Summer, 480 BC. An army so vast it drank rivers dry on the march was pouring into Greece. Xerxes (the Persian God-King who ruled from Egypt to India) commanded over a million men, and he sent a messenger ahead to a narrow mountain pass called Thermopylae with what he considered a generous offer: surrender your weapons, submit, and you will receive fertile lands as honored allies of the Great King.
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Crowns & Conquests·3/3·1′
The place
Thermopylae - The Hot Gates
Molon Labe — Come and Take Them
The two words that defined defiance forever
480 BCEThermopylae - The Hot Gates
Moral of the Story
“True defiance needs no eloquence. Two words can carry the weight of an entire civilization's values when spoken by someone who means them.”
Characters
K
King Leonidas (the Spartan king who refused to kneel)X
Xerxes (the Persian God-King who commanded millions)T
The 300 Spartans (warriors trained from age seven to die well)Source
Plutarch's Sayings of the Spartans (Leonidas 11), Herodotus's Histories (Book 7)