Editing Battle of Thermopylae (section)

==Sources==
The primary source for the [[Graeco-Persian Wars]] is the Greek historian [[Herodotus]]. The [[Sicilians|Sicilian]] historian [[Diodorus Siculus]], writing in the 1st century BC in his ''[[Bibliotheca historica]]'', also provides an account of the Graeco-Persian wars, partially derived from the earlier Greek historian [[Ephorus]]. Diodorus is fairly consistent with Herodotus' writings.<ref>Diodorus [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Diod.+11.28 XI, 28–34] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200914181833/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Diod.+11.28 |date=14 September 2020}}</ref> These wars are also described in less detail by a number of other ancient historians including [[Plutarch]], [[Ctesias of Cnidus]], and are referred to by other authors, as by [[Aeschylus]] in ''[[The Persians]]''.{{cn|date=December 2024}}

Archaeological evidence, such as the [[Serpent Column]] (now in the [[Hippodrome of Constantinople]]), also supports some of Herodotus' specific reports.<ref>Note to Herodotus [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Hdt.+9.81 IX, 81] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200914180823/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Hdt.+9.81 |date=14 September 2020 }}</ref> George B. Grundy was the first modern historian to do a thorough topographical survey of Thermopylae, and led some modern writers (such as [[Sir Basil Henry Liddell Hart|Liddell Hart]]) to revise their views of certain aspects of the battle.<ref>''The Great Persian War and its Preliminaries; A Study of the Evidence, Literary and Topographical'', George B. Grundy, John Murray, Albemarle Street, London, 1901. [http://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/009789346] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150223035306/http://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/009789346|date=23 February 2015}}</ref><ref>Chapter II, ''Strategy'', Second Revised Edition, Frederick A. Praeger, New York, 1967</ref> Grundy also explored [[Plataea]] and wrote a treatise on that battle.<ref>''The Topography of the Battle of Plataea: The City of Plataea, the Field of Leuctra'', G.B.Grundy [http://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/000665049] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150223034440/http://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/000665049|date=23 February 2015}}</ref>

On the Battle of Thermopylae itself, two principal sources, Herodotus' and [[Simonides]]' accounts, survive.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Cartledge |first1=Paul |title=Thermopylae : the battle that changed the world |date=2007 |publisher=Pan |location=London |isbn=9780330419185 |page=215 |edition=1. pbk.}}</ref> Herodotus' account in Book VII of his ''Histories'' is such an important source that [[Paul Cartledge]] wrote: "we either write a history of Thermopylae with [Herodotus], or not at all".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Cartledge |first1=Paul |title=Thermopylae : the battle that changed the world |date=2007 |publisher=Pan |location=London |isbn=9780330419185 |page=224 |edition=1. pbk.}}</ref> Also surviving is an epitome of the account of Ctesias, by the eighth-century Byzantine [[Photios I of Constantinople|Photios]], though this is "almost worse than useless",<ref>{{cite book |last1=Cartledge |first1=Paul |title=Thermopylae : the battle that changed the world |date=2007 |publisher=Pan |location=London |isbn=9780330419185 |page=231 |edition=1. pbk.}}</ref> missing key events in the battle such as the betrayal of [[Ephialtes of Trachis|Ephialtes]], and the account of Diodorus Siculus in his ''Universal History''. Diodorus' account seems to have been based on that of Ephorus and contains one significant deviation from Herodotus' account: a supposed night attack against the Persian camp, of which modern scholars have tended to be skeptical.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Bradford |first1=Ernle |title=Thermopylae : the battle for the West |date=2004 |publisher=Da Capo Press |location=New York |isbn=9780306813603 |page=137 |edition=1st Da Capo Press pbk.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Cartledge |first1=Paul |title=Thermopylae : the battle that changed the world |date=2007 |publisher=Pan |location=London |isbn=9780330419185 |page=146 |edition=1. pbk.}}</ref>