300 Is it historically accurate?

[Scarecrow]

http://www.superherohype.com/news/featuresnews.php?id=3788

Well someone who knows their history please let me know if this is accurate or not.

[The Old Lady Hertha]

IIRC, isn't that where the Marathon comes from? The messenger ran back to Athens to tell of the victory of the Greeks and died after giving the message.

[Toon³]

There were 300 Spartans at the battle but also about 7000 troops from the other Greek Cities. So if he doesn't include those then no it's not.

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Marathon comes from the Battle of Marathon in 490BC

[Bluto11]

in short:

the two sides (Greeks, Persians) were at a stand still until a Greek traitor showed the Persians a secret passage that flanked the valley or canyon or whatever it was. When the Persians came through and attacked there the Greeks retreated. The 300 Spartans, lead by Leondis (sp?), agreed to stand their ground and fight and bide time for the rest of the Greek Army to retreat so they would not be wiped out by the Persians. All the Spartans were killed.

[DoyleG]

The 300 Spartans wers suported by 700 troops from Thespai.

[Chewmylegoff]

look at wikipedia for fairly decent summing up on any battle.

although it's impossible to say for certain that it's 100% historically accurate, everything is prone to exaggeration, but it is the generally accepted understanding of what happened that the final stand was made by what was left of the 300 spartans + 700 thespians.

at the same time the persian army is supposed to have been 5,000,000 strong, which is unlikely given population levels in that period.

re: marathon. no. the marathon is named after....the battle of marathon :)

[Norsk Troll]

it is the generally accepted understanding of what happened that the final stand was made by what was left of the 300 spartans + 700 thespians.

Yes, but the 700 thespians weren't really soldiers. They were just ... ACTING!

[Excape Goat]

I heard a conspiracy theory that King Leonidas was sent on the suicidal misson because the other Spartan king wanted to kill him(Sparta used a twin-monarch systerm). The battle itself was meant to buy time for a bigger and better preparation. So the 300 soldiers were meant to die before they left. I believed the other Spartan king later became a hero in another big epic battle, but he eventually delfected to the Persians.




The battle of Marathon was exactly the opposite. The Spartans refused to fight the Persians due to some festival. An Athenian runner ran to Sparta to announce the Greek's victory.

[Sine Pari]

Go read "Gates of Fire" by Stephen Presserfeld

[yasik19]

Go read "Gates of Fire" by Stephen Presserfeld

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0553580531/qid=1138122926/sr=2-2/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_2/002-5851679-8305604?s=books&v=glance&n=283155

this one, right?

[Sine Pari]

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0553580531/qid=1138122926/sr=2-2/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_2/002-5851679-8305604?s=books&v=glance&n=283155

this one, right?


Yup

[Revolt]

Sin City is one great flick. I can't wait to see this one.