As I understand it, what the deay at Thermopylae gave the Greeks was time for the Athenians to evacuate their sity and get the population over to the island of Salamis along with the population of a number of other Greek cities in the Persian line of march. This is part of what led the others to adopt Themistocles' strategy of fighting in the Straits of Salamis and, believe me on this, the Athenian navy was not up to the task alone. Of some 310 ships on the Greek side, Athens provided 150 or thereabouts against over 500 ships in the Persian fleet. The advantage of the site of the Straits of Salamis was that the tight confines limited the advantage that the Persian numerical superiority had.

[quote="Thomas Watt"]

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As to the battles/campaign itself, it seems that the Greeks managed to find conditions and circumstances in which they could exploit their strengths and minimize their weaknesses. Perhaps the Persians could have chosen a better ground to fight had they had better scouting/intel? Or perhaps the sheer size/weight of their army led to overconfidence?

Well the Persians had managed to overcome the Ionian Greek States. I believe they had also forced the Greek force out of a similar position somewhat to the north in a flanking move not long before this battle. I suspect Persia had good reason to believe it could overcome heavy infantry with a combined arms approach, and they eventually did in this engagement. The only question is the wisdom of how they did it in this case. Was there a better way and could they have really guessed the engagement would turn into what it did?

After all Persia won the battle, and soon took Athens.

Salamis and its impact on the ability to supply the force deployed was probably much more critical. With an intact navy the Persians still might have made the Spartan stand into a footnote in their history.

An interesting note, more Greeks fought on behalf of the Persians than for the Greek alliance. The Greek alliance bedevilled the Persians. Something to be said about fighting for homeland, whether Sparta and it's subject territories - or Athens and it's allies and subjected territories...

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HAHAHAHAH im talkin to my sis right now about how much she hated the movie! and we are arguing because i loved the it!!!! GO SEE 300!!!!

it was based on a comic book so dont base it on reality! allthough i though that the Samuri Ninja Orcs :eek: were kinda funny!!

great stuff.....made me wanna hit the gym though.

I was just very disappointed that none of the other groups of the Greek army are even present in the movie and I find that as a great dishonor to them who fought just as bravely as the Spartans. That and giving the Spartans superman like abilities downplayed the true braviery and skill of the Greeks.

Because it came up in this thread as a question of how the Greeks might feel about this movie, it seems the jury is beginning to come in.

"Greek audiences showed notable fervor for Zack Snyder's violent adaptation of Frank Miller's graphic novel about the battle of Thermopylae. "300" set a record for best Greek opening with $3.1 million at 138, topping last summer's "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" even though the latter opened with 100 more prints."

From http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117961266.h...3&cs=1

I do nothing social or public without including my wife and little boy, so I won't be going to see it at the theaters, but I definitely plan to add this movie to my collection of DVDs. From what I've seen, it looks absolutely gorgeous. I can't think of a more appropriate word to describe the scenes I've been able to watch.

Brian

Oh, there is a scene where some allies show up and complain that the Spartan are only 300 and they do participate in the fight and story in a minor way. ( More minor than historically correct I believe, but there is mention of allies ).

Forgetting a bit about all the over the top and inaccurate Persian costume / weapons etc ..... ( Which are more incorrect than the Greek stuff ) I think the story itself seems reasonably accurate ?

I have the old " The 300 Spartans " of 1961 with Richard Egan and the story line of this much older film is not that far from this movie. ( No giant War Rhino thought :p ) Even the line about " if you want our spears come and get them ! " )

So, unless I go back to some of my books and refresh my memory, it seems at least superficially the " core " of the story is respected if not the outside " form ". :confused: .

So any opinions about where they get the story right and where they get it wrong ?

I wonder why the Persians decided to attack the Greek army in such a strong position and allowed the Greek naval covering force to slip away unmolested. Obviously the Persians knew they could take the pass, and they were right about it. Still, from what I've stumbled across recently it appears that the Athenian navy alone trying to prevent an amphibious movement, something the Persians had done before to bypass a Greek position.

Damage that naval asset enough and maybe Salamis, which really did hurt the Persians, plays differently. Its interesting to me that the Persians seemed to be very aware of combined arms and naval movement, but not some much here.

I may be speaking out of a wrong end here :\ , but I remember reading somewhere that the entire battle was pretty useless form Greek point of view. They were already making plans to collect a large army and meet the invading Persians on the plains. The Leonidas' army had only stopped the Persians for three days, not really buying a great amount of time. The king was largely a ceremonial figure, the real decision makers in Sparta didn't really want to let Leonidas go and fight a battle that didn't fit in the overall warplan, and the only reason it happened was because the Oracle at Delphi said that a Spartan king must sacrifice himself in the battle at Thermopylae (sp) for Greeks to win the war.

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