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[4] For, seeing that, because of the overwhelming number of the enemy, all who joined battle with them would be killed, he decided that while it was not in keeping with Spartan dignity to abandon his post in the pass, yet it would be useful to his country to preserve the men. He therefore in an amazing manner provided for both objects and emulated the courageous exploit of King Leonidas at Thermopylae.1

1 The historic occasion, 480 B.C., when Leonidas sent home all but three hundred Spartans, whom he kept to hold up Xerxes' advance. See Book 11.11.

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