⚔️ 300: After the Battle (480 BC) — Part 2 What remained after the Battle of Thermopylae? • Dawn over the Hot Gates (Thermopylae means “Hot Gates,” named for its sulfur springs): the pass littered with broken shields and fallen men. The Persians searched the silence that followed three days of resistance. Leonidas and his guard were gone — but their stand delayed Xerxes long enough for Greece to rally at Salamis and Plataea. ⚔️ Immediate Aftermath (According to Herodotus, Histories 7.238–239): • After Leonidas and the remaining Greeks fell, Xerxes ordered the pass cleared of bodies except for the Persian dead, which were buried or hidden to disguise his losses before showing the field to visiting allies. Leonidas’ body was found and beheaded on Xerxes’ orders — a rare act of disrespect in Greek eyes. The Persians then advanced south, burning the cities of Phocis and Boeotia on their march toward Athens. The Spartan dead were later honored with a lion monument and inscriptions listing...