The Path Around

In Herodotus, the defence works for two days. Then a local man, Ephialtes, goes to the Persians expecting a reward and tells them about the Anopaea path — a mountain track that comes out behind the Greek position. The force sent along it comes on the Phocians posted to watch it at dawn; they fall back to a hilltop and are simply bypassed. Herodotus is clear that Leonidas then had warning and time, and that most of the allied contingents were dismissed or withdrew. He stayed, with the Spartans, the Thespians — who were not ordered to and did anyway — and the Thebans, whom Herodotus says he kept against their will. Whatever else Thermopylae is, the final day was a decision made with the outcome already known.