Greek history is filled with many great battles, including the famous stand of King Leonidas of Sparta with his 7,000 soldiers against the Persian King Xerxes I at the Battle of Thermopylae. That battle in 480 B.C., popularized in the historically questionable but graphically awesome Hollywood movie "300," revolved around a brave bunch of Spartans facing down the much larger Persian army at the mountain pass of Thermopylae. A recent video provides a visible example of the tactics of the opposing armies acted out in automotive form.
The Spartans and their Peloponnesian comrades held off a Persian army of between 70,000 and 300,000 at a short wall built across the pass of Thermopylae, which means "hot gates." The Greeks were able to repulse the Persians for three days before finally being routed by the advancing army, despite the best efforts of Leonidas.
The great drama of that great battle has been recreated, albeit accidentally, in automotive form, according to the guys over at Jalopnik.
A quick look at the video (below) reveals that a very angry Greek was unhappy with the poor soul who double-parked and blocked his Lada, and he subsequently decided to bash his way through the gap, pushing aside the offending Chevrolet Aveo. The two cars, the Aveo seemingly immovably fixed against the Lada, perfectly demonstrate the same principles the Spartans used to hold back the Persians at Thermopylae.
The Aveo, representing the Spartan army, was positioned to contain the Lada, representing the Persians, at a chokepoint. The two cars on either side of the Lada act like the Hot Gates at Thermopylae, and the positioning of the Aveo prevents the Lada from accelerating enough to simply break free from its confines. Instead, the Lada is forced, like the Persians, to batter itself against the Aveo repeatedly before it finally breaks through.
Ultimately, both the Aveo and the Spartans failed to repel their foes, but they held out for as long as possible by using terrain as a force multiplier. However, while Leonidas and the Spartans bought enough time at Thermopylae to allow the Athenians to muster their forces and repel the Persians with some finality, it's unclear what the Aveo driver got out of double-parking the Lada, beyond losing its bumper plate.
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