Steven Pressfield: Gates of Fire: An Epic Novel of the Battle of Thermopylae

What about her face? I persisted. Was she young or old? Of what age or appearance?

I cannot say, the man replied.

Why not?

Her face was hidden, the ship's master declared. AH but her eyes obscured by a veil.

I inquired further as to the monuments themselves, the stones and their inscriptions. The captain reported what he recalled, which was little. The stone over the Spartans' grave, he recollected, bore verses composed by the poet Simonides, who himself stood present that day to assist in the dedication.

Can you recall the epitaph upon the stone? I inquired. Or were the verses too lengthy for memory to retain?

Not at all, the captain replied. The lines were composed Spartan-style. Short. Nothing wasted.

So spare were they, he testified, that even one of as poor a memory as himself encountered no difficulty in their recollection, O xein angellein Lakedaimoniois hoti tede keimetha tois keinon rhemasi peithomenoi These verses have I rendered thus, as best I can:

Tell the Spartans, stranger passing by, that here obedient to their laws we lie.

It goes without saying that a work which attempts to imagine vanished worlds and cultures owes everything to the original literary sources, in this case Homer, Herodotus, Plutarch, Pausanias, Diodorus, Plato, Thucydides, Xenophon, and on and on. They're the real stuff, without which nothing.

Almost as indispensable, however, have been the extraordinary scholars and historians of our own time, whose published wisdom I have looted shamelessly. I hope they will forgive the author of this work of far less rigorous scholarship than their own if he acknowledges with gratitude and by name a number of these distinguished classicists-Paul Cartledge, G. L. Cawkwell, Victor Davis Hansen, Donald Kagan, John Keegan, H.D.F. Kitto, J. F. Lazenby, Peter Green, W. K.

Pritchett and, especially, Mary Renault. In addition, I would like to thank two colleagues whose personal counsel and direction have been indispensable:

First, Hunter B. Armstrong, Director of the International Hoplology Society, for graciously sharing his expertise in hoplite weapons, tactics and practice and for his invaluable insights into, and imaginative reconstructions of, ancient battle. Himself an acclaimed weapons athlete, Mr.

Armstrong's combatant's-eye-view assisted immeasurably in reimagining the experience of Greek heavy-infantry warfare.

Finally, my profound gratitude to Dr. Ippokratis Kantzios, Assistant Professor of Greek Language and Literature at the Richard Stockton College of New Jersey, for his generous and encyclopedic assistance through all aspects of this undertaking, acting not only as guide and mentor for historical and linguistic authenticity and as translator (free as well as exact) of the epigraph and of passages and terms throughout this book, but for numerous other sage and inspired contributions. There's not a page in the book that doesn't owe something to you, Hip.

Thanks for your innumerable creative contributions, your unfailing encouragement and your ever-Olympian counsel.

STEVEN PRESSFIELD is also the author of The Legend of Bagger Vance and Tides of War. He lives in Los Angeles.