Epic win

Actually no, 300 Spartan warriors and their king were killed, this meant that the council could approve the war between Sparta and the Persian Empire and that the Persian advance into Spartan territory was fatally halted. If you are going to make know it all comments about classical epic literature at least read it first.

Erm ... the historical narrative about the Persian wars does not stem from epic literature at all. The main source is Herodotus, and then Thucydides:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greco-Persian_Wars#Sources

:)