2500 Years of Battles
The pass of Thermopylae is best known for the doomed stand of King Leonidas and the 300 Spartans. Less known is that this was just one battle at that spot. Over a span of 2500 years at least 27 military actions were fought over that patch of ground.

The Killing Ground: A Biography of Thermopylae by Myke Cole and Michael Livingston recounts the known actions fought there, from the 6th century BC to World War II. It examines the terrain over which these battles were fought and what is known of each action.

They open the book with an exploring the battlefield and its geography, including its changes over 2500 years. Geography explains why that patch of Greece is so blood soaked. Thermopylae, along with the adjacent Oti Pass, are gateways to Central Greece and the Peloponnese beyond. Going north or south you must cross them. Hold both and you bar passage. The authors show the path is porous, with many passages. They spend time showing how flanking any one position is easy.

They next examine each battle’s details – to the extent possible. At times, especially in ancient an medieval dark ages, information is sparse. Sometimes the only account of the battle is a few lines in an obscure history stating a battle was fought there. Despite that they do a first-rate job explaining each action, showing what happened (or probably happened) in the likely battle and its results.

The books longest account is of the famous battle fought by Leonidas. It offers an explanation of why the battle was fought. They feel it was an accidental meeting action. Leonidas left the Oti Pass, the easier passage, completely uncovered.

They believe Leonidas was hiding at the Middle Gate of Thermopylae, waiting for the Persians to cross the Oti Pass. After they crossed, Leonidas intended to occupy the Oti Pass, cutting Persian communications, trapping the Persian Army between Leonidas’s men and a Greek army marching north.

Instead, the Persians followed the coastal path through Thermopylae, to maintain communications with their fleet. Leonidas had to fight there. He was trapped after the light forces he sent to guard his rear were brushed aside by heavy Persian infantry sent over the Kallidromo Mountain.

This is typical of the thoroughness with which the authors explore each battle. “The Killing Ground” is a magnificent and meticulous account of the military history of a storied piece of ground.

“The Killing Ground: A Biography of Thermopylae,” by Myke Cole and Michael Livingston, Osprey Publishing, February, 2024, 304 pages, $35.00 (Harcover), $24.50 (E-book), $18.00 (Audiobook)
This review was written by Mark Lardas, who writes at Ricochet as Seawriter. Mark Lardas, an engineer, freelance writer, historian, and model-maker, lives in League City, TX. His website is marklardas.com.

Pretty dry, but very informative about Thermopylae and the context around the Greeks and the Persians. A beginner would get a lot out of this!

I didn't love this one but I also didn't hate this one. However I'm not sure how I feel about this one.

A fascinating and well-researched book about the history of one of the most blood-soaked patches of land on the planet - Thermopylae. A site of many battles through the ages, but only one is firmly set in history - the incredible last stand of the 300 Spartans against a vast Syrian army.
Unfortunately, very little hard historical evidence is left for military historians to pore over. However, the author must be congratulated for the amount of investigative work that he has undertaken to support his theories about the strategy and tactics that were used by the various warring sides. Also his research into the ever-changing topography that has occurred over many centuries.
I recommend this book to any serious military historian or readers who are fascinated by the legends associated with Thermopylae.

Thermopylae and the Spartans is the quintessential "last stand" in history. However, did you know how many other battles and military actions occurred there? I certainly didn't. Thankfully, Myke Cole and Michael Livingston are here to remedy that with their book The Killing Ground.

I am a fan of Michael Livingston already and Myke Cole has a well received book on military history which is going on my to-read list. I had a general idea what to expect. The authors would fully survey the ground of Thermopylae, both now and in the past, and then lead the reader through each battle. There is plenty of mythbusting and very colorful stories of individual heroism and horrible planning. These parts are all wonderful.

The one issue I had with the book is almost unfair. The authors cover every single instance where Thermopylae is involved in combat. Unfortunately, (and they readily admit this) some of these episodes have almost no documentation. While I appreciate the thoroughness of the authors, these chapters slow down the narrative even with their best efforts to state what we do know and move on quickly. That said, this is still a very good book and should be appealing to anyone interested in the subject matter.

(This book was provided as an advance copy by Netgalley and Osprey Publishing.)

Utterly captivating! This meticulously researched work traces the history of Thermopylae - and the 27 battles that have taken place there over a 2500 year period, stretching from Leonidas and his army of 300 to more recent conflict in WWII.
It's written in a very accessible style that will appeal to a broad audience of readers, not simply historical scholars. The attention to detail is phenomenal.
My e-ARC didn't contain any images or maps, which readers of the published version will benefit from and likely pore over.
Highly recommended in an educational context since each of the 27 battles may be analysed separately.
Thoroughly recommended.
My thanks to Osprey Publishing and NetGalley for granting this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was a great biography, it introduces the topic in a great way and I enjoyed getting to go through this book. I never really thought a plot of land could be so interesting and bloody. Myke Cole and Michael Livingston write a great book and it was informative and enjoyed what I read

Who hasn't heard about the Battle of Thermopylae? At least in the West, it's the most famous battle in history, and you don't need to be familiar with Ancient Greece to know about it. Even if all you've ever known is 300 or the This is Sparta! memes, you must've heard about Thermopylae from somewhere.

And that is because it's been the battle for the last 2,500 years, from before Leonidas and his host faced the Persians up until the ANZACs faced the Wehrmacht there. Long, isn't it? An incredibly long time for one single place to have monopolised bloodshed in the West's long history. Of course, throughout history there's been grounds where bigger armies clashed, where more blood was spilt, and where the stakes were much higher, but none of them has the mythical aura that outlasts cultures and empires to become a permanent legend as the Hot Gates. Even now, Thermopylae is still a byword for a heroic last stand to save not just a country but an entire civilisation.

Being more of a Rome history girl, of course I knew there had been other battles at that mountainous pass besides the one forever immortalised in Western annals, including that Rome had to follow tradition and fight there (are you even a proper empire if you don't kick behinds or get yours kicked at Thermopylae anyway?). But besides the Roman involvement as well as feats by Phil & Son (that is, Macedonian kings Philip II and Great, Alexander the), I didn't imagine it had been this many! And it surprised me greatly. Twenty-seven is an absurdly high number for one single battleground, but that's what Cole & Livingston say is the number of military actions at Thermopylae.

They cover the two and a half millennia of diverse armies stubbornly standing at the Hot Gates to win or perish, which ordinarily would require a fatter book and far more information than this one packs. But since it's a history book for the general readership, summing all that daunting span of time is made easier by the authors' decision to split 2,500 years of battling there into manageable-length chapters that deal with all the known military actions, broadly defined as the authors clarify, from the First Battle of Thermopylae in an unknown year before Leonidas (whose famous last stand in 480 BC is the Second Battle of Thermopylae) to the Sixteenth Battle of Thermopylae in 1941, plus a few smaller actions that weren't battles proper but that are also taken into consideration as they were part of armed conflicts, up to 1943, when the last military action took place there and things calmed down over at the pass. For now, at least!

All this ridiculous amount of clashes on this patch of terrain in Greece begs the question. What elevated Thermopylae to legend status? This is precisely what authors Myke Cole and Michael Livingston answer in The Killing Ground, and do so in an amenable style that makes you breeze through the pages. As it's an Osprey book, the writing style and information delivery is that of military historians talking to military history buffs. But if you're neither (I definitely am not), you shouldn't worry: you will still understand. Cole & Livingston assume a modicum of knowledge from the audience, but do not assume they're talking to a specialised audience knowledgeable about the ins and outs of Greek weaponry and tactics, and explain it all without talking down to you. Osprey's books are like that, expository but not too in-depth or too long by necessity.

And do they explain it well! They start with an introduction to the place in terms of an overview of the event that made it famous, and then go straight for a "biography" of the place. It's not tongue-in-cheek when they call it a biography, because they really did write one. They explain the geology of Thermopylae, too, its characteristics on and below the surface, its landscape then and now, the meteorological and volcanic/earthquake conditions, the landmarks and if they've changed, the type of rocks, and so on. Why so detailed? Because you also need to know the place itself, a battle is its ground, as the authors say, and by knowing the place, you'll quickly understand why exactly so many armies fought here. You'll end up being aware that it's not mere coincidence or just human stubbornness what makes this place so fought over. It really is strategic! Greece itself is strategic by existing where it does, so Thermopylae is strategically privileged as if tailor-made for defence in an already strategically favoured country. That makes it a double blessing (or double curse, if you prefer).

I personally enjoyed the early chapters, from the geological backstory up to Leonidas, the most! A lot was familiar, but a lot wasn't, and a lot of what was familiar turned out to be myth. Because, indeed, the authors also debunk myths and embellished truths told throughout the millennia, which was also very informative, as I'm sure it'll be for others, especially those who get their Thermopylae from Leonidas and his Spartans as depicted in the media. Some of the information here mightn't be a surprise to military history buffs, the kind that do re-enactments and trek to Greece to see the pass in person, but to me so much definitely was. Things like that the Thermopylae area is so geologically hyperactive that a mere 2.5 millennia later, a blink in Earth years, it is drastically different to how it was when Leonidas fought there (yes, really!), and that Leonidas wasn't defending the exact spot we think he was and had a different strategy to what we were led to think from the legendary tales, and other details. It was also surprising to read the account of the last Battle of Thermopylae in WWII, because it has the outcome that the legendary one had to have as per the plan. Kind of fitting, I'd say.

I do wish this had pictures and maps. But I only have an ARC, so I believe the pictures and maps will be in the final published edition, and I hope it's good quality ones as I know Osprey can add. It'll greatly help the written descriptions to have photos of Thermopylae right next to them.