me, O King, the truth concerning these men before this, even when we were first beginning this war; but when thou heardest it thou didst but laugh at me, though I told thee that which I knew would surely come to pass. For indeed, O King, I strive always with my whole heart to tell thee the truth. Hear, therefore, yet again what I say. These men are come hither to contend with us for the Pass; and this they now prepare to do; and they have this custom among them, that when they are about to put their lives in peril they adorn their heads with exceeding care. Know, also, O King, that if thou canst subdue these men, and such others of their nation as have been left behind in Sparta, there is no nation upon the earth that will abide thy coming or lift up a hand against thee; for this city that thou now fightest against is the most honorable in all Greece, and these men are the bravest.”
But these things seemed to Xerxes to be wholly beyond belief; and he asked again the second time, “In what manner will these men, being so few, as we know them to be, fight with my great army?”
But Demaratus answered this only, “O King, deal with me as with a liar if every thing fall not out even as I have said.” Notwithstanding, he could not persuade the King that it was so in truth.
Four days, therefore, did the King suffer to pass, hoping always that the Greeks would flee away from their place. But on the fifth day, seeing that they were not departed, but were full, as it seemed to him, 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.