300: Rise of an Empire
Themistocles is first portrayed as the leading general of the soldiers of Athens, Sparta’s traditional rival, in the charge against the recently-arrived Persian invading force which has just landed in Marathon on behalf of Darius, who intends to rob Greece of it’s freedom. Themistocles leads his Athenian shock troopers to immediately strike the sea-weary Persian legions before they can begin to build their strength, slaughtering Persian warriors by the thousands, and Themistocles himself cutting through waves of Persian troops with ease and springing the arrow that slayed the King of Persia, Darius, with his son, Xerxes, as a witness, whom he hesitated to kill. This act earned him a great reputation as the Hero of Marathon, and raised to the heights of Athenian politics.
Themistocles is seen in a council meeting in Athens before it was razed, asserting the necessary unification of the Greek city states against the Persian threat and his requirement of a substantial fleet of ships from each of them that will represent a united Greece. For this, he heads to Sparta to enlist King Leonidas’ aid, only to learn from Dilios of his consulting with the Oracle, and instead meets with his Queen, Gorgo, requesting the aid of Sparta’s fleet, as it’s power lies in it’s superior infantry, telling his ambition of a united Greece, but is refused Spartan ships, as her only interest is Sparta’s preservation.
He learns from his friend Scyllias in Athens that the Persian fleet is led by Artemisia, whose identity and history is known to him: a Greek woman whose entire family was raped and murdered by Greek hoplites, and she herself was sexually abused in Greek slave ships, and later raised by a Persian emissary to be molded into a loyal soldier for the Persian Empire, where she became a ruthless combatant.