Leonidas refuses, and kills the Persian messengers. He then asks the Spartan Oracle what he should do, and she has a premonition that he shouldn’t go into battle with the Persians. Leonidas does anyway, taking his three hundred men and going after the Persian army of over 100,000. A disgruntled reject of the Persian army then gives the Persians a way to sneak up on the Spartans, and the Spartan army is
Battle of Thermopylae vs 300 In order to make the Battle of Thermopylae more appealing to the modern day viewers, Frank Miller altered a few aspects in his film “300”. It is a fictional film that was created strictly with special effects. The Battle pf Thermopylae was a fierce battle between an alliance of Greek-city states, led by King Leonidas of Sparta and the Persian Empire of Xerxes, which lasted over a course of three days during the second invasion of Greece by the Persians in 480 B.C. In the movie “300” Hollywood described the soldiers (weapons, attire, etc.) to relate to the modern day Special Forces.
It is estimated King Xerxes had several hundred thousand men. The Persians greatly outnumbered the Greeks at Sparta, Athens, and other city-states. Unfortunately, King Leonidas was forced to meet with the Persians without his Spartan army. King Xerxes planned his attack during important religious festivals for the Greeks. The Spartans were celebrating the Carneian festival, in honor of Apollo, as the Persians threatened to conquer them.
A Replublic Empire would have meant trying to override the emporer, which in Roman times would never happen. Some medieval weapons included in the movie did not exist. These were the maces and cross-bows used during the battle scenes. The gladiatorial program was also inaccurately portrayed. The normal program included beast-hunts in the morning, execution of criminals over lunch, gladiator in the afternoon.
But all in all what most historians debate is not why Leonidas stayed but whether or not his decision to stay was the overall right choice. My perspective on the situation is that Leonidas’ decision to stay was not the right choice. I postulate this because the whole goal was to protect the pass so that the Persians could not reach Athens, but after the defeat of the Spartans the Persians pushed forward and burned Athens to the ground. So in essence the last stand of the Spartans was pointless because the Persians completed their goal of the ransacking of Athens. Themistocles was the true hero; he evacuated Athens before the Persians came and defeated the Persians in a naval battle at Salamis, which forced the Persians to flee back to Asia.
Although Spartan women were not active in the military, they were educated and enjoyed more status and freedom than other Greek women. Because Spartan men were professional soldiers, all manual labor was done by a slave class, the Helots. Despite their military prowess, the Spartans’ dominance was short-lived: In 371 B.C., they were defeated by Thebes at the Battle of Leuctra, and their empire went into a long period of decline. The Spartan Military Unlike such Greek city-states as Athens, a center for the arts, learning and philosophy, Sparta was centered on a warrior culture. Male Spartan citizens were allowed only one occupation: solider.
Melissa Horstketter HIS 105 300 Essay The film of 300 says a lot about what it was like back in the ancient history between the Spartans and the Persians. The Spartans were taught to fight for their state right away when they were a child. The movie shows all the different aspects of the Spartan culture. It shows how they just throw away babies that aren’t perfect, and how they take the children away from home at only the age of seven to train as a fighter. They show the basic ways of how the Spartans lived at the time.
The submarine dates back to the Civil War, where the Confederate Hunley actually sank a ship Charleston harbor in 1864. Submarines during World War 1 were very effective against the destruction of non-submerged boats because there were no means of protection against submarines. The enemies did not have sonar or electronic gear to track the submarines, making them sitting ducks and very vulnerable to a devastating attack. The only protection the fleets of boats had were submarine nets and mines that were laid in the water. Even those were easily dodged by the submarines and had no effect on their future attacks against the boats.
The English numbering in 5000 archers and 900 men-at-arms and the French numbering between 20-30,000. The rules of war dictate that the field of battle should favor neither side but the French freely took up a position that was disadvantageous to them. They assembled perhaps 1000 yards apart with only a slight dip between them, ensuring that the armies were in full view of one another. Both sides of the field were surrounded by forest which narrowed from 1200 yards were the French assembled to only 900 where the armies could expect to meet. This greatly restricted the movement that the French would require to exploit their far greater numbers, preventing them from outflanking the smaller
Leonidas’ valour and courage is legendary. Herodotus records him retorting to a frightened soldier about the Persian arrows covering the sky: ‘then we shall fight in the shade’. Leonidas and his men were completely outnumbered yet they managed to delay the troops for roughly 4 days. This decision made by Leonidas meant that the Athenian troops could return to Athens, evacuate the city and decide on a battle place that suited the Greeks- Salamis. It was this delay that allowed Themistocles to persuade to the other military leaders to fight at Salamis which, according to Barry Strauss, was the turning point in the Persian wars.