The historical site of Thermopylae became a battlefield not only in the famous conflict of 480 BC. but several more times in history, with the last one in 1941. However, the battle of Thermopylae in 279 BC is of particular importance. when again the allied Greeks saved the homeland from the invading barbarians. Having passed through Macedonia, the Gallic barbarian tribes of Brennos invaded southern Greece. According to Pausanias, Vrennos had 152,000 foot soldiers, 20,400 horsemen and 40,800 mounted followers. Of course contemporaries, mainly foreigners, historians, question these numbers and lower, arbitrarily, the number of men of Brenno.
Against this huge crowd, the Greeks arrayed the following forces:10,000 infantry and 500 cavalry Boeotians under Kifisodotus, Thearidas, Diogenes and Lysander, 3,000 infantry and 500 cavalry Phocians under Critobulus and Antiochus, 700 Locrian infantry, 400 hoplites Megarian , under Hipponicus and the entire Aetolian army – about 7,790 men on foot and an unknown number of cavalry – under Polyarchos, Polyphron and Lacrates. Finally, the Athenians participated with their fleet and with a corps of 1,000 infantry and 500 cavalry, under the general Callipus who took over the general command, while there were also 500 Macedonians and 500 sent by the Seleucid king Antiochus.
The conflict at Thermopylae
The Greeks sent all their cavalry and 1,000 lightly armed squires to cover the crossing of the Sperchios River to delay the Barbarians. However, Brennus sent 10,000 of his men against these few Greeks forcing them to retreat to the site of Thermopylae. Vrennos then obliged the inhabitants of the area to rebuild the bridges that the Greeks had destroyed and through them his army crossed the Sperchios in its entirety. The Gauls, after plundering the area and killing all the Greeks they found in front of them, moved towards the city of Heraklia, which they did not take.
The next day the Gauls arrived before the allied Greeks at the sacred site of Thermopylae and immediately attacked with fanaticism, but unorganized, uttering terrible war cries. The Greeks were waiting for them in phalanx formation, in absolute silence. The Greek minions supported the heavily armed by throwing bows and slings at the enemy crowd and throwing javelins. The cavalry of both opponents did not fight because of the terrain, as Pausanias mentions in his Phocians.
The Gauls were inferior in armament to the Greeks as their shields did not provide them with sufficient protection, nor the possibility of coalition, but they fought fanatically, first throwing javelins and then charging with their long swords . They fought fanatically, going so far as to remove from their bodies the arrows and javelins that had pierced them and throw them back at the Greeks.
In the meantime the Athenian ships had come as close as they could to the shore, and their passengers were attacking the Gauls with every available weapon. After a series of savage attacks that cost them rivers of blood, the Gauls were forced to retreat before the overwhelming power of the Greek phalanx. They even retreated so disorderly that many were trampled by their fellow warriors and met a horrible end. Others fell into the surrounding marshes and also perished. Among the Greeks, the Athenians were the most distinguished. The bravest of all was the young Kydias who fell heroically fighting. Along with Kydias, only 39 other Greeks were killed against thousands of barbarians. The exact losses of the Gauls could not be ascertained, however.
Blood-sucking barbarians
Seven days after the battle, a Galatian division attempted to climb Mount Oitis but was repulsed by the Greeks under Telesarchus, who fell in battle. Faced with the deadlock, Brennus sent a corps of 40,000 men under Orestorius and Kombuti which he ordered to attack the land of the Aetolians so that they would be forced to retreat from Thermopylae weakening the Greek forces.
The Gauls, real barbarians, occupied the small city of Callion . What crimes they committed there cannot be uttered by human language. According to Pausanias, the barbarians killed all the males, even the infants. The women, as many as they could, committed suicide. The others died horribly after being rushed in every possible way. Pausanias mentions that the Gauls drank the blood of children and molested even dead or dying women.
After that the Aetolians actually retreated from Thermopylae and after gathering even the old men, women and children attacked the barbarians at the place "Kokkalia" (Paleochori of Tymphristos) and destroyed them. More than 20,000 Gauls were cut to pieces by the revenge-hungry Greeks. The rest of the humiliated barbarians joined the forces of Brennus.
In the meantime, Vrenos was informed of the existence of the path through which the Persians also passed in 480 BC. and moved to encircle the Greeks at Thermopylae. The Phocaeans who were again guarding the pass fought heroically, but could not hold back the multitude of the enemy, so they retreated down, alerting the other Greeks at Thermopylae. Thus the allied Greek army boarded the ships of the Athenians and departed safely, without loss.
The Gauls of Brennos then continued their march towards Delphi with the aim of looting the sanctuary. There, however, the Gauls suffered a terrible disaster from the Phocaeans who, led by the brave Aleximachus, who fell fighting, having spread a layer of dead Gauls around him, exterminated them, after maneuvering and finding themselves in the rear of the panic-stricken Gauls. When night fell, the Greeks launched a new attack, resulting in absolute panic in the Galatian army. The Barbarians, in the darkness, began to slaughter each other. Later, the Athenians and the Boeotians rushed to the aid of the Phocians. The Gauls perished. Pausanias describes various "divine phenomena" that occurred in Delphi.
Pausanias mentions that 36,000 barbarians perished in Phocis. In the meantime, the Aetolians, after their victory at Kokkalia, had attacked the Gallic division, under Akichorius, which was in the area of Thermopylae.
After so many blows the Gauls fled in general, and their leader Vrennos committed suicide . Pursued by the Aetolians, but also by the Thessalians and the Malians, the Gauls suffered a new disaster. Few barbarians escaped.