Book 8: Thermopylae, Chapter 35 - 38 Summary

Xeones, through his narration, chides Xerxes for not being a true king. Using Leonidas' example, Xeones tells Xerxes that a true king does not force his conquered armies to fight against their will, but leads free men into battle. A true king does not watch the battle from the safety of a faraway hill, but joins in the fray shoulder-to-shoulder with his men. As a result, his men fight hard to retrieve his body once fallen.

The Greeks surge and then fall back to the place where they had planned to make their soon to become famous last stand, a rise of land behind the battle wall. Xeones falls to an Egyptian spear, and Suicide hauls him away from the battle. Only sixty defenders remain, including Xeones who has strapped his guts together, as the Persian troops...