History Awesome / ThreeHundredRiseOfAnEmpire

* Artemisia identified the Athenian spy within the ranks of her soldiers by simply looking at their hands. The reason for this is that she [[BadBoss has whipped almost everyone on her ship]], and the Athenian spy did not have any lashes on his hands.

* In the opening, we see Thermistocles leading an army of Athenians to fight the Persians when they have just landed their troops on Greek soil at Marathon, weakened after travelling across the oceans. How badass was he ten years ago? Well, he slaughtered a large number of Persians before taking a bow and arrow and loosening a single shot that killed Xerxes's father Darius.
* Thermistocles went alone to Sparta to appeal to the Spartans for help, both times talking to Queen Gorgo. ''He succeeds by the end of the film.''

** After Artemisia gives Themistocles a WeCanRuleTogether speech, he appears to give in to temptation and proceeds to have rough sex with her. When it's over, Themistocles looks her in the eyes and simply says "no." Artemisia is [[VillainousBreakdown not pleased.]]

* Thermistocles went alone to Sparta to appeal to the Spartans for help, [[spoiler: both times talking to Queen Gorgo.]] ''He succeeds by the end of the film.''

** Special Mention goes to his strategy of forcing the Persian ships into a narrow bottleneck and deploying an army of Athenians to essentially massacre all the Persians trapped there, culminating in the death of the Persian General who lead the assault. [[spoiler: Bonus points for Themistocles killing the Persian General personally.]]

** Themistocles versus Artemisia, fighting her to a standstill and when they lock blades he coldly told her that he refused Artemisia's offer to surrender. [[spoiler:Then he kills Artemisia by stabbing her in the stomach.]]
*** Themistocles fighting alongside [[spoiler:Queen Gorgo and the Spartans]] at the ending.

* Xerxes again, when he witnessed [[spoiler: Artemisia's defeat]] and then walked back to his Persian army, which was huge and spread out like a sea of troops behind him at the end of the film.

* [[spoiler:The Spartans']] BigDamnHeroes scene near the ending when they joined in the naval battle with [[spoiler:Queen Gorgo at the front wielding her husband's sword]]. We also get a very good slow-motion look at the Spartans killing Persians when they boarded the Persian ships.

** The fact that said ancient world naval battles are the most impressive and notable in cinema in about ''five decades''. To wit, the last memorable ancient world naval battles in movies date back to ''[[Film/BenHur1959 Ben-Hur]]'' (1959) and ''Film/{{Cleopatra}}'' (1963).