[Sparta]

I feel King Leonidas is not thanked enough for his contributions and sacrifices to save the West.

[MattinNJ]

Your absolutely right. I cannot believe that Thermopylae is not required reading by 9th grade. If those 300 Spartans (and 3,000 other assorted Greeks) hadn't held, there would not have been a Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Alexander, etc...The Romans never would have been able to build on what the Greeks accomplished and there would have been no Renaissance because there would have been no Western Civilization in the first place. Last but not least, no Romans, no USA. Allbecause Lenidas had the testicular fortitude to tell the Persian "Molon Labe".

[dsutah]

Also to consider is "Count Dracula", or Vlad Tepes(sp?)"The Impaler". He was of the order of "Dracul" or dragon. He was a prince of Walachia(sp?). He was kidnapped along with his younger brother by the Turks, then either got away or was ransomed. He went on to drive the Turks out of his lands. I got this from David Yeagley, who is now of "Badeagle.com". He had an article some months ago called: "Where Is Count Dracula When You Need Him?".