1900, not 300...


King Leonidas famously and heroicly led the 300 Spartans at the battle of Thermopylae in 480bc against a colossal Persian invasion.

But what we usually don’t hear is that, also fighting to the death alongside that famous 300, were 900 spartan slaves and 700 Greek soldiers. So he really led 1900, still impressive though.

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Yeah, numbers vary. Different histories give different sizes of the Persian force as well, but even the largest estimation of Greeks I've seen (7,000) vs. the smallest estimation of Persians (70,000) would still have been darn impressive. 10:1 is the best odds the Spartans (et al.) faced. From what I've read, 7,000 vs. 300,000 is closer to true. That's crazy. When the heroism of the story is the stand against impossible odds, it holds true regardless of which numbers we see.

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