152 HISTORICAL TALES.

were broken, and they fought with their swords,
Leonidas sank in death, but his men fought on more
fiercely still, to keep the foe back from his body.
Here many of the Persian chiefs perished, among
them two brothers of Xerxes. It was like a combat
of the Iliad rather than a contest in actual war.
Finally the Greeks, worn out, reduced in numbers,
their best weapons gone, fell back behind the wall,
bearing the body of their chief. Here they still
fought, with daggers, with their unarmed hands,
even with their mouths, until the last man fell dead.

The Thebans alone yielded themselves as prisoners,
saying that they had been kept in the pass against
their will. Of the thousand Spartans and Thespians,
not a man remained alive.

Meanwhile the fleets had been engaged, to the ad-
vantage of the Greeks, while another storm that

.suddenly rose wrecked two hundred more of the

Persian ships on Hubcea’s rocky coast. When word
came that Thermopyle had fallen the Grecian fleet
withdrew, sailed round the Attic coast, and stopped
not again until the island of Salamis was reached.

As for Leonidas and his Spartans, they had died,
but had won imperishable fame. The same should
be said for the Thespians as well, but history has
largely ignored their share in the glorious deed. In
after-days an inscription was set up which gave all
glory to the Peloponnesian heroes without a word
for the noble Thespian band. Another celebrated
inscription honored the Spartans alone:

“Go, stranger, and to Lacedemon tell
That here, obeying her behests, we fell,”’