The Battle of Thermopoley was portrayed in the movie 300, yet there are many historical inaccuracies just in the numbers alone. However that is not what this blog is about, this blog is about another group of 300, Gideon. For a while I have been shying away from biblical topics, but today I am diving in and my next blog will probably be along these lines. In most cases, lowering the amount of men would be a bad thing, yet in the story of Gideon—an Israelite name meaning the Destroyer—it seems to have made some tactical sense. Since the plan given to Gideon by God required complete surprise, too many men would have alerted the Midianites to the attack. Gideon split his forces, also a general tactical mistake that paid off for Gideon, into three groups of 100 men, each taking an exposed side.
This forced the invaders to retreat through a valley. Adding to the effect of this the attackers where already afraid of the Israelites because of their many other victories over numbers higher than their own. Gideon and another soldier snuck into the camp of the attackers and overheard a conversation between two guards saying that they would be defeated. This gave Gideon the complete confidence he needed. Gideon, with the Midianites surrounded, hid torches in clay pots and revealed the lights all at once giving an illusion of a massive army. Additionally, he had more than 300 trumpeters—the normal number varies depending on culture and size but usually an army of 300 wouldn’t need more the ten (if that)—and ordered his whole army to chant while they entered the battle. This kind of mass confusion makes even hardened soldiers break ranks and, because it was a night attack, the Midianites’ fear could not be revealed so even the captains and generals retreated from the battle, though their numbers alone could have beaten the much smaller army.
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