t took place at these councils, though the
prevailing testimony is, that Leonidas recommended that they should
retire--that is, that all except himself and the three hundred Spartans
should do so. "You," said he, addressing the other Greeks, "are at
liberty, by your laws, to consider, in such cases as this, the question
of expediency, and to withdraw from a position which you have taken, or
stand and maintain it, according as you judge best. But by our laws,
such a question, in such a case, is not to be entertained. Wherever we
are posted, there we stand, come life or death, to the end. We have been
sent here from Sparta to defend the pass of Thermopylae. We have received
no orders to withdraw. Here, therefore, we must remain; and the
Persians, if they go through the pass at all, must go through it over
our graves. It is, therefore, your duty to retire. Our duty is here, and
we will remain and do it."

After all that may be said of the absurdity and folly of throwing away
the lives of three hundred men in a case like this, so utterly and
hopelessly desperate, there is still something in the noble generosity
with which Leonidas dismissed the other Greeks, and in the undaunted
resolution with which he determined himself to maintain his ground,
which has always strongly excited the admiration of mankind. It was
undoubtedly carrying the point of honor to a wholly unjustifiable
extreme, and yet all the world, for the twenty centuries which have
intervened since these transactions occurred, while they have
unanimously disapproved, in theory, of the course which Leonidas
pursued, have none the less unanimously admired and applauded it.

In dismissing the other Greeks, Leonidas retained with him a body of
Thebans, whom he suspected of a design of revolting to the enemy.
Whether he considered his decision to keep them in the pass equivalent
to a sentence of death, and intended it as a punishment for their
supposed treason, or only that he wished to secure their continued
fidelity by keeping them closely to their duty, does not appear. At all
events, he retained them, and dismissed the other allies. Those
dismissed retreated to the open country below. The Spartans and the
Thebans remained in the pass. There were also, it was said, some other
troops, who, not willing to leave the Spartans alone in this danger,
chose to remain with them and share their fate. The Thebans remained
very unwillingly.

The next morning Xerxes prepare