Thermopy̆læ

, a small pa leading from The aly into Locris and Phocis. It has a large ridge of mountains on the west, and the sea on the east, with deep and dangerous marshes, being in the narrowest part only 25 feet in breadth. Thermopylæ receives its name from the hot baths which are in the neighbourhood. It is celebrated for a battle which was fought there B.C. 480, on the 7th of August, between Xerxes and the Greeks, in which 300 Spartans resisted for three succe ive days repeatedly the attacks of the most brave and courageous of the Persian army, which, according to some historians, amounted to 5,000,000. There was also another battle fought there between the Romans and Antiochus king of Syria. Hero dot us , bk. 7 , ch. 176 , . — Strabo , bk. 9 .— Livy , bk. 36 , ch. 15 .— Mela , bk. 2 , ch. 3 .— Plutarch , Marcus Cato , . — Pausanias , bk. 7 , ch. 15 .