Xeo, however, begins at the beginning, when his childhood home in northern Greece was overrun and he escaped to Sparta. Xeo, the sole Spartan survivor of Thermopylae, has been captured by the Persians, and Xerxes himself presses his young captive to reveal how his tiny cohort kept more than 100,000 Persians at bay for a week. In the tradition of Mary Renault, this historical novel unfolds in flashback. In Gates of Fire, however, Steven Pressfield makes their courageous defense–and eventual extinction–unbearably suspenseful. From the start, there was no question but that the Spartans would perish. Here, in 480 B.C., on a narrow mountain pass above the crystalline Aegean, 300 Spartan knights and their allies faced the massive forces of Xerxes, King of Persia. Thus reads an ancient stone at Thermopylae in northern Greece, the site of one of the world’s greatest battles for freedom. Go tell the Spartans, stranger passing by, that here obedient to their laws we lie. “A timeless epic of man and war…Pressfield has created a new classic deserving of a place beside the very best of the old.”įrom the Paperback edition. “A novel that is intricate and arresting and, once begun, almost impossible to put down.” Rarely does an author manage to re-create a moment in history with such mastery, authority, and psychological insight.” “An incredibly gripping, moving, and literate work of art. “Gripping and swashbuckling…an exciting, romantic, star-crossed story.” “Steven Pressfield brings the battle of Thermopylae to brilliant life, and he does for that war what Charles Frazier did for the Civil War in Cold Mountain.” Pressfield has created a new classic deserving a place beside the very best of the old.”-Stephen Coonts Editorial Reviews Review “A novel that is intricate and arresting and, once begun, almost impossible to put down.”- Daily News Born into a cult of spiritual courage, physical endurance, and unmatched battle skill, the Spartans would be remembered for the greatest military stand in history-one that would not end until the rocks were awash with blood, leaving only one gravely injured Spartan squire to tell the tale. Theirs was a suicide mission, to hold the pass against the invading millions of the mighty Persian army.ĭay after bloody day they withstood the terrible onslaught, buying time for the Greeks to rally their forces.

At Thermopylae, a rocky mountain pass in northern Greece, the feared and admired Spartan soldiers stood three hundred strong.

Gates of fire book