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The king, on hearing from his envoys the replies of the Greeks, sent for Demaratus, a Spartan who had been exiled from his native land and taken refuge with him, and with a scoff at the replies he asked the Laconian, "Will the Greeks flee more swiftly than my horses can run, or will they dare to face such armaments in battle?" [2] And Demaratus, we are told, replied, "You yourself are not unacquainted with the courage of the Greeks, since you use Greek forces to quell such barbarians as revolt. So do not think that those who fight better than the Persians to maintain your sovereignty, will risk their lives less bravely against the Persians to maintain their own freedom." But Xerxes with a scoff at him ordered Demaratus to stay by his side in order that he might witness the Lacedaemonians in flight. [3]

Xerxes with his army came against the Greeks at Thermopylae. And he put the Medes in front of all the other peoples, either because he preferred them by reason of their courage or because he wished to destroy them in a body; for the Medes still retained a proud spirit, the supremacy which their ancestors had exercised having only recently been overthrown. [4] And he also designated together with the Medes the brothers and sons of those who had fallen at Marathon, believing that they would wreak vengeance upon the Greeks with the greatest fury. The Medes, then, having been drawn up for battle in the manner we have described, attacked the defenders of Thermopylae; but Leonidas had made careful preparation and massed the Greeks in the narrowest part of the pass.

Diodorus Siculus. Diodorus of Sicily in Twelve Volumes with an English Translation by C. H. Oldfather. Vol. 4-8. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, Ltd. 1989.

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