"They have come to fight with you for this pass."
11. In wave after wave all day long they dashed themselves against the Greeks, and left their dead lying at the mouth of the pass. Thereby it was made clear to everyone, and not least to the great king himself, that men were many, but heroes few.
II
12. The next day the king ordered his own bodyguard, called the Ten Thousand Immortals, to attack the holders of the pass. The Immortals were the picked soldiers of the whole army, but they fared no better than the others. Three times the king sprang from his throne in dismay as he saw his soldiers driven back with great loss. And on the third day the Persians fought with no better success.
13. While the king was in doubt what to do, a treacherous Greek came and told him about the path over the mountains. Xerxes at once sent soldiers along that path to attack the Greeks from the rear.
14. When the guards who had been stationed on the mountain brought news of the coming of the Persians, the Greeks were not agreed as to what they should do. Some wanted to retreat and abandon a position which it was now impossible to hold.
15. Leonidas bade them depart; but for him and his countrymen it was not honorable to turn their backs on any foe. For the manner of the Spartans was this: to die rather than yield. However sorely beset or overwhelmed by numbers, they never left the ground alive and unvictorious.
16. Leonidas had two kinsmen in the camp whom he tried to save by giving them messages and letters to Sparta. But one answered that he had come to fight, not to carry letters; and the other said that his deeds would tell all that Sparta wished to know. Another Spartan, when told that the enemy's archers were so numerous that their arrows darkened the sun, replied: "So much the better; we shall fight in the shade."
