Truth and Freedom Against Overwhelming Odds

In 480 BC, a millions-strong (according to Herodotus, though this is disputed) Persian army faced 300 Spartans, along with about a thousand other Greeks, at Thermopylae.

Although extraordinary valor was displayed by the entire corps of Spartans and Thespians, yet bravest of all was declared the Spartan Dienekes. It is said that on the eve of battle, he was told by a native of Trachis that the Persian archers were so numerous that, their arrows would blot out the sun. Dienekes, however, undaunted by this prospect, remarked with a laugh, “Good. Then we will fight in the shade.”
(Herodotus)

Stelios, a character from Frank Miller’s 300 based on the said Dienekes, said in the movie:

I've fought countless times, yet I've never met an adversary that could offer me what we Spartans call a beautiful death. I can only hope, with all the world's warriors gathered against us, there might be one down there who's up to the task.

Less than a month later, a Greek fleet led by Themistocles faced a similarly mind-boggling challenge at Salamis:

Of what other man have we learned from history that by a single act he caused himself to surpass all the commanders, his city all the other Greek states, and the Greeks the barbarians? In whose term as general have the resources been more inferior and the dangers they faced greater? Who, facing the united might of all Asia, has found himself at the side of his city when its inhabitants had been driven from their homes, and still won the victory?
(Diodorus Siculus)

Eventually, the barbarian monster was crushed. A hundred and a half years later, about 50,000 men led by Alexander the Great aspired to an even greater challenge – they embarked on a quest to free almost the whole of Asia (in the Greek sense of the term) from the Persian yoke. They succeeded.
Terry Goodkind’s Phantom describes a struggle against even more impossible and devastating odds. A brutal tyranny called the Imperial Order has conquered most of the world. To say that the Order’s army vastly outnumbers the forces of the free people is an understatement. This horde is virtually limitless. What makes it so colossal and ever-growing is not military strategy or some political intrigue but the idea behind it. It takes so much more than just military talent or genius for organization to stem this tide of despotism. Yet a way to oppose the horde has been found – it involves unflinching commitment to the cause of liberty and the willingness to face the truth, regardless of whether it is unpleasant or unconventional. A is A – so simple a statement and yet so complicated.