Battle of Thermopylae all Greek soldiers in the second Persian invasion. It is sometimes stated that Thermopylae was a Pyrrhic victory for the Persians (i.e., one in which the victor is as damaged by the battle as the defeated party). However, there is no suggestion by Herodotus that the effect on the Persian forces was that. The idea ignores the fact that the Persians would, in the aftermath of Thermopylae, conquer the majority of Greece, and the fact that they were still fighting in Greece a year later. Alternatively, the argument is sometimes advanced that the last stand at Thermopylae was a successful
Paeonius 420 BC; a few years after the Athenian allies defeated the Spartans at the Battle of Sphacteria in 425 BC. The inscription reads that it was “dedicated by the Messenians and Naupaktians as a tithe of the spoils of their enemies. The Messenians and Naupaktians, allies of the Athenians, are careful not to mention “their enemies,” the Spartans, by name. Pausanias, a travel writer in the 2nd century AD, wrote, “But the Messenians themselves say that the offering is a trophy of the battle in which they fought on the Athenian side in the island of Sphacteria and that they