Inspired by Ronin's "greatest warriors" thread I thought it would be cool to make a thread for historical acts of bravery. Post a quote from any historical source from the Hagakure to Plutarch, as long as it features hand-to-hand combat or battlefield weapons. (in other words, no fire arms this thread) Keep stuff down to a few paragraphs please. Thanks.

Spartans:

In 480 B.C. the forces of the Persian Empire under King Xerxes, numbering according to Herodotus two million men, bridged the Hellespont and marched in their myriads to invade and enslave Greece. In a desperate delaying action, a picked force of three hundred Spartans was dispatched to the pass of Thermopylae, where the confines between mountains and sea were so narrow that the Persian multitudes and their cavalry would be at least partially neutralized. Here, it was hoped, an elite force willing to sacrifice their lives could keep back, at least for a few days, the invading millions. Three hundred Spartans and their allies held off the invaders for seven days, until, their weapons smashed and broken from the slaughter, they fought 'with bare hands and teeth' (as recorded by Herodotus) before being at last overwhelmed. The Spartans and their Thespian allies died to the last man, but the standard of valor they set by their sacrifice inspired the Greeks to rally and, in that fall and spring, defeat the Persians at Salamis and Plataea and preserve the beginnings of Western democracy and freedom from perishing in the cradle.

Two memorials remain today at Thermopylae. Upon the modern one, called the Leonidas Monument in honor of the Spartan king who fell there, is engraved his response to Xerxes' demand that the Spartans lay down their arms. Leonidas' reply was two words, Molon labe: 'Come and get them.'

- Pressfield

Although extraordinary valor was displayed by the entire corps of Spartans and Thespians, yet bravest of all was declared the Spartan Dienekes. It is said that on the eve of battle, he was told by a native of Trachis that the Persian archers were so numerous that, when they fired their volleys, the mass of arrows blocked out the sun. Dienekes, however, quite undaunted by this prospect, remarked with a laugh, 'Good. Then we'll have our battle in the shade.' "

- Herodotus

* After defeating the Persians at Platea:

The bravest man by far on that day was, in my judgment, Aristodemus - the same who alone escaped from the slaughter of the three hundred at Thermopylae, and who on that account had endured disgrace and reproach: next to him were Posidonius, Philocyon, and Amompharetus the Spartan. The Spartans, however, who took part in the fight, when the question of "who had distinguished himself most," came to be talked over among them, decided - "that Aristodemus, who, on account of the blame which attached to him, had manifestly courted death, and had therefore left his place in the line and behaved like a madman, had done of a truth very notable deeds; but that Posidonius, who, with no such desire to lose his life, had quitted himself no less gallantly, was by so much a braver man than he." Perchance, however, it was envy that made them speak after this sort. Of those whom I have named above as slain in this battle, all, save and except Aristodemus, received public honours: Aristodemus alone had no honours, because he courted death for the reason which I have mentioned.

- Herodotus

* Pankration:

"One of the most dramatic incidents in ancient sports history involves Arrichion (or Arrachion) the pankratiast. Competing for his third Olympic crown in 564 BCE, Arrichion found himself the victim of a deadly choke applied from behind. His unnamed opponent had twined his legs around Arrichion’s, and inserted the tips of his feet behind Arrichion’s knees for purchase. Although Arrichion ultimately forced his opponent to concede by dislocating his ankle, Arrichion himself expired from the effects of the choke. His lifeless body was crowned with the victor’s wreath."

* Modern explanation:

"My own reconstruction of Arrichion’s maneuver as described by Philostratus is predicated upon a bachelor’s degree in ancient Greek and nearly two years of training in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, an art that makes liberal use of both chokes and ankle locks. Believing that my tentative explanation of the maneuver had merit, one of my instructors agreed to let me try it out on him. I got down on hands and knees, and he assumed the position of Arrichion’s opponent as described by Philostratus. In modern fight parlance, we would say that he took my back, put the hooks in, and applied a rear choke. This predicament (exactly that described by Gardiner) occurs with regularity in grappling practice and competition. From this position, the man on top attempts to stretch his opponent flat on his stomach while maintaining the choke. Kicking backward to dislodge one of the "hooks" is one way to defend against being stretched out, and my backward kick did indeed dislodge my instructor’s right leg. I was then able to reach back with my right hand, snag his loose right foot, and pull it up to my lower abdomen. Rocking back into a sitting position with my left leg folded under me, I trapped his left foot in the crook of my left knee while cupping my palms around his right instep. Bracing my right forearm against his right lower leg for leverage, I pulled his foot up and in until he "tapped," signaling that I had applied an effective ankle lock."

http://ejmas.com/jcs/jcsart_hollenback_0903.htm

[DCS]

Celtic Spain-- Celtiberia-- was a center of resistance against Rome. The town of Numantia on the Duero river was a core of rebel activities. The Arevaci tribe had developed Numantia into a formidable hillfort of about fifty acres, situated on a ridge surrounded by a forest and two ravines through which two rapid rivers flowed. It was fortified with ditches and ramparts, a wood and stone stockade.

For twenty years, the Romans were unable to take the town of between four and eight thousand people. The Roman soldiers stationed in Iberia were demoralized. Their famous discipline broke down and they began to rely on auguries for any signs of victory. Prostitutes had range of the camps; order within the rank and file was collapsing.

Meanwhile the Numantine war had been progressing simultaneously.





In 143 BC, Caecilius Metellus was sent to the Numantines, to subdue them. He was successful but didn't get to Numantia.

In 141 BC, his successor Pompeius attacked the nearby Termantians. He fought a major, though indecisive, battle. Pompeius was incompetent — with 30,000 men he could not take city defended by 8,000 with part of wall down. He returned to Numantia, but the siege was progressing very poorly, largely due to ambushes. Like Marcellus many years before, he tried desperately to make peace before his successor arrived. Numantia bought peace from him for 30 tons of silver. Pompeius disgraced Rome by making peace with the Celtiberians and then denying it. The Senate refused to acknowledge it. They replaced Pompeius wiuth Popillius.

139 Popillius Laenas rejected peace because Senate didn't ratify; silver not returned Popilius was soon replaced by Mancinus. Mancinus was suddenly surrounded by Numantines, and made a humiliating peace.

137 The consul C. Hostilius Mancinus (with Tiberius Gracchus as quaestor) was then sent to make war upon the Celtiberians. However, after engaging the Celtiberians, Mancinus managed to get his entire army of over twenty thousand men surrounded in a valley and was compelled to surrender to the Numantines. The surrender and treaty were negotiated by Tiberius Gracchus, on his father's reputation for fair dealing. When the terms reached Rome, the senate repudiated the agreement and forced him to return by himself to Hither Iberia. Mancinus was turned over naked to the Numantines in atonement for the breaking of the agreement he had made. (The Numantines thoughtfully refused the offer, knowing that the fault lay elsewhere: the senate, that is, those in the senate who favored continuation of war in Spain - including Scipio Aemilianus - had recently ruined several agreements made by generals in Spain). This turn of events was a personal humiliation for Tiberius, since his pledges of good faith to the Numantines had been made worthless by those who opposed the treaty at Rome. Some ascribed his later course of action in his tribunate as a form of revenge against the leadership of the senate.

Against a foe as fearsome as the Spaniards a brilliant commander was obviously required. Rome hence turned to her greatest soldier of the day, the conqueror of Carthage, Scipio Aemilianus (also called Africanus Minor), the adopted grandson of Scipio Africanus. He was in fact not a candidate for the consulship in 135, for he was legally disqualified from standing (having held the consulship in recently) but the election was carried by unanimous vote of the comitia tributa, the assembly of the tribes, and in the face of such huge popular support the legal technicalities were set aside.

A furous Senate sent out Aemilius to replace Mancinus. Aemilius, like Lucullus before him, decided to attack the Vaccaei in search of loot. The Senate told him to stop, but he ignored them, besieging the city of Pallantia. Supplies ran out, and they made a humiliating retreat, ambushed on the way. Unlike Lucullus, Aemilius was punished for his illegal invasion of the Vaccaei, and was fined. But even for Scipio the task was no easy one. He took command of the Roman army in 134 BC along with sixty thousand troops from outside of the area. He expelled the fortunetellers, traders and prostitutes from the camps, and restored discipline to the demoralized troops He identified Numantia as an important center of rebel activity.

In 133 BC he set about his Numantian campaign. Planning a siege, he instructed his troops to plunder the fields around the town. He had them store what was immediately needed by the Romans and to burn the rest. Then he had his men build seven forts around the hill with a ditch and wall joining them. (One under his brother Fabius Maximus.) Behind this there was a palisade and ditch. The Numantines were still receiving supplies via the Duero River. Scipio had two towers erected, one on either side of the river, and a log studded with knives and other sharp objects strung between them so that it bobbed in the water and could be raised or lowered by men in the towers. This put an end to the supply route.

Rhetogenes, one of Numantia’s leading warriors, went for help. In the middle of the night, he and his party put ladders against the Roman walls and sped to their relations, the Areveci, for help. The Arevaci were afraid of Rome and refused to assist them. So Rhetogenes and his party went on to Lutia. The young men of Lutia were eager to help, but the older people doubted the wisdom of this and informed the Romans of the plan.

Scipio left Numantia and surrounded Lutia. He demanded that the four hundred young men of the town come out to meet him, then had their hands cut off so they couldn’t help the Numantines. Then he and his men went back to the siege.

Avarus, the leader of Numantia, and his envoys approached Scipio with the Numantine terms. But Scipio would have nothing less than unconditional surrender. His mission a failure, Avarus and his envoys returned to Numantia. But the people of Numantia suspected trickery on the part of the diplomatic mission, believing that they had made a private deal with the Romans, and killed them all.

Conditions worsened in Numantia. Like Carthage the doomed fortress of Numantia held out grimly to the last moment. Their food was gone and they resorted to canabalism. The town was surrendered at last in 133 BC, but many of the population preferred suicide to becoming slaves of Rome. The miserable remnant which the ravages of battle, famine, pestilence, and despair had left alive were sold into slavery, after Scipio had taken fifty of the best warriors. Then without waiting for Senate's orders he had the town burned and razed. Scipio thus gained the epithet Numantinus. He divided the territory of the Numantines amongst their neighbours, and sailed for home.

http://www.barca.fsnet.co.uk/numantine-war.htm

"From youth my heart has been inclined toward the Way of strategy. My first duel was when I was thirteen, I struck down a strategist of the Shinto school, one Arima Kihei. When I was sixteen I struck down an able strategist, Tadashima Akiyama. When I was twenty-one I went up to the capital and met all manner of strategists, never once failing to win in many contests. After that I went from province to province duelling with strategists of various schools, and not once failed to win even though I had as many as sixty encounters. This was between the ages of thirteen and twenty-eight or twenty-nine. When I reached thirty I looked back on my past. The previous victories were not due to my having mastered strategy. Perhaps it was natural ability, or the order of heaven, or that other schools' strategy was inferior. After that I studied morning and evening searching for the principle, and came to realise the Way of strategy when I was fifty."

Miyamoto Musashi
The Book of Five Rings

http://www.samurai.com/5rings/

Toshitsugu Takamatsu

"Toshitsugu made several trips to China and abroad when he was young. There are countless stories of his adventures and martial prowess. Takamatsu once said he fought 12 fights to the death (the result of challenges) and 7 competitive matches. Once while in the mountains of China, he was attacked by several bandits. One of the bandits grabbed Takamatsu around the waist. The bandit suddenly screamed and, letting go of Takamatsu, fell to the ground holding his face. Takamatsu later said he did not know what he had done to the man, but feeling something wet and warm in his hand, realized he had plucked the man's eye out. He gave the bandit first aid and then charged him for his services."

http://www.homestead.com/bujintech/osenseibio.html

"As their personal teacher, he formed many next generation Grandmasters under which: Kimura Masaji Sensei, Akimoto Fumio Sensei, Sato Kinbei Sensei, Ueno Takashi Sensei, Tanemura Shoto Sensei, Fukumoto Yoshio Sensei and Hatsumi Masaaki Sensei."

http://users.skynet.be/chiryaku/gtts.htm

"Being pursued in our retreat by such a host of warriors, we swam or leapt through the water, and nearly all our men fell into these pits. Then the canoes attacked us, and the Mexicans seized five of our comrades, whom they took to Guatemoc alive. Nearly all of us were wounded. For the launches we were expecting could not come to our aid, being impaled on the stakes that the enemy had fixed there. At the same time they too were overwhelmed by such a rain of darts and arrows that two soldiers were killed at the oars, and many others wounded. To return to the pits in the channel, I think it was a wonder we were not all killed there. For myself, I was seized by a great number of indians, but I managed to free my sword-arm and the Lord Jesus Christ gave me the strength to deal them a few good thrusts, with which I saved myself, though I had a severe wound in the other arm. Once safely out of the water, I lost all sensation and could not stand on my feet or take breath, so exhausted was I by my efforts to free myself from the rabble, and by copious loss of blood. I declare that when they had me in their claws I was mentally commending myself to our Lord God and Our Lady, His blessed Mother; and He it was that gave me strength to save myself. Thanks be to God for the mercy He granted me."

Bernal Diaz
The Conquest of New Spain

[Ronin]

The Battle of Aljubarota, 1385
The French allies of Castile initiate the attack on the Portuguese position at Aljubarota.

http://www.nipissingu.ca/department/...t/baljver1.htm

Too long to post, but well worth the read.
Here is a small sample:
The sun was now setting, when the king of Castille advanced in puissant array, with banners displayed, and on barded horses, shouting out "Castille!" and entered the fortified pass. They were received with lances and battle-axes, and the first flight of arrows grievously wounded their horses, threw them into confusion, and many were wounded or slain. The king of Castille, ignorant of the unfortunate fate of the van, imagining they were only prisoners, was anxious to deliver them, as you have heard.

The battle raged with violence: many were thrown to the ground, and the Portuguese had not the advantage: they were forced to fight most valiantly, or they would have been overpowered: they owed their safety to the impossibility of being attacked but in one place. The king of Portugal dismounted, and, taking his battle-axe, placed himself at the pass, where he performed wonders, knocking down three or four of the stoutest of the enemy, insomuch that none dared to approach him.

[El Tejon]

Rodger Young!

[DJeter1234]

well, i would quote Arias on pretty much anything Alexander personally did, but i too lazy to type it all in, so i'll give you this instead:

"After alexander had left the funeral pyre, he invited a number of his friends and officers to dine with him an proposed a contest of drinking neat win, the winner of which was to recieve a crown. The winner was Promachus, who drowned four pitchers, or about twelve quarts: the prize was a crown worth a talent, but he lived for only three days afterwards. Of the other competitores, fourty-one, according to Chares, died from the effects of the wine" - Plutarch's Lives