'300' is an exaggeration based on Herodotus' account of the events thousands of years ago. Nearly our entire understanding of the Persian wars comes from ancien

'300' is an exaggeration based on Herodotus' account of the events thousands of years ago. Nearly our entire understanding of the Persian wars comes from ancient Greek propaganda. A big part of the reason that the Achaemanid empire doesn't get the coverage that Western civilizations get is that we simply don't have the same quality of sources. The Greeks have folks like Herodotus and Thucydides who filled their histories so much detail and characterization that their stories are actually fun to read, whereas what we have from the Persians are mostly their official records which very dry by comparison. If you want to find out about the life Alcibiades, there are a ton of sources that give you all sorts of details about life and character of the man. If you want to find out about Cyrus the Great however, there is much less to go on.