The 1998 Frank Miller and Lynn Varley comic book series of the same name served as the basis for the epic historical action picture 300. Both are dramatized accounts of the Greek-Persian Wars' Battle of Thermopylae. King Leonidas leads 300 Spartans into combat against the Persian "God-King Xerxes and his invading army of more than 300,000 troops in the story's central action. The Xiphos, a typical one-handed double-edged short sword, was used by Spartans. It was generally made of iron, was reasonably heavy, and had a powerful enough architecture to handle a high impact.