In 480 B.C the forces of the Persian Empire under King Xerxes,
numbering according the Herodotus two million men, bridged the Hellespont
and marching in their myriads to invade and enslave Greece.
In a desperate delaying action, a picked force of three hundred Spartans
was dispatched to hold the pass of Thermopylae, where the confines
between mountains and sea were so narrow that the Persian multitudes
and their cavalry would at least be partially neutralized.
Here, it was hoped, an elite force willing to sacrifice their lives could keep back,
at least for a few days, the invading millions. Three hundred Spartans and their allies held
off the invaders for seven days, until, their weapons smashed and broken before the
slaughter, they fought with bare hands and teeth (as recorded by Herodotus) before at last
being overwhelmed.
The Spartans and their Thespian allies died to the last man, but the standard of valor set by
their sacrifice inspired the Greeks to rally and, in that fall and spring, defeat the Persians at
Salamis and Plataea and preserve the beginnings of Western democracy and freedom from
perishing in the cradle.
Two memorials remain today at Thermoplae. Upon the modern one, called the Leonidas
monument in honor of the Spartan king who fell there, is engraved his response to Xerxes
demand that the Spartans lay down their weapons.
Leonidas reply was two words, Molon labe. Come and get them
The second monument, the ancient one, is an unadorned stone engraved with the words of
the poet Simonides. Its verses comprise perhaps the most famous of all warrior epitaphs:
Go tell the Spartans, stranger passing by, That here obedient to their laws we lie.
------Steven Pressfield, Gates of Fire