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.
During the civil war, the manufacture of powder and explosives was often handled by the most vulnerable, young women and children, whose labor was needed when so many men had been sent off to war. On March 13, 1863, the confederacy experienced a munitions disaster, in the confederate capitol of Richmond.