Slain by the Medes what time they passed the Sperchius;
A seer, who though he knew impending fate,
Would not desert the gallant chiefs of Sparta."
Two of these three hundred, Eurytus and Aristodemus, had been dismissed from the camp by Leonidas, and were lying at Alpeni desperately afflicted with a disease of the eyes. But when Eurytus heard of the circuit made by the Persians, he called for his arms and ordered his helot to lead him to the combatants; and, while the slave in terror ran away, his brave half-blind master rushed into the midst of the throng and perished; but Aristodemus, failing in courage, was left behind. Now if it had happened that Aristodemus had returned sick to Sparta, or if both had gone home together, in my opinion the Spartans would not have shown any anger against them. But since one of them perished, and the other, who had only the same excuse, refused to die, they must needs get exceedingly angry with Aristodemus. On his return to Lacedæmon he was met with insults and infamy. Not one of the Spartans would either give him fire or converse with him: and he was jeered and hooted at by the boys who called him "Aristodemus the coward." However, in the battle of Platæa he removed all the disgrace that attached to him, for he earned the title of the bravest of the Spartans, and recklessly lost his life. Xerxes after the massacre passed through among the dead; and having heard that Leonidas was king and general of the Lacedæmonians, he commanded them to cut off his head, and fix it upon a pole. It is clear to me from many other proofs, and not least of all from this, that king Xerxes was more highly incensed against Leonidas during his life, than against any other man; for otherwise he would never have violated the respect due to his dead body; since the Persians, most of all men with whom I am acquainted, are wont to honor men who are brave in war.
[26] One of the ten thousand chosen men called Immortals, of whom we shall hear more hereafter.
[27] Literally, "the river Peneus gaining the victory as to the name, causes the others to be nameless."
[28] The promised account is no where given in any extant writings of the historian.