For some reason, this occurred to me when in the shower today.
The achievement at Thermopylae was not that a 300 highly trained fanatic clones were able to defend a narrow pass for 3 days; it was that some genius of a quartermaster/s managed to supply and support an invading army of hundreds of thousands, comprised of soldiers from vastly different cultures, and some genius of a commander/s managed to keep them motivated and fighting, thousands of kilometres from their homes.
When Hannibal and Alexander do it, it's a great feat of arms and leadership, but when when Xerxes I does it a full 150 years before Alexander, it's all about those 300?! Bah!
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I sense an enamourment with the "magic of how" versus the "wisdom of why".
[anon] Heh. What you should sense is an attempt to correct an imbalance in the Force where there is way too much focus on the "wisdom of why" vis a vis the "magic of how". :P
Mein gott, what a historical breakthrough. Like Marxist history in reverse. Maybe.
Srin
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