leonidas · Chapter 2 of 4
The Carneia
A festival running · An advance guard · Men with living sons
They were not the army. They were the part of it that was allowed to leave.
The number everyone remembers is a scheduling artefact. Herodotus says the Spartans were in the middle of the Carneia, a religious festival that forbade marching out, and the Olympic festival fell at the same time, holding back the other allies too. So they sent an advance guard and intended the army to follow the moment the festival ended. Leonidas took three hundred picked men, all of them, Herodotus notes, with living sons. The allied force at the pass was several thousand; the Spartans were a fraction of it. The famous figure is not a boast about odds. It is what a state sends when its own rules will not let it send more yet.
- A festival running
- An advance guard
- Men with living sons
Unlocks in-game at Mastery 2.
