Spartans Offered Lives For Envoys

In the film 300, Spartan king Leonidas throws a Persian emissary into a well, echoing an ancient account in which Spartans killed Persian heralds who had come demanding "earth and water" as a sign of submission. According to Herodotus, two wealthy Spartans named Sperthias and Bulis later volunteered to travel to Persia and be executed as atonement for the murdered envoys. They offered their lives to King Xerxes, but he refused to kill them, saying he would not repeat the Spartans' violation of the sacred rules protecting heralds.

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