Over a week ago, /u/arachnopope wrote a pretty awesome badhistory review on the movie 300. I won't be able to do a job as good as they did, but I'll still try to explain the bad history in the sequel to 300, 300: Rise of an Empire.

00:00:35-King Xerxes did not personally come up to Leonidas’ body on the battlefield and behead it. According to Herodotus, Xerxes had someone else behead the body and crucify it, putting the head on a stake.

00:02:09-Queen Gorgo, as far as I can tell, was never present at the Battle of Salamis.

00:03:04-I need not remind you guys that the Athenian Hoplites were a LOT better armoured than the movies portray.

00:03:27-The Persians had already disembarked, and were holding a stalemate with the Greeks for days before the Greek offensive at the Battle of Marathon.

00:03:41-Themistocles was not a “little-known Athenian soldier”. As a matter of fact, he had made quite a name for himself even before the battle of Marathon.

Entire dramatic sequence starting from 00:07:20-Themistokles never shot an arrow at King Darius, and King Darius did not die due to any injuries suffered during the Battle of Marathon. As a matter of fact, he died around 4 years later, in 486 BCE.

00:10:03-The entire monologue in which “Artemisia whispered the seeds of madness” probably never happened.

00:10:30-The entire “god-king” bullshit, obviously never happened either.

00:11:51-Artemisia never went on a killing spree like the one depicted in the movie. Like, seriously, how can you pull so much shit of your arse?

00:15:25-The use of Elephants by the Persians in the Greco-Persian Wars is unlikely, because neither Herodotus or Xenophon ever mentioned it.

00:25:08-I’m sure you all know that the entire life history of Artemisia’s family being raped and murdered as well as Artemisia being sold as a sex slave is shitthatneverhappened.txt

00:30:22-The actual number of the Greek Ships was 371-378, not “just over 50” as the commander reports.

00:32:27-It’s highly unlikely that the Persians used slaves to row their ships.

00:34:07-The defensive circular formation used by the Greeks would have most probably been the Hedgehog Counter-formation, which would have involved having the prows facing out, unlike the depiction in the movie.

00:37:43-The Athenians weren’t exactly as “untrained” at combat as the movie implies them to be; at the age of 18, every Athenian was required to spend two years in the military.

00:43:45-The Greeks never used a barricade of ships to block the Persian navy.

00:44:05-I’m pretty sure that the Greeks understood that leaping from a great height onto wooden ships to attack their crew was a pretty bad idea, and thus never attempted it.

00:46:20-Just noticed this, but the Persians didn’t wear armour that was so flimsy it couldn’t stop a slashing sword. You’d think their armour was like a T-shirt, what with the way it has been portrayed.

00:48:53, to the end of the sex scene-Obviously never happened. I’m sure Themistocles and Artemisia never had sex.

01:01:14, entire fiery scene of carnage-Fire battles and suicide bombers? Lolwut?
Also, the Persian navy didn't possess an ironclad supertanker 10x the size of any greek vessel at Salamis.(thanks to /u/Flyingsquare for reminding me.)

01:08:41-Ephialtes was never sent as a messenger to Athens with Leonidas’ sword.

01:16:08-Artemisia was the only commander of Xerxes who advised against a naval battle. The movie, however, shows Artemisia as being eager to unleash the full might of the Persian navy upon the Spartans at the battle of Salamis.

01:17:36-The Athenians and the Spartans were allied before the Battle of Salamis, and the Athenians weren’t the only ones fighting the battle at the beginning.

01:27:26 fight scene between Themistocles and Artemisia-Themistocles and Artemisia never fought face-to-face, and Artemisia did not die at the battle of Salamis.

01:30:04-Navies at the time wouldn't have entered battle with their sails open.(Thanks to /u/Theoroshia and /u/Celebreth)

01:30:10-Again, the Spartan intervention wasn’t in the nick of time; they had already allied with the Athenians before the Battle of Salamis begun.

These are just the most obvious mistakes I could pick out. If you could think of anything I haven't mentioned here, I'd love to hear it. If I've made any mistakes as well, let me know of them and I will edit them.

EDIT-Added /u/Flyingsquare's suggestion, included a link to the original 300 Badhistory review.

EDIT 2-Fixed various minor errors in grammar and my choice of words.

EDIT 3-Incorporated the suggestion of /u/Theoroshia and /u/Celebreth as well.