Either your glorious town must be destroyed,
By the fell hand of warriors sprung from Perseus,
Or else the confines of fair Lacedæmon
Must mourn a king of Heracleidan race,
For all the strength of lions or of bulls
Is nought to him who has the strength of Zeus;
And never shall that monarch be restrained
Until he takes your city or your king."
Xerxes poured out libations at sun-rise, waited a short time, and began his attack about the time of full market, as he had been instructed by Ephialtes. The Greeks with Leonidas, marching out as if for certain death, now advanced much farther than before into the wide part of the defile. For the fortification of the wall had protected them, on the preceding day, in the narrow part. But now engaging outside the narrows, great numbers of the barbarians fell. The officers of the companies from behind, with scourges, flogged every man, constantly urging them forward, so that many of them falling into the sea, perished, and many more were trampled alive under foot by one another; and no regard was paid to any that perished. The Greeks, knowing that death awaited them at the hands of those who were going round the mountain, were desperate, and regardless of their own lives, displayed the utmost possible valor against the barbarians. Already were most of their javelins broken, and they had begun to despatch the Persians with their swords. In this part of the struggle fell Leonidas, fighting valiantly, and with him other eminent Spartans, whose names, seeing they were deserving men, I have ascertained; indeed I have ascertained the names of the whole three hundred. On the side of the Persians, also, many other eminent men fell on this occasion, amongst them two sons of Darius, Abrocomes and Hyperanthes, fighting for the body of Leonidas; and there was a violent struggle between the Persians and Lacedæmonians, until at last the Greeks rescued it by their valor, and four times repulsed the enemy. Thus the contest continued until the Greeks heard that those with Ephialtes were approaching. Then they retreated to the narrow part of the way, and, passing beyond the wall, came and took up their position on the rising ground, all in a compact body, with the exception of the Thebans: the rising ground is at the entrance where the stone lion now stands to the memory of Leonidas. On this spot they defended themselves, first with their swords, then with their hands and teeth, until the barbarians overwhelmed them with missiles in front, and from above, and on every side.