In 192 B.C., rising Rome met a remnant of the empire of Alexander the Great on the storied ground of Thermopylae, nearly 200 years after the Spartans had made it famous fighting Persia. The battle played a significant role in the course of history in the Mediterranean.
There is legitimate controversy over which ship was America’s first true battleship. But the Navy answers that question relatively clearly- USS Indiana was, from the outset, called "Battleship Number One."