One day after his men had finally broken through at Thermopylae and Artemisium, Xerxes gave the order. The mighty force began to march, sail, and row its way south. All eyes now turned toward Athens. But they never quite lost their focus on Thermopylae.

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In the coming months of drudgery and blood, the sacrifices of the Greeks at the Middle Gate no doubt buoyed up the national spirit. Within less than a year, in great victories at sea at Salamis and on land at Plataea, the Greeks smashed the forces of the invader and drove out the surviving Persians. Afterward, memorials were set up at Thermopylae for the dead, none with an epigram more memorable than this, in John Dryden's translation:

Go tell the Spartans, thou who passeth by, That here, obedient to her laws, we lie.

Barry Strauss is an MHQ contributing editor and the author or editor of numerous books on classical history. This article is adapted from his latest book, The Battle of Salamis: The Naval Encounter That Saved Greece — and Western Civilization (Simon & Schuster, 2004), © 2004 by Barry S. Strauss.

This article was originally published in the Fall 2004 edition of MHQ.

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