If there is a single event that made Sparta’s military legend a seminal moment it is the Battle of Thermopylae in 480 BC, when the Spartan King Leonidas’ made his famous reply: molon labe (come and take them), to the Persian king Xerxes’ demand that the Spartans lay down their arms. Yet what is the historical background to this legendary event.
Myke Cole has had a colorful and varied career, with service in war and crisis response with the CIA, the DIA (Defense Intelligence Agency), and the ONI (Office of Naval Intelligence). He is the author of The Bronze Lie: Shattering the Myth of Spartan Warrior Supremacy and Legion versus Phalanx: The Epic Struggle for Infantry Supremacy in the Ancient World
