User blog comment:Tesla Man/Rise of the TDBU: Alexander the Great versus Xerxes/@comment-422690-20120320173747

I'll vote later, since my computer just started working again.

However, I will say this about Thermopylae: that battle was more about the brilliance of the Greek commanders in choosing an advantageous terrain. If they had met in an open field, the Greeks would have been slaughtered by the Persian's combined flanking cavalry and rushing infantry tactics, which was more the Persian norm than sending in waves. The pass made a natural bottleneck, one which turned the Persian's numerical advantage and cavalry advantage into a disadvantage. Again, the loss of so many was more of a genius of terrain than any failing of Xerxes himself.