Gates of Fire

Xeones describes how Alexandros’s asthma made it impossible for him to keep up with his peers. Xeones notes that Alexandros’ broken nose did not mar his physical beauty or singing ability, so that it must be “somehow that fear, rather than physical incapacity, was the trigger for these attacks” (120).

Xeones provides a description of phobologia, the Spartan training to resist fear. The basic training exercise involves touching the student in various parts of the body until the boy has learned to quell all involuntary responses to the stimulation.

Although he continues to improve, Alexandros still lags behind his sparring partner, and “it was all [Xeones] could do not to break up his face even further” (122).

Two years after Xeones’s arrival, the Spartans send a large army to Antirhion, to force it into the alliance.

Alexandros’s frustration at his physical limitations and inability to prove himself is aggravated by the mobilization. The night following the army’s departure, Xeones is shaken awake and told that Alexandros is sneaking out of town to follow the army. Xeones finds him arguing with his mother. When Alexandros raises a weapon, insisting that he will follow the army, his mother gives up, and Xeones departs with Alexandros. 

Alexandros and Xeones make their way to Rhion, a port city opposite a deep bay from Antirhion, and find the army preparing to make the crossing.

The boys hire a private boat but are tricked overboard. As they swim for shore, the boys discuss romance. Alexandros says that he wishes to marry a girl named Agathe and asks Xeones about Diomache. Xeones instead tells Alexandros about Bruxieus and his life following the sack of Astakos.

By their second summer in the wild, the refugees are now thriving, and Bruxieus begins to worry that the children will forget their civilized childhoods. As the old slave’s health declines, he insists that the two cousins must go to Athens and reintegrate into city life. After Bruxieus is cremated, Xeones and Diomache leave for Athens. At a crossroads near the city, the two cousins part ways, as Xeones turns southwards towards Sparta.

Xeones cannot recall how much of this personal history he recounted to Alexandros during their long swim, but they manage to make it to shore.

This chapter recounts the course of the battle at Antirhion and its immediate aftermath. Xeones and Alexandros watch the battle unfold from a bluff overlooking the battlefield. The Spartans are victorious, and their king, Leonidas, commands them to also tend to the enemy wounded. Alexandros finds his father, who is shocked at his presence and furious at his disobedience.

After the Spartans have tallied their dead and finished their sacrifices, Leonidas gives his men a speech about the grace of being spared in battle and the vividness of experience that follows. He also reminds his men that Persia is their real foe, not the Antirhionians. Leonidas also compares himself, a ruler who leads his fellow citizens into battle, to Xerxes, who must compel obedience by force and does not join his men in battle.