And this list only includes land battles in which the Spartans were defeated; the Spartans rarely ever won sea battles. Once you know that the Spartan economy rested primarily on the backbreaking labor of a brutally oppressed class of serfs, that really changes the way you think about the Battle of Thermopylai. Heart? Unlike the historical Aristodemos, however, Dilios is not portrayed as being regarded as a coward and he is sent back to Sparta to tell the story of the Spartans who died at Thermopylai—not because of an eye infection. According to Greek writers, the Spartans lived in constant fear of the helots rebelling, since they knew that the helots greatly outnumbered them. Sign up for our daily newsletter to receive personalized movie news for Enter your email address to subscribe to Tales of Times Forgotten and receive notifications of new posts by email. Why Is Hollywood So Fixated on Cleopatra Anyway? There’s no way anyone can watch this film without thinking, “Whoever made this movie was extremely gay and trying very, very hard (but very, very badly) to hide it.”, ABOVE: Scene of the naked bodies of Leonidas and the other Spartans lying strewn all over the ground at Thermopylai, as though sleeping after all-male orgy—one of many shots in the film that seem almost deliberately homoerotic, The important later history 300 leaves out.

Once again, the depiction is stylized, but it should still give you a decent impression of what Xerxes I looked like. ABOVE: Map from Wikimedia Commons illustrating military actions during the Ionian Revolt. It has become common for debunkers of 300 to blame Greek historians—in particular Herodotos—for the gratuitously racist portrayal of the Persians in 300. Herodotos explicitly tells us in his Histories that a significant bulk of Xerxes I’s army was made up of Greeks from the northern regions of Thrake, Makedonia, and Thessalia.

!” No? Meanwhile, much of the rhetoric in the film focuses heavily on the Spartans’ supposed invincibility. My Wife! In addition to pointing out some of the inaccuracies in the film, I would also like to point out that the film actually leaves out a lot of important later history that completely changes the narrative. The three hundred Spartans were not Leonidas I’s personal bodyguards. I did delve into that irony a little bit with this article I wrote back in April 2017 titled “What Three Hated Symbols Used to Mean Before They Were Hijacked by Extremists.” I did not discuss the history of the term Aryan in this article, however, because the film did not use that term.

Under Xerxes I’s orders, the Persians retrieved Leonidas I’s body.

free! Even Herodotos’s portrayal of Xerxes I is not uniformly negative. Other articles where Ephialtes is discussed: Thermopylae: …pass by the Greek traitor Ephialtes, outflanked them. The ancient tradition of portraying heroes in their full naked glory is known today as “heroic nudity.”. Dilios is, however, extremely loosely based on the historical figure of Aristodemos because, like Aristodemos, he is portrayed as surviving the Battle of Thermopylai and later fighting in the Battle of Plataia. The ephors are explicitly described by the narrator of the film as “worthless remnants of a time before Sparta’s ascent from darkness, remnants of a senseless tradition, a tradition even Leonidas cannot defy.” All of this is, of course, wildly inaccurate. The Greeks who stayed behind at Thermopylai to fight alongside Leonidas I and his Spartans may have fought bravely, but they all died and they accomplished nothing apart from possibly giving the other Greeks a little bit more time to retreat. For the purposes of this article, however, I will be focusing on the film, both because it is more prominent in popular culture and because I honestly have not read the comic book. The ancient Greek biographer and Middle Platonist philosopher Ploutarchos of Chaironeia (lived c. 46 – c. 120 AD) records in his Life of Lykourgos that the ephors were first introduced as government officials during the reign of King Theopompos, who is said to have ruled in around the early seventh century BC or thereabouts. I’m not just reading this into the film; other people have noticed this too. Here is a detail of Xerxes I from the relief: Xerxes I is also depicted in a Persian relief carving from his tomb at Naqsh-e Rostam, in which he is shown wearing long robes and carrying a bow. In the film, most Spartans are implied to no longer believe in the gods. For instance, as I have already noted, in historical reality, the ephors were government officials who served one-year terms. I was so embarrassed by the depiction of nudity on the cover of the book that I taped pieces of paper over the warriors’ genitals to hide the fact that they were naked when I brought the book to school. It is also essential to emphasize how incredibly limited Spartan citizenship was. I do not think Herodotos includes this scene to portray Xerxes as weak, but rather to show that even Xerxes was capable of compassion. The Corinthian War concluded with the so-called “King’s Peace,” a peace agreement on Persian terms. The Achaemenid Persians had a general policy of letting the peoples they conquered keep their culture, keep their language, keep their identity, keep their traditions, keep their religion, and, in many cases, even keep their government. This rebellion had resulted in considerable destruction, including the burning of the Persian city of Sardis, before it was ultimately put down.

As for the “belated happy birthday” bit… well, let’s just say it’s extremely “belated.” Thank you anyways, though. In historical reality, very few Persians would have been what we would call “black.”. Consequently, pretty much the entire Spartan economy rested on their backs. Under this treaty, all the Greek city-states of Asia Minor as well as the islands of Kypros and Klazomenai were returned to the Persians.

Belated happy birthday and thank you for the brilliant work you do. Thank you for your appreciation. The clear message of the film is that white Europeans and so-called “western civilization” are good and that non-whites are evil barbarians who want to take away the freedom of white Europeans. The Spartans refused to speak to him or give him kindling for his fire and they persistently taunted him as “Aristodemos the Trembler.” Herodotos records, however, that Aristodemos fought bravely in the Battle of Plataia.

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