Game of two 'alves , John

I have been sweating on this day for weeks now as I realised 300 was approaching. I cannot believe the stress that accompanies blipping sometimes.

Eventually my littlest one came to the rescue. The Dvd cover of the film that celebrates the battle of Thermopylae, exactly 1532 years ago. Held up as a story of heroism and deathly sacrifice it tells the story of the battle for the pass at Thermopylae during the wars between the Spartans and the Persians.

The Spartans led by King Leonidas held out for three days against a hugely numerically superior force of Persians captained by Xerxes. Betrayed by a Thebian who knew a bypass route the Greeks were eventually out flanked and legend has it that Leonidas sent the bulk of his army to safety whilst holding the pass with 300 men of Sparta.

A little research shows this was not quite accurate, the Spartans also had on their side 700 Thespians and 300 Thebians. ( The Thespians by the way, were not resting actors or luvvies bemoaning the fact that their character had been written out of Eastenders, but citizens of Thespiae, one of only two Greek city states to send aid to Sparta, the other being Thebes)

At the end of the day the Persians won, probably by dubious means involving the offside rule and diving forwards, however they went on to subsequent defeat in later battles.

I might actually watch the film now!