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50 free Battle of Thermopylae trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
In 480 BC a Greek force of about 7,000 men held a 100-metre-wide coastal pass against the largest army the ancient world had seen. When a local man showed the Persians a mountain track behind the Greek line, Leonidas sent most of the allies home and stayed with his 300 Spartans, 700 Thespians and a few hundred others to fight to the death. Thermopylae was a defeat, but it became the most famous last stand in history. These 50 questions cover the campaign and the legend: the Ionian Revolt and Marathon, the congress at Corinth, the Carneia festival that kept the main Spartan army at home, the Phocian wall, the Immortals, the feigned retreats, the traitor Ephialtes, the branded Thebans, the bronze arrowheads found on Kolonos Hill in 1939, and the epitaph that asks a stranger to carry news to Sparta. There are questions on the famous quips too, from "come and take them" to fighting in the shade, and on the poems, novels and the 2006 film the battle inspired. Easy questions stick to the main players; the expert tier asks about Xerxes' brothers, Cicero's Latin epitaph and the Persian Gate. Every answer is cited and explained.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In which year was the Battle of Thermopylae fought?
480 BC
The naval Battle of Artemisium was fought at the same time.
Q 02How many days of direct fighting did the battle involve?
Three
The Greeks held the pass for seven days in all, counting the stand-off before the assault.
Q 03Which naval battle was fought simultaneously with Thermopylae?
Artemisium
The Greek strategy needed both the pass and the straits to be held.
Q 04Which Athenian proposed blocking the pass while the fleet held the straits?
Themistocles
He later lured the Persian fleet to its destruction at Salamis.
Q 05Roughly how large was the Greek force that marched to the pass?
7,000
It included an estimated 300 Spartans.
Q 06What do modern scholars estimate as the size of the Persian invasion army?
120,000 to 300,000
Ancient writers put it in the millions.
Q 07Who revealed the mountain path behind the Greek lines to the Persians?
Ephialtes
He was a local man from Trachis, motivated by the hope of a reward.
Q 08The traitor's name came to mean what in the Greek language?
Nightmare
He became the archetypal traitor in Greek culture.
Q 09How many Thespians stayed with the Spartans for the last stand?
700
Their contingent was every hoplite the city could muster.
Q 10Which Greek contingent reportedly surrendered and was branded with the royal mark?
The Thebans
Herodotus suggests they had been brought along as hostages.
Q 11After the pass fell, the Greek fleet withdrew to which island?
Salamis
It then destroyed much of the Persian fleet in the straits there.
Q 12Which battle the following year ended the second Persian invasion?
Plataea
Mardonius, left behind by Xerxes, was defeated there.
Q 13Who is the primary ancient source for the battle?
Herodotus
His account is in Book VII of the Histories.
Q 14Which monument standing in Istanbul's Hippodrome supports the ancient accounts?
Q 21Which Spartan festival forbade the main army from marching when the Persians arrived?
The Carneia
It was also the time of the Olympic truce.
Q 22What was the name of the 300-man royal bodyguard Leonidas took north?
The Hippeis
He reportedly chose only men with living sons.
Q 23Convinced of his death, Leonidas selected only Spartans who had what?
Living sons
The Delphic oracle had prophesied that Sparta or a king must fall.
Q 24How many men did Leonidas post on the heights to guard the mountain track?
The Serpent Column
It was dedicated at Delphi by the Greek cities that fought the Persians.
Q 15Which uprising of 499-494 BC, aided by Athens, provoked the Persian invasions?
The Ionian Revolt
Darius vowed to punish the Athenians for helping it.
Q 16How did the Spartans treat the Persian heralds who demanded "earth and water" in 491 BC?
Threw them down a well
Athens threw its heralds into a pit after a trial.
Q 17The first Persian invasion ended with which Athenian victory in 490 BC?
Marathon
The Spartans arrived too late because of the Carneia festival.
Q 18Xerxes' army crossed into Europe over which strait on pontoon bridges?
The Hellespont
He also had a canal dug across the isthmus of Mount Athos.
Q 19In which city did the Greek alliance hold its congress in autumn 481 BC?
Corinth
Many of the allies were technically still at war with each other.
Q 20Where did the Greeks first plan to make a stand before abandoning the idea?
The Vale of Tempe
Alexander I of Macedon warned them it could be bypassed.
1,000
They were Phocians, and the Persians simply shot past them.
Q 25Who is said to have replied that the Greeks would "fight in the shade"?
Dienekes
Plutarch attributes the line to Leonidas instead.
Q 26What does "Molon labe", Leonidas's reply to the demand for his arms, mean?
Come and take them
It is now the only inscription on the Leonidas Monument at the site.
Q 27How large did the ancient historian claim Xerxes' military force was?
2.6 million
Ctesias said 800,000 and the poet Simonides four million.
Q 28Thermopylae means "Hot Gates" because of what at the site?
Hot springs
The Phocians had channelled the spring water to make a marsh.
Q 29In which year did British Empire forces defend the same pass against Germany?
1941
They fought mere metres from the ancient battlefield.
Q 30Which elite Persian corps of 10,000 failed to break the Greeks on the first day?
The Immortals
Hydarnes later led them around the mountain path.