Expansion of Macedonia under Philip II a significant problem, blocking the main route into Greece. However, a second route into central Greece was available. In 480 BC, during the Battle of Thermopylae, the Persian king Xerxes had sent his army via a mountain track (the "Anopea") to outflank the pass. From this track, on the western side of Mount Kallidromon, another road led off and descended in Phocis. In 480 BC, a thousand Phocian troops were stationed above Thermopylae to guard the road and prevent a Persian assault on Phocis (though they notably failed to prevent the Persians using "Anopea"). However, in 339 BC, the Greeks
Go Tell the Spartans four French gravestones. The graves inspired the film's title, taken from Simonides's epitaph to the three hundred soldiers who died fighting Persian invaders at Thermopylae, Greece: ""Go tell the Spartans, stranger passing by, that here, obedient to their laws, we lie."" The choice of film's name thus constitutes a deliberate "spoiler" by the film makers, telling anyone familiar with the source of the quote that the film's soldier characters - like the Spartans at Thermopylae - had been sent to their deaths. Major Asa Barker (Burt Lancaster) has been given command of a poorly-manned outpost overlooking three villages named Boo