A 1998 American comic series by Frank Miller, later adapted into a 2007 movie by Zack Snyder; a fictional, fantasy-like retelling of the last stand of 300 Spartan hoplite warriors against an invading force of over a million Persians at the mountain pass of Thermopylae in central Greece. Best known for a scene in which the leader of the Spartans, Leonidas I, tells off a Persian messenger with the iconic words "This is SPARTA", before throwing him down a well.
While the movie was a commercial success, it was generally disliked by Greeks and Iranians for the bastardization of their historical figures of each respective sides, along with numerous other historical inaccuracies.
The movie would later have a sequel in 2014, 300: Rise of an Empire, based on Frank Miller's then unpublished prequel comic, Xerxes, which would not be released until 2018. Serving as a prequel, side-story and sequel to the original movie, Rise of an Empire focusses on Emperor Xerxes past and the Athenians led by General Themistocles as they battle the Persian Navy at sea.
