I never bothered with "Rise Of An Empire" because I was disappointed with "300".

I have the 1962 "The 300 Spartans" in my movie library. I first saw it back near when it first came out (I was 10 in '62). It's still a good movie to watch today in spite of it being "dated" as action movies go. Movies like that sparked my lifelong interest in history. Not that I'm a "dyed-in-the-wool" history buff, but I figure I have a greater interest than the average bear.

Edit add: I've been collecting some of those old movies for my library because so many of them are better than the crap being produced today (especially remakes with added PC propaganda). I recently acquired "The Vikings" with Kirk Douglas and Tony Curtis. Good flick! Watched "The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly" (again) the other night.

300's cringe worthy sequel. Rise Of An Empire showed how the Xerxes I've seen depicted in art and The 300 Spartans (a 1962 flick I saw at a theater when I was 15) looked like before he was transformed into that stupid-looking god.
Unlike 300, The 300 Spartans totally omitted the 500 warriors that came from another city state to help out. What was left of the 500 was gracefully allowed to get lost before what was left of the 300 made their last stand beneath a storm of arrows.
A brief peek of what Xerxes likely looked like is included in The 300 Spartans trailer~~
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncviq...

Hittites once lived in Turkey.
After that, Troy was a contested city there.
And later on Greeks and Persians squabbled over that real estate.
Finally, Darius followed by Xerxes solidly made that land part of their Persian Empire.
Then Alexander the Great took it all away by conquering all Persia.
Ownership that followed went back and forth, back and forth.
Yes, Turkey had different names way back when.
One was Gobblelania.

And...I only through out only a few duds this time.

Also in the movie was the most idiotic possible depiction of Xerxes I. Not even close to any carvings of his supposed likeness. Totally creepy looking shaved pin cushion when the carvings of him show full head of hair and beard and nothing sticking out of his face. Oh, and he was always shown in full kingly dress, not that weird costume the movie people put him in.

You are right about the armor the Greeks wore. In Homer they were always described as the "well grieved Achaeans". Grieves refers to armor and it was that armor that made the phalanx so formidable in its day.

OMG! You've found some real gems this time, OUC! Broke out laughing at Butthead O'Rourke and the wailing wall! The RBG in the Captain Pike chair is priceless and the baked potato thrown in for GP! LOL!!!

Edit add: YES, I have fond memories of Vicks, LOL!

Lesbian Turkeys...Hmmm.

Me dino has heard that Greeks act like Greeks. And there was at the time a Greek island called Lesbos.
https://www.google.com/search?q=lesbo...

DIdn't hear that about the Athenians in the lectures, only the Spartan Warriors.

One thought leads to another.

The pass, a narrow slip of land between mountain and sea, suitable for defending by a few hundred trained motivated and heavily armored force.
But pictures of it today show it wider than than you may imagine.
The sea level has dropped. (!)

And, the origin of another well used expression
(I cannot track this story, someone may assist?)
when Leonidas was captured his body was decapitated and mutilated on the orders of the Persian general. When the Greeks got their act together that general was captured. There was a clamor for like-for-like retribution.
The Greek general said, "No, we are not barbarians".

Thanks for the laughs again. The best was This just breaking Kavanaugh was seen naked with Three nurses moments ......after his birth.

I just called Nadler a Buffoon. Now I see your title my WB. Too funny. “She previously made Nadler look like a Baffoon during a hate speech hearing.”

My favorite fav is the last one. Me dino also top of that happy heap liked the Elmer Fudd Nadler, the AR-15 salesman, the Dems suing Iran over a slogan and, boy, yeah, when all clogged up by a cold I really liked to Vaporurb vape when I was a kid.
Oh, instead of a kid, I would have had Biden sniff the ear of an unvaccinated homeless person passed out on a sidewalk.

Saw the 300 flick about these silly comic book Spartans fighting half naked instead instead of the armor they actually wore. Here is the novel that movie really should have been based on~~
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gates_o...
Oh, when the 300 version of Kimg Leonidas mentioned "those Athenians and their boy lovers" me dino was thinking about the pot calling the kettle black.

"Trump season" with Nadler ...left out.

I remember the story. I listened to an Ancient Greece/Sparta at the Hillsdale College site.
The Spartan Soldiers were pedophiles.

The Betos and Bidens are great.

Biden sniffing an unvaccinated kid is superb.

Also the portrait of the democrats.

Thanks Carl.

Come and take them.

At Thermopylae, 300 Spartans under Leonidas and allies held the pass for three days against a massive Persian army.
When the Persian king Xerxes asked the Spartans to drop their weapons, the reply from Leonidas was
μολων λαβε
'molōn labe'
'come and get them'.

A traitor led a Persian force via the Anopaia path over the mountains, to the rear of the Spartans.
The three days was sufficient for the Greek city states to unite.
Persia was defeated at Plataea and at sea at Salamis.
The course of history was changed.

Favorites: Cpt Ruth Bater Pike and Butthead Beto...