Battle of the 300 Champions
battle between Argos and Sparta (546 BCE)
The Battle of the 300 Champions, known since Herodotus' day as the Battle of the Champions, was fought in roughly 546 BC between Argos and Sparta. Rather than commit full armies both sides agreed to pitting 300 of their best men against each other.
Herodotus
According to Herodotus Sparta had surrounded and captured the plain of Thyrea. When the Argives marched out to defend it, the two armies agreed to let 300 champions from each city fight, with the winner taking the territory. Presumably the idea was to reduce the total number of casualties. Both armies marched home, so as to prevent either side from helping their champions and escalating the duel into a full battle.
Neither side would allow for any injured men to be taken. The day called for complete destruction of the enemy force for victory. The two armies were evenly matched and neither could gain the upper hand. They fought until nightfall, and after a bloody battle only three men remained, two Argives and one Spartan.
The public source identifies “Battle of the 300 Champions” as battle between Argos and Sparta (546 BCE). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Battle, Champions and battle.
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This entry incorporates text from “Battle of the 300 Champions” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.