Setting the awful scene -- The ancient world in 500 BCE: from India to the Aegean -- The dynamics of empire: Persia of the Achaemenids, 485 -- Hellas: the Hellenic world in 485 -- Sparta 485: a unique culture and society -- Thermopylae I: mobilization -- Thermopylae II: preparations for battle -- Thermopylae III: the battle -- The Thermopylae legend I: antiquity -- The Thermopylae legend II: from antiquity to modernity -- Thermopylae: turning-point in world history -- Appendix 1: the invention of history: Herodotus and other ancient sources -- Appendix 2: Herodotus's Persian Muster-lists: a translation -- Appendix 3: Herodotus: antidote to fundamentalism