Is it true that in ancient Greece 300 soldiers fought off 200,000 Persian troops for 3 days?
No, but the odds were very, very one-sided. Here’s what Wikipedia says: Thermopylae is primarily known for the battle that took place there in 480 BC, in which an outnumbered combined Greek force of approximately 7,000 held off the advancing Persians under Xerxes for three days before being betrayed. A local named Ephialtes revealed a mountain pass that allowed Xerxes to outflank the Greeks. Leonidas sent the main army in retreat while a small band of Spartans stayed behind and resisted the advance to the last man. The combined Greek force included 300 Spartans, 4,900 additional heavy infantry from Arcadia, Corinth, Thespiae, Phocis, Tegea, Mantinea, Mycenae, Phleious, and Thebes, an unspecified amount from the Opuntian Locrians and a number of slaves (each hoplite could be expected to have at least one lightly armed retainer)[4]. Although the Persians were many in number, and their manpower clearly exceeded that of the Greeks, estimates of their actual strength vary widely, from an ar
