What was the true story of the 300 spartans and the persians?

Question

What was the true story of the 300 spartans and the persians?

Answer 1

You can check out the history chanel.com and see the historical facts ... not the movie...   Most of the stuff in the movie was factional, but not the crazy monsters ....  Hope you can open the link.. it not go to history.com and search for "300"..

http://www.history.com/media.do?mediaTyp...

Answer 2

It was the same, except there were no in-mortals and weird goat head creatures.

Answer 3

this is the best decription of the battle i can find

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_T...

it is fairly accurate as far as I can tell

Answer 4

It is a bit more complex than usually stated.  The 300 were allowed to go to thermoplye by the council after being asked by the Greek aliance.  After all, why not put the finest warriers in charge and Leonidas was considered a fine commander.  The Soartains traveded to the hot gates with 900 helots (3 per warrior) and several thousand other Greek hoplites.  Wehn Leonidas new that there could not be a victory, he sent the majority of Greek hoplites back to fight another day.  Aprox 1000 thesbians remained behind.  After the deaths of all the Spartans, however, most of the Thesbians surrendered.  This battle never could have made a difference if the Athenian fleet has not won the battle of Salamis and defeated Xerxies on water.. The two are interlaced, both necessary to reach the desired end.

Answer 5

Well, the true story includes more than just 300 Spartans, since numerous other Greek allies were present with the Spartan contingent. The total number of Greek forces, with a certain amount of disagreement on the particulars, is generally accepted to be roughly between 2500-6000. This included, but was not limited to, significant numbers of Phocians, Thespians, and Arcadians, as well as at least 500 spartan slaves known as Helots. (Some Helots were given freedom after having fulfilled certain military duties. But they mostly served as arms and armor bearers, logistical attendants, but also as warriors.)

The battle occured when the Greek city-states met the invading Persian armies of Xerxes, son of King Darius I, who failed to conquer the Greeks in the First Persian War after the Athenians defeated him at Marathon in 490 BC. The Battle of Thermopylae, 480 BC, marks the first important event of the Second Persian War.

The point of the Spartan contingent holding the pass at Thermopylae was to garner enough time for the Athenian fleet to prepare to attack the Persian fleet. This was the resounding success of the Battle of Salamis, which probably would have been a failure for Athens had the Spartan-led force not held the massive Persian army at bay for three days.

The Persians, with a force nearing 270,000 troops, suffering a great number of losses (far more disportionate to the Greek losses), eventually overcame the Greeks after three days. The story goes that the Greeks were betrayed by a local named Ephialtes, who provided the Persians with information about a hidden mountain path that would allow the Greeks to be encircled.

Check out these resources for the best information that will clear up any questions you might have:

Thermopylae: The Battle for the West, by Ernle Bradford

Thermopylae: The Battle that Changed the World, by Paul Cartledge

Also, there is a very good and  historically accurate fiction work by Steven Pressfield that is well worth reading: Gates of Fire. The accuracy is in the details, not necessarily in the drama of the unfolding events (there is artistic license).

PS As for those people saying that the film was mostly true, they are historically uninformed. The movie is about 20% accurate. Again, the sources I listed will clear up any confusions.

Answer 6

I dont know but that was a really good movie.

Answer 7

Yes, the battle of Thermopylae took place. But the numbers of soldiers that actually fought there is unknown. To think that 300 spartans fended off a million soldiers is a little far fetched. It wasn't only 300 either. They had help from other Greek city-states. They fought the Persian army at a location known as the Gate of h**l. That's where they used their ingenious phalanx formation to even out the odds of being severely outnumbered.

Answer 8

This is film is completely racist,, They made Persians like monsters, which is untrue. Im persian myself, and i think this movie gives false alarms on persian, and telling that they are monsters,, or from h**l..

Its also untrue because no one willl fight with speedos during battle, they would were shields and armor. Also i dont think there were any g**s/Lesbians during B.C,, so its a stupid racist and curel movie to Persians,, heres a icture of how real persians wouldve looked like if they were really at the time..

http://img150.imageshack.us/img150/2162/...

http://img502.imageshack.us/ifs/serve-fr...

http://img516.imageshack.us/img516/9122/...

Answer 9

Just about everything in the film is true- except for the special effects

they did not die out of senseless obstinacy- the remaining Greeks (those who had to retreat because of the encirclement) were foot soldiers- someone had to block the Persian cavalry from giving chase.

And they did- for 3 days.

MOLON LABE!

Answer 10

A small force led by King Leonidas I of Sparta blocked the only road through which the massive army of Xerxes I of Persia could pass. After three days of battle, a local resident named Ephialtes is believed to have betrayed the Greeks by revealing a mountain path that led behind the Greek lines. Dismissing the rest of the army, King Leonidas stayed behind with 300 Spartans, 700 Thespian volunteers, 400 Thebans who had been pressed into service, and 900 Helots.

Answer 11

The true story is the following:

The Battle of Thermopylae is the inial major event of the Second Persian War, the Persian invasion, led by King Xerxes (son of Darius I who was defeated by the Athenians) into the Greek city-states (480 BC).

A Spartan contingent of 300 of their finest, led by King Leonidas, led a Greek allied force of approximately 2700-5500 hoplites and Helots (Spartan slaves) to the mountain pass of Thermopylae. The strategy behind this move was to stall the Persian advance long enough for the Atheinian fleet to destroy the much larger Persian naval force. The Spartan force did their job and the Athenians eventually tricked the Persian fleet into a trap and reduced the Persian fleet to militarly insignificance. The Sparta-led force would have received reinforcements, but Greek religious beliefs prevented them from sending troops during the festival of Karnea.

The Persian forces ranged between 200,000-300,000 troops of various kinds. None of which, however, were ready for the far superior tactics of the Greeks. After three days of intense battle, suppossedly  a Greek who was a Persian sympathizer, revaled a secret moutain path behind the Greek forces, whereby the Persians surrounded the Greeks, killing them to the last man. The Persians, however, sustained heavy losses, proving the superiority of the Greek method of warfare. The Persians did enter the Greek city-sates, but after their failure and defeat at the naval battle of Salamis, they were unable to maintain a significance force in the Greek lands. As a result, the Spartan-led force played a hugely significant role in undermining the Persian invasion.

The movie, despite what many here are saying, is hardly accurate at all. Most of what the movie portrays, including details about daily life, military personnel, battle techniques, and timelines, is either inaccurate, anachronistic, exaggerated, or purely fanciful.

PS: The elite Persian troops were called "The immortals" ,a force of 10,000. The Immortals had a reputation of being an unstoppable force who were the most efficient killers the known world had ever seen. They were not immortal and they were easily stoppable, as the 300 spartans and their Boeothian allies sliced and diced them til they were no more.