"You should reach the limits of virtue, before you cross the border of death."
At Thermopylae, a mandatory passage into Greece, all 300 Spartans including king Leonidas were killed by the Persians. Thermopylae is a mandatory passage into Greece, it is probably 14 yards wide on one side is a steep cliff, and on the other is a body of water. Mainly in the battle the 300 Spartans, lead by king Leonidas, are fighting the 200,000 Persians, lead by Xerxes. The battle lasted three days, the Spartans are more focused on holding off the Persians long enough for the Greeks to evacuated and start a army then winning. The first two days of the battle are the same, Spartans are in a phalanx and kill wave after wave of Persians. But on the third day a Greek traidor told the Persians of a different passage into Greece for money. The Persians use the other passage and surround the Spartans and start killing them. During that last fight Leonidas gave on last speech before getting killed he said, "When your spears break use your swords, when you lose those fight with your hands and teeth. Fight until you die." But the Spartans did keep the Persians out of Greece long enough for the Greeks to prepare.