Basket.

Right... for some reason Tag-Board.com is out of business. New tag board is up though. Go wild.


300

I've never seen a movie trailer this good since... um, ever. Based on Frank Miller's eponymous graphic novel (which I have never, ever had the good fortune to locate), it tells the story of one of the most famous last stands in history: that of the Spartans at Thermopylae.

The Spartans, of course, need little introduction. Some of the most fearsome warriors that ever drew breath, their legacy lives on today in our language: "spartan", meaning austere, and "laconic" (from Laconia, the region of Greece where ancient Sparta was located), describing dry wit. A nation of professional soldiers, every Spartan, male and female, was trained from infancy to be inhumanly fit; and every single male was trained never to retreat, never to surrender, and as the trailer states, that death in battle was the greatest glory.

This is, of course, given that one survived the selection at birth.

And so it came to be that in the summer of 480 BC astride the pass of Thermopylae, Spartan King Leonidas faced Persian King of Kings Xerxes and his army of 250,000 (modern estimates; Herodotus gives an impossible 5 million) with eight thousand hoplites from the united city-states of Hellas, including the soon-to-be famous Three Hundred. The Greco-Persian Wars were by then nearly two decades old, dating from Hellenic aid to Persia's revolting Ionian colonies in the Ionian Revolt of 499-494 BC. Xerxes' predecessor Darius attempted to avenge himself at Marathon in 490 BC, but his landing force was crushed and a famous foot-race born. Ten years on, Xerxes had assembled possibly the mightiest army yet seen to avenge his father's defeat.

For two days the greatly-outnumbered Greeks held off the massive Persian host; truly an army of a hundred nations. The formidable Greek phalanx was simply unbreakable; a familiar story that would be repeated down the ages until Alexander of Macedon. Even Xerxes' elite Immortals could not break the stout defence. In the end, it was treachery that ended the brave Greek stand, as a local shepherd, Ephialtes, agreed to lead the Persians into a separate path that would enable them to outflank the pass of Thermopylae.

When Leonidas, received the news, he dismissed all his allies and prepared to stand fast with his 300-strong agema and their assorted servants, shield bearers and camp followers. A force of 700 Thespians elected to stay with him - these camp followers and Thespians are the unsung heroes of the battle, almost never remembered in history as also having fought and died at Thermopylae. Thousands of Persians were to die before this tiny force was finally overwhelmed.

Xerxes went on to take and sack Athens, but then suffered decisive defeat at Salamis, another of the most famous battles in history and one of the few truly decisive naval engagements (other examples being Actium and Lepanto). Forced the end the invasion by the destruction of his fleet, the King of Kings returned across the Hellespont, leaving Mardonius with a large army in Greece to complete the conquest. This force was to meet annihilation the very next year at Plataea, where the Spartan commander Pausanias left yet another worthy quote: "Behold the folly of the Persian, who forsook such splendour to plunder such poverty." - as he gazed around the tent of his dead Persian counterpart.

Sparta's history after that is less glorious; falling out with one-time ally Athens, the two powers fought in the lengthy and ruinous Peloponnesian War (431 - 404 BC). Sparta won and briefly held hegemon over Greece, but a falling native birth rate and continued desultory warfare undermined its power. The myth of Spartan invincibility was finally broken at Leuctra (371 BC) by the brilliant Theban statesman and general Epaminondas. Soon after, Philip of Macedon was to end Greek independence - and soon after that, his son Alexander was to end the Persian Achaemenid Empire.

In conclusion, I can't wait for this movie to come to Singapore.