300 quotes

View Quote Persian messenger: All the God-King Xerxes requires is this: a simple offering of earth and water. A token of Sparta's submission to the will of Xerxes.
Leonidas: Submission. Well, that's a bit of a problem. See, rumor has it that the Athenians have already turned you down. And if those philosophers and ... boy-lovers have found that kind of nerve ...
Theron (interrupting): We must be diplomatic.
Leonidas: And of course Spartans! ... have their reputation to consider.
Persian messenger: Choose your next words carefully, Leonidas. They may be your last as king.
[Leonidas turns and ponders the offer, looks at three different views, the last being Gorgo]
Leonidas (thinking): Earth and water?
[He draws his sword and points it towards the Persian messenger, whose back is to a large, deep well]
Persian messenger: Madman! You're a madman!
Leonidas: Earth and water. You'll find plenty of both down there.
Persian messenger: No man, Persian or Greek, no man threatens a messenger!
Leonidas: You bring the crowns and heads of conquered kings to my city's steps. You insult my queen. You threaten my people with slavery and death! Oh, I've chosen my words carefully, Persian. Perhaps you should have done the same.
Persian messenger: This is blasphemy! This is madness!
Leonidas (looks at Gorgo, who nods to him): Madness? This is Sparta!!! [kicks the Persian messenger into the well]

View Quote Leonidas: Daxos. What a pleasant surprise.
Daxos: This morning's full of suprises, Leonidas.
Arcadian soldier: We've been tricked.
Arcadian: Only a few of them? That is a surprise.
Daxos: Silence! We heard Sparta was on the warpath. We were eager to join forces.
Leonidas: If a bit of blood you seek, you're welcome to join us.
Daxos: But you bring only these handful of soldiers against Xerxes? I see I was wrong to expect Sparta's commitment to at least match our own.
Leonidas: Doesn't it? [points to a soldier next to Daxos] You there, what is your profession?
1st Arcadian Soldier: I'm a potter ... sir.
Leonidas: And you, Arcadian, what is your profession?
2nd Arcadian Soldier: Sculptor, sir.
Leonidas: Sculptor. And you?
3rd Arcadian Soldier: Blacksmith.
Leonidas (turning towards the Spartans): Spartans! What is your profession?
Spartans: Harooh! Harooh! Harooh!
Leonidas: See, old friend, I brought more soldiers than you did.

View Quote Xerxes: It would be nothing short of madness, were you, brave King, and your valiant troops to perish ... all because of a simple misunderstanding. There is much our cultures could share.
Leonidas: Oh, haven't you noticed? We've been sharing our culture with you all morning.
Xerxes: Yours is a fascinating tribe. Even now, you are defiant, in the face of annihilation, and the prescence of a god. Imagine what horrible fate awaits my enemies when I would gladly kill half of my own men for victory.
Leonidas: And I would die for any one of mine.
Xerxes: You Greeks take pride in your logic. I suggest you employ it. Consider the beautiful land you so vigorously defend. Picture it reduced to ash at my whim! Consider the fate of your women!
Spartan King Leonidas: Clearly you don't know our women! I might as well have marched them up here, judging by what I've seen. You have many slaves, Xerxes, but few warriors. It won't be long before they fear my spears more than your whips.
Xerxes: It is not the lash they fear, It is my divine power. But I am a generous god. I can make you rich beyond all measure. I will make you warlord of all Greece. You will carry my battle standard to the heart of Europa. Your Athenian rivals will kneel at your feet if you will but kneel at mine.
King Leonidas: You are generous as you are divine, O king of kings. Such an offer only a madman would refuse. But the, uh, the idea of kneeling, it's- You see, slaughtering all those men of yours has, uh, well it's left a nasty cramp in my leg, so kneeling will be hard for me.
Xerxes: There will be no glory in your sacrifice. I will erase even the memory of Sparta from the histories. Every piece of Greek parchment shall be burned, and every Greek historian and every scribe shall have their eyes put out and their tongues cut from their mouths. Why, uttering the very name of Sparta or Leonidas will be punishable by death. The world will never know you existed at all!
Leonidas: The world will know that free men stood against a tyrant, that few stood against many, and before this battle is over, that even a god-king can bleed.

View Quote [Narrating: as Leonidas bids farewell to his wife] "Goodbye, my love". He doesn't say it. There's no room for softness, not in Sparta. No place for weakness. Only the hard and strong may call themselves Spartans. Only the hard. Only the strong.

View Quote Leonidas: This is where we hold them! This is where we fight! This is where they die!
Captain: Earn these shields, boys!
Spartans: Harooh!
Leonidas: Remember this day, men. For it will be yours for all time.
[Persian Officer rides through the ranks on his horse to address the Spartans ahead]
Persian Officer: Spartans! Lay down your weapons.
[Spear flies from the Spartans, killing the Persian officer on the spot]
Leonidas: Persians! Come and get them!
[Persians sound the advance and charge towards the Spartans]
Leonidas: Give them nothing! But take from them ... everything!

View Quote [Later, as Leonidas throws his spear at Xerxes] His helmet was stifling; it narrowed his vision, and he must see far. His shield was heavy; it threw him off balance, and his target was far away.

View Quote Leonidas: Before you speak, Persian, know that in Sparta, everyone, even a king's messenger, are held accountable for the words of his voice. Now, what message do you bring?
Persian Messenger: Earth and water.
Leonidas (pauses): You rode all the way from Persia for earth and water?
Gorgo: Do not be coy or stupid, Persian. You can afford neither in Sparta.
Persian Messenger: What makes this woman think she can speak among men?
Gorgo: Because only Spartan women give birth to real men.

View Quote "Remember us." As simple an order as a king can give. "Remember why we died." For he didn't wish tribute or song. No monuments, no poems of war and valour. His wish was simple: "Remember us," he said to me. That was his hope. Should any free soul come across that place, in all the countless centuries yet to be, may all our voices whisper to you from the ageless stones: Go tell the Spartans, passer-by, that here, by Spartan law, we lie. So my king died, and my brothers died, barely a year ago. Long I pondered my king's cryptic talk of victory. Time has proven him wise, for from free Greek to free Greek the word was spread that bold Leonidas and his 300, so far from home, laid down their lives, not just for Sparta, but for all Greece and the promise this country holds. Now, here on this ragged patch of earth called Plataea, Xerxes' hordes face obliteration! Just there, the barbarians huddle, sheer terror gripping tight their hearts with icy fingers, knowing full well what merciless horrors they suffered at the swords and spears of 300. Yet they stare now across the plain at 10,000 Spartans commanding 30,000 free Greeks! Haroo! The enemy outnumber us a paltry three to one; good odds for any Greek. This day we rescue a world from mysticism and tyranny, and usher in a future brighter than anything we could imagine. Give thanks, men! To leonidas, and the brave 300! To victory!

View Quote [Regarding the Arcadians] They shout and curse, stabbing wildly; more brawlers than warriors. They make a wondrous mess of things. Brave amateurs – they do their part.

View Quote Leonidas: Dilios, I trust that scratch hasn't made you useless.
Dilios: Hardly, my Lord. It's just an eye. The gods saw fit to grace me with a spare.

View Quote Persian Emissary (encountering a group of Greeks building a wall to hold off the Persians): I am the emissary to the ruler of all the world, the god of gods, king of kings, and by that authority, I demand that someone show me your commander! [He is ignored by the Greeks] Listen. Do you think the paltry dozen you slew scare us? These hills swarm with our scouts! And do you think your pathetic wall will do anything other than fall like a heap of dry leaves in the face of ...
[The Emissary sees that the stone wall is partially made up of Persian corpses]
Stelios: Our ancestors built this wall, using ancient stones from the bosom of Greece herself. And with a little Spartan help, your Persian scouts provided the mortar.
Persian Emissary: You will pay for your barbarism!
[As the Persian Emissary raises his whip, Stelios cuts off the Emissary's arm]
Persian Emissary: My arm!
Stelios: It's not yours anymore. Go now, run along and tell your Xerxes that he faces free men here, not slaves. Do it quickly, before we decide to make our wall just a little bit bigger.
Persian Emissary: No, not slaves. Your women will be slaves. Your sons, your daughters, your elders will be slaves, but not you. By noon this day, you will all be dead men! The thousand nations of the Persian Empire descend upon you! Our arrows will blot out the sun!
Stelios (grins): Then we will fight in the shade.

View Quote Theron: This will not be over quickly. You will not enjoy this. I am not your King. [As he forces Gorgo to have sex with him in exchange for assistance in the council]

View Quote [After dropping his helmet and his shield whilst being asked to submit] You there, Ephialtes: may you live forever. A Spartan insult: may he live with the guilt of his actions for all of time and never receive the glorious death on the battlefield that all Spartans desire.

View Quote The wolf begins to circle the boy. Claws of black steel, fur as the dark night ... eyes glowing red, jewels from the pit of hell itself. The giant wolf sniffing ... savouring the scent of the meal to come. It is not fear that grips him ... only a heightened sense of things. Cold air in his lungs ... wind-swept pines moving against the coming night. His hands are steady – his form perfect.

View Quote And so the boy, given up for dead, returns to his people, to sacred Sparta a king. Our king, Leonidas! It's been more than 30 years since the wolf and the winter cold. Now, as then, a beast approaches, patient and confident, savouring the meal to come. This beast is made of men and horses, swords and spears. An army of slaves vast beyond imagining, ready to devour tiny Greece, ready to snub out the world's one hope for reason and justice. A beast approaches, and it was King Leonidas himself who provoked it.