Book 2: Alexandros, Chapter 8 - 9 Summary

The scribe narrator writes that Xerxes has become impatient with Xeones' rambling style of storytelling. Xerxes wants to know about Spartan tactics, training and military philosophy, but Xeones insists on telling the story his way, and so he does, being that Xerxes has no choice. Xeones talks of Alexandros, the son of a noble Spartan family, and an incident that happened when he and Alexandros were fourteen years old. They had become sparring partners in the Spartan way of training boys into warriors a year before, and they find themselves at the Oaks in the Otona valley for battle games.

The Spartans design the games to simulate actual battle conditions as closely as possible. They must carry 80 pounds of armor, weapons and other necessities over rough and steep terrain. They eat and drink the same rations as...