300: The Rise Of An Empire

Aeschylus’ The Persians is an Athenian tragedy with a moral purpose designed to reaffirm the power of the Greek gods. In the play, Xerxes’ invasion of Greece is presented as an example of hubris or excessive pride, which must be punished by the gods. Xerxes actions lead to the downfall of his empire and the demoralization of Xerxes. The Persians was written for a Greek audience so naturally it is biased and inconsistent.

To a certain degree the characteristics of his youth, despite his own affirmation of ‘breaking and training’, beneficially prevail to adulthood. The roman biographer Cornelius Nepos ascertains that ‘The vices of his early youth were compensated by great virtues’. These same vices, his impulsive attitude in the public life, were responsible for the very virtuous achievements he is referring to. In fact these character traits foreshadow the decisions he would make years later in the Persian Wars. Comparatively, his impulsiveness matured into a cunning and uncontrollable determination in the face of authority. He was cleverly deceitful in the construction of a fleet of triremes, he was uncompromising against the Spartan commander Eurybiades at the first gathering at Corinth in 480 BC, and he was determined to get his own way in vital battles such as Salamis and Artemisium whether that required deceiving those authorities above him or not. Plutarch, Nepos, and Themistocles himself all refer to a degree of uncontrollable yet cunning determination that serves a great purpose in Greece’s victory over Persia.

Imagine having to face impossible odds, if failed, would kill you. This is exactly what the Spartans had to face when they were protecting their home. The movie 300, directed by Zack Snyder tells the story of the courage and solidarity of King Leonidas (Gerard Butler) and his army of three hundred Spartans who fought the army of King Xerxes (Rodrigo Santoro) and his colossal Persian army to their deaths. In 300, producers cover the Spartan life, the Spartan women, and the Battle of Thermopylae.

The film 300 is set around the legendary battle of Thermopylae between the persians and Spartans. The primary source that is used by all historians studying the battle, and the filmmakers are accounts of the battle recorded by ancient greek historian Herodotus, Herodotus provides historians with a step by account of the battles throughout his 7th volume of histories.

Byzantine merchants in Constantinople were situated along routes going in every direction and maintained direct commercial links with manufacturers and other merchants from all over Europe and Asia. Byzantium drew enormous amounts of wealth from the control of trade and the levying of customs duties on merchandise that passed through (Bentley, Ziegler, & Streets-salter, n.d.). Therefore, success came easily to Byzantine merchants, who enjoyed a very strong position in international trade. Eventually, the purchasing power of Byzantine merchants became such that it could influence prices in markets as far as Cairo and Alexandria (Laiou & Cecile, 2007). Also, in response to their success, emperors gave merchants the right to become members of the Senate (Laiou & Cecile, 2007).

The Roman empire is considered one of the most powerful and longest lasting empire of all time by most historians. At its peak the Roman empire managed to take control and rule nearly the whole inhabited world at the time. Though their military achievements were outstanding the Romans also excelled at legislature. The Romans ran a governmental system which was most like a republic which the power was in the hand of the senators and patricians. The senators and patricians were mostly extremely rich elders of the community who linked themselves to gods. Though the people were the ones who voted for the senators the rich always voted who they wanted because they were the first to vote which made the senate corrupt since the lower classes barely got a say. Although the Roman empire was extremely successful historians are always doing research to figure out what elements led to its collapse. However, the Roman legislature, use of propaganda to sway public opinion, military power to conquer lands, and philosophy were essential reasons for the extended survival of the Roman empire.

There was a man named Leonidas his head was framed by his long hair. The lean skin of the warriors face, its color gone, stands out all the more against a short and pointed beard. Leonidas son of Anaxandrides, commander in chief of the Greek resistance to Persia at Thermopylae, died in a heroic last stand. After the battle, as Xerxes son of Darius toured the battlefield, he came upon Leonidas Body and ordered the beheading of the corpses and the impalement of the severed head on the pole. One of those who no doubt saw Leonidas, the three hundred Spartans stood and fell and took the pride of the Persian Empire down with them. Sparta the steadfast and self-sacrificing, Greece unflagging in its fight for freedom, Xerxes the flummoxed, Demaratus

Amidst the diversity of ideas and concepts that Herodotus develops throughout his History, the notion that highly different political structures do exist and may eventually clash is a prominent one. In accord with Herodotus’ manner of incidentally placing the essential cores of his arguments and observations in microcosmic episodes scattered across the body of his narrative, the exchange between Xerxes and Demaratus in passages 101-105 of Book 7 serves as a gateway into exploring and discussing the ways in which the Greeks and the Persians differ, both politically and socially. Through the contrast between the Greeks and the Persians that the conversation depicts, Herodotus advances his narrative-wide delineation of the disparity between the

Themistocles travels to Sparta to request help from King Leonidas and his army. He walks in on a training session where a group of Spartans beat down on one man as he tries to fight back. The man gets bloodied up good.. Themistocles encounters Dilios (David Wenham), who tells him that Leonidas has already begun to lead his men on foot, adding that he already dealt with the emissary sent from Persia. Queen Gorgo speaks with Themistocles to tell him that the Spartans do not share the same ideal of a free nation in the same way that he does.

I agree with you that Mr. Wilson was very close minded with his generalized way of thinking and addressed all people by the same name like they were just another number or public property. Racism did play a big role in the past but supposedly that was something invented in America. At first, we had indentured servants that consisted of English and African Americans and some African Americans took the skills they learned from the servitude and started successful businesses afterword’s. But then white Americans got greedy and wanted to keep them for life. If you watch the movie 300 which is supposedly an accurate depiction of the battle that took place there was black kings and it wasn’t a problem nor did, they treat them any differently. Sorry

It was the age of great beginnings, the invention of the teleportation device, worker bots, chemically engineered instant meals, the invention of anti-gravity devices, teleportation, vehicles, and everything anyone would ever want, well at least mostly everyone. It may have been the greatest time to live for most but not for Mr. Wright, the oldest man in the town at 70. Despite his age he never asked anyone for any help he

I found four major internal conflicts present in the film: Leonidas’ unspoken love for his wife, Captain’s unspoken love for his son, Ephialtes’ desire to be needed and wanted, and Queen Gorgo’s struggle to determine how far she will go to help her husband. I believe the film is meant to be symbolic for freedom and the need for people’s sacrifice in the name of freedom. In the film there are 300 Spartans standing up to Xerxes and his, supposedly, millions of soldiers. The 300 not only willing put their life on the line they consider it an honor to fight and die for the freedom of their city and its people. 300 also has bit of irony in it, too. The 300 Spartans quite possibly could have held back Xerxes at Thermopylae if it had not been for Ephialtes. Ephialtes felt betrayed by Leonidas so, he informed the Persian command of a hidden trail that would allow them to flank the Spartans and ultimately lead to their defeat. The film is able to make the characters very relatable. There are plenty of close-ups and intense scores of music during important moments to help build emotion. These moments allow you to feel what the characters are feeling and help you to experience their internal struggles.

Frank Miller’s 300 the movie is probably the few adaptations of comic books to films that has managed to stay true to the original source and the success the movie 300 made globally is a testament of such, however in every successful film there is always the downsides of it especially if the original source is a comic book and therefore there is the expectations between the comic reader audience and the cinema audience.

History is a subject that is interesting in one way or another to almost all people. Different stories from different culture hold multitudes of information for people of our world today to be able to research and understand. Throughout history, each and every story that is told throughout textbooks and artifacts that are found to be true possess a sense of fascination to people who view it. Due to the fact that so many historical stories of the lives of different people and civilizations, in our modern world today our entertainment businesses tend to want to recreate these interesting historical times through varieties of movies. An example of how our world today has tried to recreate the history of different civilizations through the motion picture film of 300: Rise of an Empire. This movie depicts the Greek and Persian civilizations during ancient times. Warner Brothers Entertainment goes to recreate the battles between these two civilizations. Although this is what they tried to do, entertainment is what is most important. With entertainment being the key to making this movie, the historical accuracy is going to vary throughout the film. 300: Rise of an Empire is a movie that does have historical accuracies that give the audience a realistic depiction of the civilizations at this time, however, many inaccuracies have caused this movie to not be considered a reliable source in terms of history.

The movie 300 portrays the Spartans as mean and cruel, which is accurate, but they were much more vile than the movie makes them out to be. The Greeks would conquer neighboring land and make them their own, and slave owning and trading was very popular, especially among the Spartans (Miller). The movie also makes all of the Spartans that are fighting seem like they are all trained soldiers, but in reality, most of them were slaves back then. During one scene in the action film, the King, Leonidas, tells the Persian leader, Xerxes, that the Spartans will win the war because he does not have as many warriors as him, “I might as well have marched them up here, judging by what I've seen. You have many slaves, Xerxes, but few warriors. It won't be long before they fear my spears more than your whips.” (300). Leonidas has a good point, Xerxes does have many slaves in his army, but