In 480 BC, Xerxes, son of Darius, King of Persia, was in full preparation to invade Greece. At this time, Athens, the leader of the Greek City states, manifested the whole Western civilization through her architecture, drama, poetry, sculpture, philosophy and more. This was the prize that Xerxes sought to gain.

Sparta, another city-state, yet Greek by blood, was absolutely a militaristic society. She personified DUTY-HONOR-COUNTRY. Mothers would tell their sons "bring your shield home or be on it." King Leonidas, a Spartan, had agreed to help stop the invading Persians, and took 300 hand picked troops plus 1000 helots (citizen soldiers) and marched to Thermopylae on the North coast of Greece. Leonidas would have taken far more soldiers except for a religious holiday that apparently was more important. On the way to Thermopylae he picked-up about 7000 more troops as had been preplanned.

Thermopylae was the best of three possible defensive areas in which Xerxe's invading army had to advance. This mountain gap along the coast was about 60 feet wide, and was the best location for a blocking action. The word was "stand and die," but this was only meaningful to the 300 Spartans. After three days of fighting and having killed countless numbers of Xerxe's elite troops, they were finally overrun and the 300 Spartans were killed to the man, including King Leonidas. The other 7000 either departed or surrendered.

These three days of fighting are similar to the Greek resistance against Mussolini in World War II, where Mussolini had to ask Hitler for help and Nazi troops, which would have stopped the Allied invasion in Europe, were forced to divert to put down the Greeks infused with the spirit of King Leonidas. King Leonidas and his troops gave the rest of Greece more time to mobilize and increased their morale. Xerxe's invasion timetable was completely thrown off and he eventually withdrew.

When Leonidas was preparing to make his stand, a Persian envoy arrived. The envoy explained to Leonidas the futility of trying to resist the advance of the huge Persian army.