[rooboy]

Originally Posted by WanderingKnight

Yeah, OK, but you have to consider that they had to be extremely good fighters. Facing a couple of enemies in a row, I can concede, but for wiping out such huge numbers you'd need godlike stamina.

But then again, I'm not fully informed about the battle and I'm too lazy to look for any info on it.

Spoiler:

The Battle of Thermopylae is famous for showing that tactics and superior training can turn the tide against any numbers. It is surmised that the only reason they lost is because a Greek (I can't remember his name - in the movie he's a stunted dwarf, though no historical account indicates this to be true) showed Xerxes how to come around behind the position they were defending. The Spartans _were_ extremely good fighters, renowned among all the city states for it. When Xerxes realized he wasn't going to force his way into the pass (he initially sent newly conquered fodder to try to take the pass through sheer numbers), he sent the Immortals in (fanatical Persian warriors - in the movie they're the ones wearing the funny masks). The Spartans slaughtered them. On the second day when the Persians attacked, morale was crippled as they had to climb over the bodies of their own men.

The battle was so bad for the Persians that Xerxes desecrated Leonidas' body upon recovering it - a very abnormal behavior for the Persians, who typically treated their defeated enemies with special reverence. Most importantly, Thermopylae literally turned the tide of the war. Xerxes expected to roll through Greece (as, indeed, he had through much of the ancient world). He offered Leonidas the kingship of all Greece if he would stand aside. Leonidas replied that it was better to die for a free Greece then be king over all the city states. Xerxes then demanded that Leonidas surrender his army's weapons, and Leonidas said, "Come take them." That is now the motto of the Greek first army corp.