Union College Union | Digital Works Honors Theses Student Work 6-2017 Accurately Simulating the Battle of Thermopylae to Analyze "What If " Scenarios Josh Wasserman Union College - Schenectady, NY Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalworks.union.edu/theses Part of the Classics Commons, and the Computer Sciences Commons Recommended Citation Wasserman, Josh, "Accurately Simulating the Battle of Thermopylae to Analyze "What If" Scenarios" (2017). Honors Theses. 99. https://digitalworks.union.edu/theses/99 This Open Access is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Work at Union | Digital Works. It has been accepted for inclusion in Honors Theses by an authorized administrator of Union | Digital Works. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Accurately Simulating the Battle of Thermopylae to Analyze “What-If” Scenarios By Joshua Wasserman ********* Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for Honors in the Department of Computer Science UNION COLLEGE May, 2017 Abstract WASSERMAN, JOSHUA Accurately Simulating the Battle of Thermopylae to Analyze “What-If” Scenarios. Department of Computer Science, May, 2017. ADVISOR: Valerie Barr and Hans-Friedrich Mueller The Battle of Thermopylae (480 BCE) was a last ditch effort to stall the Persian army as it marched south toward Athens. Led by Leonidas and his personal guard of 300 Spartans, a citizen army of Greeks was able to delay a Persian army of over 100,000 soldiers at the town of Thermopylae for several days. Although the Greeks were ultimately defeated at Thermopylae, the battle provided enough time for the Greek states to regroup and plan a counter attack, eventually defeating the invading Persians.