Friday, March 16, 2007


I believe that this movie is one of the best that 2007 has to offer. This movie is definitely going to be on my dvd collection.
The actors' performance was excellent - The battles were so overwhelming. It was a good representation of the historical battle with a little hollywoodian exaggeration of course. The scenario was taken from the comic book of Frank Miller's 300 which is based on the historical information that historics had about the battle of HotGates in 480BC.
This wasn't the first battle of Greeks against Persians. In 490BC in the battle of Marathon, 11.000 Greeks defeated an army of 60.000 Persians who they lost more than
6.000 soldiers and Greeks lost 192 men only.
In 481 BC king Xerxes, influenced by General Mardonios and the fallen king of Sparta Dimaratus, marched with his army against Greece. For four years all Asia was shocked by the military preparations of Xerxes. Thousands of men from different nations of Persia where recruited. Eshilos, a Greek writter of that period, wrote that when Persia marched against Greece, almost no adult male was left behind. Herodotus calculates the Persian army around 2.500.000 men. Also, Xerxes sent messengers all over Greece to find allies and join forces.


Greeks who expected that Persians wanted to take over Greece, had already started their
preparations. In Athens, Themistokles built war ships and managed to make Athens, the top naval force of that time. The military force that Greece gathered at HotGates was 6.000 soldiers and among them were the 300 spartan soldiers of Leonidas, King of Sparta. This military force was concidered a small one and it was going to be reenforced as soon as the Olympiad of August 480BC had ended. There is a possibility that, that military force was concidered enough due to the nature of the territory at HotGates which was really narrow and could be guarded with a small force. On the other hand, the army of Xerxes couldn't be deployed in such a way that could threaten the safety of the Greek army.

(Persian helmet)

King Xerxes sent a horseman to calculate the force of the Greek army and to observe Greek soldier's habbits. Before the king left from Thessaly, he had learned that a small body of the Spartan army had been assembled, led by King Leonidas of Sparta, descendant of Hercules. The Persian horseman approached the camp and made a careful inspection of the area and the Greek troops, but only those that were outside the gates. That moment, he noticed that some of the Spartan soldiers were exercising while others brushed their hair. The Persian spy was surprised and looked at them very carefully then he returned at his camp. Although Spartans noticed the spy, noone made any effort to arrest him or interrogate him. The Persian spy mentioned what he had seen to King Xerxes. The Persian king was so surprised that he called Dimaratus and asked him about it. Dimaratus informed him that Spartans whenever they went to battle, always took care of their hair and bodies and that they were the strongest force of Greece. Xerxes still wasn't pursuaded by Dimaratus and thought that within days, the Greek troops would retreat when they'd learned about the number of the Persian soldiers.

(King Leonidas of Sparta)
During the first day of the battle, Persians attacked three times the Greeks, one of which was made using the famous army of Immortals under the leadership of Idarnes but
all attacks failed due to the smart way that King Leonidas acted in the battlefield. In the beginning, the spartan soldiers moved towards the enemy lines, then they retreated giving the impression that Persians had scared them and then with a deluded and quick move they attacked the Persians that hunted them. It is said that during the attacks, King Xerxes stood up in his throne three times fearing for his army.

At the second day of the battle, King Xerxes was embarrassed seeing all his attacks made by his elite forces fail against Greek troops. At the night of that day, an inhabitant of that area, traitor Efialtis told Xerxes about a secret path behind Greek army, the Anopean passage which was guarded by Focean troops. When the Foceans saw the Persian army, they abandonded their weapons and left. This way, Xerxes's army - 10.000 immortals under the leadership of Idarnes - in an abrupt move, circled the Greek forces.

At the third day, King Leonidas was informed in time about the Persian army behind their lines. He knew that death was imminent for him and his army so he gathered the allied troops and sent them away. He and his 300 spartan soldiers were left at the HotGates along with 700 Thespians who volunteered to support King Leonidas's spartans and 200 soldiers from Thebes who were kept against their will. Leonidas moved all the men he had outside the walls and placed them in a phalanx formation in order to kill as many as he could. When the battle started, Greeks knowing that they would die in this battle fought with bravery and strength and had gone past themselves. Persian generals had to whip their soldiers to force them to go to battle against Greeks. King Leonidas was one of the first casualties of this battle. It is said that a great battle took place for his dead body but at the end of the main battle there was no Greek soldier left alive.

King Xerxes had won the battle but with great casualties. He had also lost his two brothers. On the other hand, Greeks gained a moral victory. The HotGates became the eternal symbol of sacrifice and debt for the defence of homeland and of the big ideals.

Distinguished spartan soldiers were Diinekes (the one that when he heard about the numerous persian arrows that would cover the face of the sun, replied that this was good news because they would fight in shade) , Alfeos and Maronas sons of Orsifantis.

Distinguished Thespian soldier was Dithiramvos, son of Armatides.

Spartans placed a sign over the tomb of the 300 soldiers which said :
"Go tell the Spartans, passer-by,
That here, obedient to their laws, we lie.".







(King Leonidas actual statue)


Source :
http://gym-platan.chan.sch.gr/pw/persianwars/hotgates/hotgates.htm
http://www.laconia.org/

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posted by med
7:32 AM

1 Thoughts:

Blogger Strider said...

I agree 100% about how great 300 was. Thanks for the quick synopisis of the history behind it.

April 19, 2007 at 12:04 AM  

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