300. Just got back from Midnight opening...

No societies are perfect...and yes, those were very rough times. Which exactly, still exist in one variant form or other, today. Mankind's history is mired with it.

Felon said:
You had me up until you started going on about freedom and defying tyranny and oppression. Reality check: the Spartans themselves weren't exactly heroic champions of personal liberties, except for those liberties you could take by force. The movie does not shy away from demonstrating that, particularly early on with the scenes of unfit babies being discarded onto a trash heap and seven-year-old kids being confiscated as government property. True, they were the underdogs in this film, so we root for them naturally, but there plenty of times when the Spartans were the big bullies. And proud of it.

I'm not one for judging ancient societies by modern values--rather, I'm saying we ought not to do exactly that.
 

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I could make a long spiel about morality, but morality is something WE create and give meaning. All morality is ultimately arbitrary and worthless outside the group that creates and honors it. The only thing that truly matters in the case of Thermopylae is courage.

The most enormous, unstoppable military force the classical mediterrainian world had ever seen turned its gaze and its hungry maw on a small fractious and divided peninsula. A place with but a tiny fraction of Persia's population and resources, that hated each other as much as any external foe. Athens was a naval not a land power but even its navy couldn't stop an invasion force of such size. When an army that can very conservatively be estimated at between 250k-300k men from an empire that could have concievably raised and supported an army of between 750k and 1000k men at full war footing on a temporary basis and many refused to face the threat.

Fifteen thousand to start with, but those fairweather friends left them. Left just 7000 proud Theban hoplites spearheaded by some 300 of the greatest warriors to trod the face of the earth. And against an army so massive it boggles the imagination those few held the pass until betrayed. Battered and broke their enemies like pinatas under a steamhammer soaking the ground with the blood of their foes. After armour and shield were shattered and weapons were rendered useless. Until fighting with bare hand and teeth they were still so dangerous that the Persians were forced to finish them with archers because sending troops to meet them face-to face was too costly.

Regardless of morality or immorality, good or evil, or anything else. These are deeds so great they must be remembered for so long as even a single man draws breath. Because to forget what they did would prove ourselves not men but worthless wretches.
 

HeavenShallBurn said:
Regardless of morality or immorality, good or evil, or anything else. These are deeds so great they must be remembered for so long as even a single man draws breath. Because to forget what they did would prove ourselves not men but worthless wretches.
Nice sound bite.
 


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