In the summer of 480 B.C.E., a narrow mountain pass in Greece became the site of one of the most extraordinary last stands in recorded history.

Xerxes, ruler of the largest empire the ancient world had ever seen, marched on Greece with an army so vast that ancient scribes could barely agree on its size, determined to avenge his father's humiliating defeat at Marathon. Standing in his way was a coalition of Greek soldiers led by King Leonidas of Sparta and his three hundred handpicked warriors, men chosen because each had already fathered a son, since none of them expected to return home.

This is the real history behind the legend, drawn from the accounts of Herodotus, Plutarch, and other ancient historians, not the stylized battlefield of modern film. It traces the political fractures that nearly kept Greece from uniting at all, the grim prophecy Leonidas accepted without hesitation, the three days his men held off an empire through nothing more than superior tactics and unbroken discipline, and the act of betrayal that finally turned the tide.

Readers will discover why the Spartans groomed their hair before battle, what actually happened when the famous three hundred made their final stand, and how a shepherd's greed changed the course of Western history. Most of all, they'll see how a battle that Xerxes technically won became the spark that united a fractured Greece and ultimately drove the Persian Empire from its shores.

For readers of ancient history, military strategy, and stories of extraordinary courage, this is the Battle of Thermopylae as it actually happened.