Information on the Spartans?

Question

I was just watching the movie 300 and I got into a discussion about it with my dad. I know that it really happened, (of course the movie probably butchered it a lot!) and I was curious to know more about it.

How many Spartans were there?

When did it happen?

Why did the Persians want to go to war in the first place?

How many Persians?

Where did the battle(s) take place?

Anything about King Xerxes or King Lionides (spell.?)

Anything about how they were trained as kids.

Any info would be great!

Answer 1

The battle in 300 is actually the battle of Thermopylae where 300 spartans and about 1,000 greek soldiers stood alone against Xerxes' massive invasion force, had they not slown down the persians do much  and inflicted as many casualties as they did (but dying in the process) all of Greece would have been burned and plundered, which would have ended democracy while it was still young.

If you want alot more information read Gates of Fire by Steven Pressfield which is extreamly accurate but not boring as it followes a young spartan soldier throughout the battle.

http://www.amazon.com/Gates-Fire-Novel-B...

Answer 2

-80,000 civilians

-it happened in 480 bc

-the athenians started a rebellion on persian lands. So the Darius (persian king) invaded at marathon and they lost. So Darius's son attacked the greeks the honor his father

- NOT A MILLION it would be impossible to invade with an army of that size it was 200,000

- Thermopylae, salamis and Plataea

- Xerxes was considered a god and was very power full, Leonidas was a typical Spartan king

- in Sparta kids were taken at age 7. Then they were trained , starved, and trained some more. Then they graduated and lived in the barracks (army base) for the remainder of their life's

Answer 3

1. 300

2. 480 B.C.

3. Because they wanted to rule the entire known world. Throughout history, there have always been empires with ambitious leaders trying to rule all the known world at once (think Alexander the Great).

4. At that point in time, the world's population was a lot smaller, so it's real hard to even estimate. I would say a couple hundred thousand.

5. Thermopylae, in Greece.

6. Leonidas. That's all I've got for you: a spelling correction.

7. Sparta was a very militarily-oriented city-state. I'm sure they did all sorts of things to weed out the weak and train their children to fight. The way that they depicted sending them out into the wild on their own and fighting against their fathers as training is probably fairly accurate.

Answer 4

less than 30 thousand "Spartiates",King Leonidas succeded to the throne in the year 488 B.C., Sparta was one of the city states of ancient Greece set in a broad plain on the right bank of the river Eurotas, because the Persians under Xerxes's father emperor Darius had been defeated by the greeks at the battle marathon, hard to say but herodutos put it "there was no nation in all of asia which xerxes did not bring against greece" the great battle that embodies heroism was fought at Thermopylea, King Leonidas along with his 300 men fought with amazing gallantry and althought the outcome was foredoomed amazing success Greece went on from loosing this battle so heroically to along with the Spartans avenging their King finally defeat the Persians in 479B.C at Plataea, for if that war had been lost, the whole Greek civilization would have been lost with it, the entire continent of europe might have shared an Asian culture and speak in Asian tongues

Answer 5

hi    the battle seen in the film 300  was  called the battle of  thermopyla which was  in 480BC the battle  they held them back for 3 days  after 3 days  a greek called ephialtes  betrayed  them  by telling the perishs  about   a path that lead behind the spartans.  there were really 2300 men   300 of them were spartans . . in those  3 days  athens  built up a huge navy  and came and   crashs the perish  attackes pushing them back   which led to other wars adn battle   as for there training  yes  they left at the age of 7 bathed in wine at birth to see if they could stand the toxins and that 12 sent to see if they coudl brave the wild