In 480 b.c Xerxes, the son of the King of Persia, prepared to invade Greece. Leonidas, a Spartan king, agreed to help stop the invading prussians to give the rest of Greece time to mobilize its army. He decided that the best defensive position was Thermopylae, where a 4 mile long pass narrowed to 60 feet or less, Xerxes would have to cross this pass the reach the rest of Greece.
Leonidas picked up 7,000 troops in addition to his own 300 on his way to Thermopylae but these did not beleive in the Spartan stand "stand and die" and most fled or surrendered once the fighting began. It was up to Leonidas and his 300 spartan soldiers to hold back the force of 200,000 persians.
An oracle said that Sparta would be destroyed unless one of its kings was killed Scholars still debate wheather King Leonidas refused to surrender because he feared the oracle's prophecy or because he simply wanted to hold of the Persians as long as possible
the rest of the article would spoil the movie so i wont post it
