The topic I am going to discuss is the film 300. Those of you who have not seen the film should be informed that it is an imaginative recreation from the Battle of Thermopylae in 480 AD, when 300 Spartans gave their lives against the entire forces of the Persian army for three whole days, despite being outnumbered by one to three hundred and heavily under-equipped. The entire subject and theme of this film broadened my interest in wars and tactics such as those used by the Spartans. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an Original Essay As you saw in the movie, if you saw it, when Spartan children reached the age of seven, usually around seven, they would be taken from their mothers and forced to become battle-hardened warriors from at the age of 18 with their father. That's not even what's scary! If you were born unfit to be a Spartan, they would literally sacrifice you on the spot in hopes of giving birth to a warrior child. The training methods used by the Spartans were very rigorous and brutal towards boys. The things they made them do was test to see if they were capable of being leaders. They had to learn to survive by stealing and doing whatever necessary to find a way to survive. One very interesting piece of information I discovered about the Spartans was that there was only one profession when it came to men and that was that of a soldier. Starting at the age of twenty, soldiers were expected to serve as soldiers until around the age of sixty, until they could retire. The most iconic tactics and battle formation used by the Spartans influenced many military powers at that time and this formation was called the Phalanx. . The Phalanx consisted of all the soldiers standing very close to the front, their spears outstretched while everyone else had their shields around the head of the squad so that no arrows could hit them. In the film the Spartans used this formation several times and if you watched the film you could see that no one was above the others in the formation. Even King Leonidas himself was leading the fight and everyone was equal. If you could say it, battle training was like a perfect basketball game where everyone was involved and taking their time to shine without harming the cause. The training really sparked my interest in war formations and how military leaders achieved these strategic advantages. Unfortunately, a movie is just a movie and the Spartans aren't as invincible as we all thought or as the movie portrayed them to be. . In the movie you could see at the end of the Battle of Thermopylae, the Spartans were going to die and it was probably the first time you saw them as not invincible and as just humans with a good game plan. The eventual fall of the Spartans began at the Battle of Leuctra in 371 BC by the Thebans, which would lead to an eventual invasion by the Theban general Epaminondas who oversaw the release of all of Sparta's helots and thus led to Sparta becoming a power of second rate for the rest of his existence. Which I thought was a really sad path for such a cool empire to go. Keep in mind: this is just a sample. Get a personalized article now from our expert writers. Get a Custom Essay The Spartans themselves sparked my interest in many things, War, Power, Strength, Strategy.