inst the small and divided
country of Greece. It was then split into a number of little States, not
on good terms with each other, and while some were for war, and freedom,
and ruin, if ruin must come, with honour, others were for peace and
slavery. The Greeks, who determined to resist Persia at any cost, met
together at the Isthmus of Corinth, and laid their plans of defence. The
Asiatic army, coming by land, would be obliged to march through a narrow
pass called Thermopylae, with the sea on one side of the road, and a
steep and inaccessible precipice on the other. Here, then, the Greeks
made up their minds to stand. They did not know, till they had marched
to Thermopylae, that behind the pass there was a mountain path, by which
soldiers might climb round and over the mountain, and fall upon their
rear. As the sea on the right hand of the Pass of Thermopylae lies in a
narrow strait, bounded by the island of Euboea, the Greeks thought
that their ships would guard their rear and prevent the Persians from
landing men to attack it. Their army encamped in the Pass, having wide
enough ground to manoeuvre in, between the narrow northern gateway, so
to speak, by which the invaders would try to enter, and a gateway to the
south. Their position was also protected by an old military wall, which
they repaired.

The Greek general was Leonidas, the Spartan king. He chose three hundred
men, all of whom had sons at home to maintain their families and to
avenge them if they fell. Now the manner of the Spartans was this: to
die rather than yield. However sorely defeated, or overwhelmed by
numbers, they never left the ground alive and unvictorious, and as this
was well known, their enemies were seldom eager to attack such resolute
fighters.

Besides the Spartans, Leonidas led some three or four thousand men from
other cities, and he was joined at Thermopylae by the Locrians and a
thousand Phocians. Perhaps he may have had six or eight thousand
soldiers under him, while the Persians may have outnumbered them by the
odds of a hundred to one. Why, you may ask, did the Greeks not send a
stronger force? The reason was very characteristic. They were holding
their sports at the time, racing, running, boxing, jumping, and they
were also about to be engaged in another festival. They would not omit
or put off their games however many thousand barbarians might be
knocking at their gates. There is something boyish, and something fine
in this condu