I have spent some time studying the Spartans, so this movie interests me. First off, I wish the 300 Spartans had armor. Then there is the fact where we seem to hear the Spartans giving long speeches. This was not the case in Sparta.

To defend the movie, Greeks had a nack for exaggerating victories. If you study Greek historians of the time, you cannot rely on such figures as numbers because they were fudged to make the victory more inspiring.

My gut says who ever created this movie has added hollywood dramatics to a story which needs no added dramitics. Many of the Persian units showed in the trailors simply did not exist in the Persian Army. Maybe I will be proven wrong.

Originally Posted by Doody

I have spent some time studying the Spartans, so this movie interests me. First off, I wish the 300 Spartans had armor. Then there is the fact where we seem to hear the Spartans giving long speeches. This was not the case in Sparta.

To defend the movie, Greeks had a nack for exaggerating victories. If you study Greek historians of the time, you cannot rely on such figures as numbers because they were fudged to make the victory more inspiring.

My gut says who ever created this movie has added hollywood dramatics to a story which needs no added dramitics. Many of the Persian units showed in the trailors simply did not exist in the Persian Army. Maybe I will be proven wrong.

Good observation.

I suggest this book if you are really interested to know more about Persian army of 2500 yrs ago.

Thermopylae: The Battle That Changed the World

by Paul Cartledge (Hardcover - Nov 2, 2006)

I own it along with the fictional story Gates of Fire

Originally Posted by Doody

I own it along with the fictional story Gates of Fire

Good to hear it

Originally Posted by Doody

I have spent some time studying the Spartans, so this movie interests me. First off, I wish the 300 Spartans had armor

Doody, I'm not sure if I'm correct about the Spartans at Thermopylae. I thought they frought in nude for real at 480 BC. They only has red cape, corinthian helmet, sheild, sword, and spear. Correct me if I'm mistake.

Originally Posted by Fox

Doody, I'm not sure if I'm correct about the Spartans at Thermopylae. I thought they frought in nude for real at 480 BC. They only has red cape, corinthian helmet, sheild, sword, and spear. Correct me if I'm mistake.

The Spartans fought with their Cuirass, body armor, until somewhere around 450-425 BC. They would go back to the cuirass in 360 BC. The Spartans also had greaves, leg armor, which they wore until about the same time they shed the cuirass. At the time of Thermopylae, the Spartan greave covered the knee and a good potion of the ankle

A Spartan warrior at Thermopylae might look like this guy...I am not sure if they were fighting nude at this point

Ahh...alright. I know it sound strange that anyone fought in nude but I've been told. But they may be mistake. I'm not sure about that. If I'm Spartan, I'd rather wore the armor like that pic than unprotected attire or nude.

Did Sparta or Spartans disappeared after Alexander The Great's death or crushed by Romans? If not, how did Sparta disappear or what?

The demise of Sparta is definately confusing. The start of the decline happened in 371 BC at the Battle of Leuctra where the Spartans suffered 1,000 dead and their male adult population was cut in half to 1,000. What is really messed up is the families of the survivors were looked down upon their returning men while the families of those who died celebrated.

From there, the Spartans were extremely weak. There is where it gets real confusing. War between the Greeks really hurt the Spartans. At one point, Sparta's Greek enemies freed 6,000 helots (slaves). If you know anything about Spartan culture, the helots were the economic backbone to Sparta. Rome entered the picture around 190 BC. Sparta was too weak to fight to fight either its Greek enemies or Rome at this point. Sparta would continue to decline, but its traditions would be adopted by the Romans.

To me Sparta as an independent city state ended in 190. Sparta still had some fight in her and caused the Romans problems. However, she would become part of the Roman empire. Paul Cartledge's history of the Spartans ends in 14 AD.

as for the nude bit, I know for a fact that they conducted all physical training, to include Spartan women, in the nude.

Can you tell I have too much free time???

I have an interest actually, but mostly on Knossos and Crete.

Seeing the trailer, I would say that its no where near real world, in alot of aspects even. Or maybe because I dont know much about Spartans at that time. So please enlighten me if I am mistaken

As I recall Sparta itself was little more than a village, none of the grand stone structures found in Athens and yet every scene in the trailer shows very large and ornate stone structures.