Why were barbarians so mentally retarded at holding a line against

better technology, natch

>>2592890
The perfectly chiseled and oiled abs of the Spartans reflected the sun's rays back at the eyes of the Persian frontline and blinded them to attacks.

>>2592911
But they fought in the shade?

>>2592890
Terrain was favourable to the Spartans, and the Persians understimated the strength of the Spartans.

>>2592924
>>2592911
:)

>>2592911
I want to believe this is really how it went down

IRL there were ~10000 Greeks and a frontal group of ~50000 Persians with ~50000 stretched over the supply lines due to lack of water.

The Greeks city states were part of a trade network that could support the specialized heavy infantry hoplites who would guard strategic points. By contrast Persia was enormous and relatively lightly populated, even along the Mediterranean. The Persians themselves descended from steppe peoples whose focus is cavalry and maneuver, an advantage they lacked here obv. Centuries later Roman heavy infantry would be surrounded by Parthian cavalry and peppered with arrows, unable to engage.

The Spartans went the extra mile in training and indoctrination, but the Persians and other Greeks would have also been trained from a young age and unironically believe in the afterlife and that the Gods were watching.

Thermopylae was a perfect storm in favor of the Greeks and there is a bit of survivor bias in our perceptions of it. It may have been glorified exactly because it demonstrates the military advantage of the Greeks which would be useful for propaganda to get citizens on board with a strategy.

>>2592890
Nah, they were just trained for Central Asian warfare involving mass envelopment. The terrain of Greece doesn't lend itself for that.

Related to that, they were lightly armored and vulnerable.

>>2593859
Of course it's how it went down.
>"The Lacedaemonians took time to prepare before battle, lathering their impressive pecs and midriffs with extra virgin olive oil from thefruit of Mother Gaia herself, shiny and godlike, they went to meet the Medes"-Herodotus

>>2594094
Ehm Take a zero away from that Greek number please, there were 10.000 greeks in the beginning, the last stand was done by 300 spartans and 700 poor locals who are always forgotten. Further analysis is great however, so I assume you accidentally added a zero

>>2594198
>700 poor locals who are always forgotten

THESPIANS YOU FUCKING MONG

>>2594198
True, on day 3 there were a little over 1000. My point is the Greeks weren't ridiculously outnumbered, not 300 super soldiers versus a million goons, more like the resources 2 different civilizations could reasonably draw up, each with their advantages/disadantages, neither unusually gifted/incompetent.

Persians were steppe niggers that couldn't utilize their strenght in using cavalry cause of the rocky coastal terrain.

They had no problem going up against hoplites during Cyrus conquest of the Lydian Empire. But then again, Cyrus wasn't a incompetent leader like Xerxes that thought he was playing war while thousands of people died for naught cause he had a hissy fit over "muh Marathon".

Because the Persians and other non-Euro cultures can produce fine warriors of their own as well as mounted archers (thanks to all that space), but Asian warfare was all about personal honor. It's about feats of strength and skill with trophies and spoils to bring back home. They cared little about saving a downed comrade-in-arms and lacked the kind of cohesion and discipline to fight in formation. Nor did they consider the annihilation of the enemy as their main intent.