare their weapons they unwrap their dreaded Copus a vicious hacking sword its short thick blade can cause horrific injuries first they have a Sentry to take out it has to be done with a different weapon silently in classic crypta style with a knife they done this sort of thing as
16 17 18 year old [Music] boys this idea of specific strikes at a single Target the Spartan KN Raiders now approach the main Persian camp they have to find the heavily guarded Emperor and kill him they would be most likely using their swords to hack down any Persian that got in their way as they tried to reach Xerxes it isn't clear what happened next but the Persian Emperor survives when Dawn breaks all the remaining Spartans can do is make a final heroic stand but now the Persians can attack them from both sides the phalance is
basically useless it can't take on two directions at once so the Spartans pull back to a small hill to defend themselves prepare to retire retire by this stage many of the Greek Spears are broken so the Spartans and the other Greeks resort to anything they can get their hands on Stand Out ease when the fance breaks up when the unit cohesion has gone that's when you need a weapon to get up close and [Music] [Applause] personal fighting with their deadly short swords even with broken Spears the Spartans Won't Give [Music] [Applause] Up finally having now
lost some 20,000 men the Persian Emperor decides to finish off the Spartans at a safe distance he calls in his archers even this doesn't Dawn the Spartans someone says you know the Persians have so many archers that when they release their arrows it will blot out the sun to which de we're actually given the name of the Spartan says great we'll have our battle in the shade when you can shoot enough arrows to blot out the sun okay the Spartans fighting the shade but those arrows are going to ultimately find their Mar [Applause] Mark staring
death in the face the Spartans fight [Applause] on leonardus is fatally wounded the last of the 300 fall around him but the Spartans sacrifice is not in [Music] vain what the defense at thop did was it bought the Greeks more time more time to assemble their army more time to prepare themselves for the eventual invasion of Southern Greece by the Persian host within a year xerx Imperial force is defeated both on land and at Sea Sparta and its Greek allies remain free The Fearless reputation of the Spartan Special Forces was forged at theropo their epit
recalls their heroic stand go tell the Spartans stranger passing by that here obedient to their laws we [Music] lie [Music]
