Blog Number 70 - Death of the Persian messengers in Frank Miller's '300'

In Blog Number 55, Frank Miller talked about how even though he took some creative liberties when writing '300', part of it was based on fact. To illustrate this point, here is the image of the Persian ambassador being thrown into the well by King Leonidas. This was the response by the Spartan king in '300' when he was asked for earth and water which were symbols of submission.

According to Herodotus, heralds were not sent to Sparta and Athens by Xerxes as was the case a decade earlier. When Xerxes' father Darius had sent his emissaries to Sparta and Athens before the invasion of Marathon in 490 B.C. they had been thrown into a well by the Spartans and a pit by the Athenians.

I wonder if this is the derivation of 'Don't kill the messenger', probably not, though!