I noticed from the video journals on 300, that they are depicting the spartans as practically naked. It's one thing if 300 spartans faced countless overwhelming numbers. That's amazing in of itself. But if they did it without armor? Truly astouding. That an hour or two of arrow fire right at the start of the battle didn't kill or seriously wound every single one of them, shields or not, must have been nothing short of a miracle. Assuming, of course, that they really did forsake armor.