n what manner will these men, being so
few, as we know them to be, fight with my great army?"

Demaratus replied, "O King, deal with me as with a liar if everything
fall not out even as I have said."

After this, Xerxes allowed four days to pass, thinking that perhaps the
Greeks would come to their senses and flee. "But on the fifth day,
seeing that they were not departed, but as it seemed to him, were full
of impudence and folly, he grew angry, and sent against them the Medes
and the Cissians, giving them a command that they should take these
Greeks alive and bring them before him. But when these men came up and
fell upon the Greeks, many of them were slain. Then others came up into
their places and ceased not from fighting, though indeed they suffered a
very grievous slaughter, so that it was manifest to all men, and more
especially to the King, that though he had very many that bore arms, yet
had he but few men of war. And this battle endured throughout the whole
day."

For two days the troops of Xerxes, even his great Ten Thousand, who were
known as the Immortals, hurled themselves upon the Greeks, but they
accomplished nothing, for they fought in a narrow place, where their
greater numbers were of no help to them; and their spears were shorter
than those of the Greeks, so that they were easily thrust through before
they could come close enough to harm an enemy. Three times, it is said,
while his troops were being driven backward, did Xerxes spring in
despair from his throne at the sight of the peril of his army.

But on the evening of the second day there came to the camp of the
Persian King a man named Ephialtes. On being ushered into the presence
of Xerxes, this man admitted that he was a Greek, and proposed that for
a great reward he should lead the Persian army over the hidden mountain
path, and bring them to the rear of the Greek defenders. Of course
Xerxes accepted the offer, and sent off one of his generals with a
detachment to follow Ephialtes over the mountain path. In the morning
the Phocians who had been set to guard this path were awakened by the
sound of rustling in the underbrush and rushed from their camp only to
see a detachment of Persian soldiers close upon them. Resolving to sell
their lives dearly, they fled to the top of the mountain, where they
thought that they might have the advantage of position over their
enemies; but the Persians, paying no attention to them, passed on down
the mounta