New Film 300 - Spartans at Thermopylae 480BC

[ambrosius]

Ambrosius, you probably mean the KRYPTEIA (secret groups) the Lakedemonian inteligence service more mean than KGB and Gestapo combined. There is also a reference of a night raid in Xerxes camp by Plutarch if memory serves me right. But I think I will agree with Andy -phalnx should better depicted like phalanx.
Kind regards

:lol: Hi Stephanos,

I see you took me literally! Well, yes, it is interesting about the Spartan
night-raid. They even included that in the original movie version: The 300 Spartans. Though I was actually referring to Arthes's mention of the
underwear (subligaculum) worn by the Spartans in this new movie. Hence
my attempt at humour about going 'commando' (naked). I know there
was speculation about the movie version of Gates of Fire, as to whether
or not the Spartans would be depicted naked (under their helmets,
shields and greaves) as it was mentioned that they sometimes did this
(in order to avoid overheating during battle, I would guess). Wasn't there
a description of Thermopylae where boys ran behind the Spartan lines
with water bottles, to stop them overheating?

So yes, commandos going commando :lol:

Ambrosius

P.S. I know that Leonidas's famous quote to the Persian messenger who
was sent to ask him to surrender his weapons is usually translated as:
"Come and take them!" But I was told that this is a 'cleaned-up' version
of the original. Is it not printable on this list? :lol:

[hoplite14gr]

Well Ambrosious, I think, I was the first to talk about the "sanitized" translation of Leonida´s reply. I would n´t risking posting the exact trnaslation. Lets keep it civilized, our admins are already hardpressed.
Excuse my poor english for not getting the commando hint.
Boys brinking water hmm..I do not know any original source.
In the tomb of Marathon the 193th corpse belonged to a boy and had a clay water vessel near him. They published a short novel about him but nothing really historical. Overheating in battle was a problem usually solved with wearing the armor over linen or possibly leather. Though the Marathon runner dies from a combination of exaustion and overheating.
If the Spartans had no armor the Persian arrows would have made them short work in Thermopylae.
Kind regards