The city states thrived in Greece in 700-350BC, with Sparta in the south the most feared. It was a military state, in which every grown male was a soldier, and forbidden another profession. Each Spartan was granted a farm, run by slaves, which provided his subsistence.

The Spartan soldier’s rigorous training began in the womb. A pregnant Spartan woman had to perform strenuous exercises to ensure her child was strong. Weak babies were killed.

At the age of 7, boys were taken from their mothers and raised in harsh communal surroundings until the age of 20, when they became full warriors.

The army was organised by age groups and all men lived and ate in barracks, even after they were married.

BACKGROUND

• 300

• 300 - Sunday Times review

• Cool hunter: Spartans

• Life in a Spartan Regime

• Immortal Combat - Interview with Gerald Butler

Thank Thermopylae for your Starbucks

On a low budget, with a cut-price cast and a graphic-novel script, 300 is a film that’s framing the future of the action movie

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In the 8th century BC, Sparta gradually conquered her neighbours and most of the vanquished were taken as slaves.

Bravery was the greatest virtue for every Spartan, cowardice the greatest failing. A Spartan soldier was to return from combat either carrying his shield or lying slain upon it.

The Spartan army, as well as being the only trained, professional force in Greece, employed sophisticated tactics. Men were trained to fight in a phalanx, using a tightly packed grid of overlapping shields to form an impenetrable, mobile unit.

The Spartans’ most famous battles were fought during the two Persian Wars, first at Marathon in 490BC, then at Thermopylae and Platea a decade later, and during the Peloponnesian war, against their rivals, the Athenians in 431BC.

Even though the “father of history” Herodotus estimates that Xerxes brought a million men to fight the Spartans at Thermopylae — a figure that 300 indulges — modern historians estimate his army at 100,000.

The best line from the book and film — Persian soldier: “One hundred nations descend upon you! Our arrows will blot out the sun!” Spartan soldier: “Then we’ll fight in the shade” — is lifted from Herodotus.

Sparta eventually crumbled in 362BC, when its army was defeated by the Thebans at the great battle of Mantinea.

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