>Incidentally, the popular book/film 300, which focuses heavily on the bravery and martial ethos of the Spartans, instead depicts the Persian fleet as being des

>Incidentally, the popular book/film 300, which focuses heavily on the bravery and martial ethos of the Spartans, instead depicts the Persian fleet as being destroyed by a storm prior to the decisive battle. This makes for a simpler story, but at a rather significant loss of historical accuracy. What you're describing is the Battle of Salamis in the _second_ Persian invasion. The storm off Mount Athos in 300 happened during the first invasion (and it really did happen). Quoth wikipedia: >The fleet then rounded the coastline as far as Acanthus in Chalcidice, before attempting to round the headland of Mount Athos.[42] However, they were caught in a violent storm, which drove them against the coastline of Athos, wrecking (according to Herodotus) 300 ships, with the loss of 20,000 men.[42] The second time, instead of going around the peninsula, Xerxes had them dig a canal. For the longest time people doubted Herodotus' account of this canal, but it was actually real. [0] [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xerxes_Canal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xerxes_Canal