The Gates of Fire, profound to say the least. A great book about Sparta, I suggest it to everyone.
Thank you!
And here I thought it was going to be the Bible...
Nah it was nothing to do with you, I didn't even see who psoted it at first... I just got this mental image of a version of the Bible labelled THE MOST BADASS STORY EVER TOLD.
Ah, I see...
And they could make it into a movie with Charlton Heston and someone could go WHERE'S YOUR *** NOW? and he could beat them up.
charlton heston was a badass, also a former Marine haha
Clint Eastwood is the most badass actor of all time, in my opinion. He swam 3 miles to shore when his plane crashed during some war or another.
Please, clearly it's Christopher Walken.
Nope, I cast my vote with Clint Eastwood. Clearly the king of kings in terms of most badass.... Seriously go watch The Good the Bad and The Ugly, or For a Fistfull of Dollars, or High Plains Drifter and try and tell me otherwise
I read it a few months ago. Great book. Wish it was more historically accurate though (in regards to Spartan society)
they were going to make a Gates of Fire movie, but when they heard of "300" coming out, they axed the idea.
Bill Murray.
I owe you a big one, Spec. You finally found me a book that I could very well get in to. Thanks, I'll let you know how it I find it (probably pretty **** good as you, and others, describe it)
Most badass? Incorrect. The best, and most badass, book happens to be "The Berkut." Russians tailing an SS colonel who faked Hitler's suicide and carried him off to safety to later rebuild the Reich. So **** good.
That sounds pretty badass, but I honestly doubt it can touch Gates of Fire. At least for me anyway... I found a startling number of similiarities between the Spartans and my fellow Marines, like the way they manage to find some kind of bizzare or ironic humor even in the worst of situations.
they completely ignore the peaderasstic (sp?) concept, the outnumbering of the helots in comparison to the Spartans and how the spartans were constantly worried about them revolting, the fact that Spartan women really didn't hold. . . hardly any clout in society, and I'm pretty sure there was no assassination attempt on the Persion King. The first two were pretty huge parts of Spartan life.
I mean, the boy-love idea between Spartan men and their "proteges" was a BIG part of Spartan society. The mentorship ideas came from it, and they passed it on/continued it. When Spartan men married, their wives were forced to cut their hair to a boyish length, and had to be pretty much sexually assaulted and taken from behind, and it was only really done for reproductive purposes. They engagend in active homosexual lifestyles to encourage a stronger sense of comradery. It wasn't mentioned once in Gates of Fire, intentionally, I'm sure, as to make it more appealing to a Western audience.
I think the book touched on the helots at least a little bit, it mentioned the kryptia, and how they "ruthlessly controlled the helots". I also found in my research, that Spartan women were considered to be more educated than most other city states because the Spartans believed that Smart women made smart babies haha
Genetics ftw.
I'm gonna look into this book, seems interesting.
I thought your favourite book would be Starship Troopers or something, you being a Marine and all.