This is Sparta!
We all know the famous scene from Frank Miller’s 300 where Leonidas casts the Persian messengers into the pit, shouting “This is Sparta!“.
It has been reproduced ad absurdum into all kinds of image macros and memes.
Now, we all know the movie is not actually close to historic truth.
People who don’t realize this are just idiots.
Or are they?
I recently read a history magazine about ancient Greece (GEO Epoche Griechenland), and guess what I found:
In 492 BC, the first Persian attack failed.
One year after, the Persian king sent diplomats to the Greek cities (”poleis“).
They are to take soil and water as a sign of submission of the Greek people.
Everybody submits.
What does Sparta do? They throw the messengers into a canyon.
But Athens throws them into a well for them to take soil and water by themselves.
So much historic accuracy in one often-copied image macro. Fantastic. 
