300 Spartans (1962)
Director: Rudolph Mate
Cast: Richard Egan, Ralph Richardson, Diane Baker, Barry Coe
A not very good film about the lead-up to the battle of the Greeks against the Persians at Thermopylae. The battle became celebrated in history and literature as an example of heroic resistance against great odds.
Historical Background:
553 -- Cyrus II, the Great, of Persia (to -529) conquers Lydia, the Medes, and Babylonia, transforming Persia into vast empire.
529 -- Cyrus II is succeeded by his son Cambyses II (to -522), who conquers Egypt and has himself crowned Pharaoh.
522 -- Darius I (to -485) divides the Persian empire into 20 provinces (satrapies), introduces far-reaching reforms including a common currency, regular taxes, a standing army.
500 -- GREEK CLASSICAL PERIOD (500-323)
492 -- Darius I demands tribute of earth and water from Greece.
490-479 -- Greek-Persian War
490 -- Persian army defeated by Greeks under Miltiades at Marathon.
488 -- Miltiades, in disgrace, dead.
485 -- Darius I, of Persia, dead; Persian decline begins.
485 -- Xerxes I, king of Persia (to -465)
480 -- Spartans under King Leonidas defeated by Persians at Thermopylae.
Modern Greek Thermopílai is a narrow pass on the east coast of central Greece about 85 miles northwest of Athens. In antiquity its cliffs were by the sea.
In August 480 BC, during the second Persian invasion of Greece, a small Greek force under the Spartan king Leonidas defended Attica and Boeotia against the southward advance of Xerxes' Persian army. Meanwhile the Greek fleet at nearby Cape Artemesium fought off the Persian navy.
Leonidas' troops hold the pass for three days until the Persians, guided along another mountain pass by the Greek traitor Ephialtes, outflanks them. Leonidas fights a rearguard action to delay the Persians with 300 Spartans, their helots, and 1,100 Boeotians, all of whom die in battle.
480 -- Athens is burned by Xerxes I, the Acropolis destroyed.
480 -- Athenians destroy Persian fleet at Battle of Salamis.
479 -- Persians capture and destroy Babylon.
479 -- Greeks under the Spartan general, Pausanias, defeat Persians at Plataea.
479 -- Persians capture and destroy Babylon.
477 to -449 -- Cimon, son of Miltiades, campaigns against the Persians.
466 -- Cimon destroys the Persian army and navy at the Battle of the Eurymedon.
461-429 -- Pericles dominant in Athenian politics; the "Periclean Age."
458 Aeschylus, Oresteia
c. 450-420 Herodotus composes his Histories about the Persian War.
449 -- Persians, finally defeated at Salamis in Cyprus, recognize in the Peace of Callias the independence of the Greek cities.
447 -- Parthenon begun in Athens
441 Sophocles, Antigone
431-404 Peloponnesian War (Athens and allies vs. Sparta and allies)
429 -- Pericles dies
c. 428 -- Sophocles, Oedipus Rex
c. 424-400 -- Thucydides composes his History of the Peloponnesian War.
423 -- Aristophanes, Clouds
c. 405 -- Euripides, Bacchae
404 -- Athens loses Peloponnesian War to Sparta
399 -- Trial and death of Socrates
399-347 -- Plato writes his philosophical dialogues
384 -- Aristotle born
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