Dan Carlin I feel does a relatively good job at covering this battle within the broader context of the war in his Hardcore History podcast. Specifically, in his

Dan Carlin I feel does a relatively good job at covering this battle within the broader context of the war in his Hardcore History podcast. Specifically, in his three-part series King of Kings. Don’t ask me which one, as it’s been well over a year since I listened to it, but he does make a reasonable attempt at drawing out some logic for why the rearguard stayed and died. If I recall correctly, one factor is that it helped buy time for the Greek city-states to retreat back and remove sources of supplies, which would stretch the Persian supply chains even further. He paints this particular battle into the context of many others too, and tries to put some thoughts around the broader environment in which both the Greeks and Persians were making their decisions during these wars. He tells it all with his trademark engaging fascination and I really cannot recommend it highly enough. It’s part of his free releases, so you should readily find them on your podcast source of choice.