As unbelievable as it is, this was Xerxes first move soon after his mighty army arrived at the Thermopylae Pass when he found it was defended and when he discovered that the defenders would not flee.

Tag words: Xerxes; Thermopylae Pass; Herodotus; Histories; John Marincola; JFC Fuller; Decisive Battles of the Western World; Adolf Hitler; Leonidas; Spartans; Sparta; Heracles; Hercules; Zeus; Plutarch; Sun Tzu; Carneia; John Lewis Gaddis; Lacedaemonians; Persians; Demaratus; Artabanus; Darius; Cyrus the Great;