The Battle of Thermopylae, the name of the battle means nothing to most people's ears. Recent films have portrayed the events of the battle as an over-the-top Hollywood movie that left out a few key points. A search began soon after to find out what really happened during the battle and how close the film's story was to reality. In JD Miller's article "Thermopylae", all pre-history as well as post-history can be seen. By 525 BC, the Persian Empire had grown from a small kingdom to a huge empire stretching from Troy to present-day Russia. King Darius was their leader at the time, and oddly enough, Darius was an imposter on the throne. When the previous king had passed on to the next life, Darius had claimed to be his brother and they all believed him. In 490 BC, the new leader was Xerxes, the famous god-king. Xerxes had just won a marathon victory and his troops wanted another, the view of the narrow passage between two mountains defended by more than seven thousand Greeks and three hundred Spartans. In two days, the Persian army defeated everything it had in defense of the Greeks. Xerxes knew he needed a quick victory, otherwise his army of over two hundred thousand men and fifty thousand cavalry would run out of supplies very quickly. It was not until a Greek traitor came to Xerxes, telling him of a secret goat path that would lead his army behind the Greek position. On the third day, the battle ended quickly when the Persian army surrounded the three hundred Spartans and four hundred free Greeks who remained to ensure the retreat of the remaining Greeks. Looking at this article, it's safe to say that the film depicts some aspects of the battle. Alright. The entire middle of the paper failed very early in the battle. As I read these articles and many others, I found more and more things to take away from the film. Even if all my sources of information I encountered seemed to follow each other very well. As I expanded my basic knowledge on the subject, I found an endless stream of general information. At this point, I forced myself to stop my research and came to the conclusion that about sixty percent of the film was historically accurate. In conclusion, all the research collected left one question unanswered. What would have happened if there had not been a Greek traitor? With all the advanced armor, tactics, and supplies, it is conceivable that the Greeks could have defeated the Persian army. If this had happened, the Persians would not have burned Greece and the future of the world might be different..