Quote:
Originally Posted by xerxes
...Love to see how a mere 300 fought against a million madmen. Must be truely the pinnacle of Western greatness crowned, spiced-up and adorned by Greek exageration.
|
Lol. Well, I read one of the problems with ancient historical sources is that, Greek sources in particular, tend to say 'a million' when they actually meant more like 'much larger numbers than us, not sure how many'. Given the logistics / technology of the time, most modern historians reduce those 'estimates' of a 'million' by a factor of 10 or so (i.e. 100,000). It's also interesting that the '300' Spartans have gone down in legend, but the 1,700 or so 'allies' who were also present seem to have been forgotten. Of course, it's also about how a relatively small number of 'elite' troops can hold off a much larger number of 'average' troops, given the limited frontage of the pass.