The vast army of the Persian Empire, a living machine of death and destruction that sweeps everything in its path, threatens to crush Greece, the only bastion of reason and freedom in a world of superstitions and tyranny.

The only thing standing between the Greek city-states and this tidal wave of doom is a military unit of just three hundred men.

But these men are not ordinary warriors... they are Spartans.

Forging an Epic

Frank Miller will talk about the unique culture of the Spartans. A society whose members dedicated their entire lives to the art of war, always ready to sacrifice their lives for the protection of their city. Miller extols their superior martial technique and ethos in "300": "They are understandably unique, in that they embraced a primarily martial culture, wholly devoted to the conduct of wars. They had a code of ethics about what it means to be a Spartan, and according to this, a class of heroes was created, the likes of which the world has never seen before."

But for Miller, the conflict between the Spartans and the Persians was not just the clash of a group of warriors with a colossal army, which in itself would be a feat, but it is the clash of two civilizations. The Spartans are warriors driven to battle and sacrifice by their own will, in contrast to the thousands of the Persian army who are driven to war by the crack of whips. Miller emphasizes the importance of this sacrifice, as the defeat at Thermopylae was what inspired the rest of the Greeks to fight the Persians. "There is a reason we enjoy such freedom, and much of that fact begins with the story of 300 men, who held a very narrow pass long enough to inspire the rest of Greece to join the war."

To faithfully render the era and the setting of the battle, Miller studied extensively and even traveled to Thermopylae to see up close the place where the epic battle took place. "It is a place where great and glorious things happened," he describes. "I mean, it is the main point, the epicenter of a battle to which we owe everything we have, all that constitutes our western civilization today."