"Of those who perished at Thermopylai
All glorious is the fortune, fair the doom;
Their grave's an altar, ceaseless memory's theirs
Instead of lamentation, and thier fate
Is chant of praise. Such winding-sheet as this
Nor mould nor all-consuming time shall waste.
This sepulchre of valiant men has taken
The fair renown of Hellas for its inmate.
And witness is Leonidas, once king
Of Sparta, who hath left behind a crown
Of valor mighty and undying fame."
Simonides 7
"The earth hides glorious men, Leonidas, who with you
Died here, king of spacious Spart,
After they had awaited in war
The might of the Persians' many bows and swift-footed horses."
(Probally Hellenistic)
Simonides 22 a(whole troop) and b(Spartans)
a- "Here against three million once fought
Four thousand from the Peloponnese."
b- "Stranger, tell the Spartans that here
We lie, obeying thier orders."
"[The glory] of these men's valou[r will] alwasys [be undying]
[....the gods allot;]
For both footsoldiers [and in quick sailing ships] they prevented
All Gree[ce f]rom [seeing the day] of slaver[y]."
Simonides 10( About Adeimantos cammander at Artmesion and Salamis)
"This is the tomb of the famous Adeimantos, through whom
all Greece put on the garland of freedom."
Simonides 11(About the Corninthians at Salamis)
"Stranger, we once lived in the well-watered city of Corinth,
But now Salamis, island of Ajax, holds us;
Here we took Phoenician ships and Persians
And Medes and saved holy Greece."
Leonidas: "When the ephors said, 'Haven't you decided to do anything other than block the passes against the barbarians?' he said, 'In theory no, but in actual fact to die for the Greeks.' When someone said 'It isn't possible even to see the sun because of the barbarians' arrows,' he said, 'How nice, then, if we are to fight them in the shade.' When Xerxes wrote to him, 'If you do not fight against the gods, but side with me, you can be monarch of Greece,' he wrote back, 'If you knew what was good in life, you would refrain from desiring what belongs to other people; as for me it is better to die for Greece than be a monarch of the people of my race.' When Xerxes wrote him again, 'Hand over your weapons,' he wrote back, 'Come and take them.'"