Although it is usually assumed that the somewhat skimpy battle scenes were due to director Roger Corman's legendary cheapness, Corman had actually arranged for the services of 500 soldiers from the local Greek army garrison. On the morning of filming, however, only about 50 showed up, and as the day wore on (and the heat intensified), some of them drifted away. In order to make it look like there were more "soldiers" than there actually were, Corman had them march in formation past the camera, then when out of camera range run around behind the crew and equipment, and march past the camera again. That is also why the battle scenes are filmed in close-up combat between individual soldiers or small groups of soldiers rather than in long shots of masses of battling infantry, as Corman had originally planned.
This film marked the beginning of Corman veteran Frank Wolff's exile to Europe. He remained there until his suicide in Rome in 1971.
This was intended to be Roger Corman's equivalent of the then highly popular "Swords and Sandals" movies of the 1960s. Filmed partially in Greece (rather than Italy) and plagued with funding delays and production problems, it was produced for about $108,000 and, although it did turn a profit, was not as successful as Corman had hoped.
Corman lifted the graphics style for his title sequence directly from Stanley Kubrick's award winning "Spartacus", which opened the year before.
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