The Gates Of Fire Analysis

The Gates of Fire is set in ancient Greece where the Greeks are still around and the pivotal battle that helped win the war against the Persians. The war was decided between the Romans and the Persians at the Battle of Thermopylae and the battle at Artemisium that occurred at the same time. The Greeks decided that battle had to be won on both land and water. While the war was lost on land, the navy, after winning their battle, defeated the Persians on land. Xeones, who was a Greek that was caught by the Persians, tells his story to a scribe for Xerxes, the Persian King. He begins by describing his death and saying he was resurrected by Apollo to tell his account about The Battle of Thermopylae. He begins with the history of Thermopylae and then tells about how his village was destroyed when he was nine and he learns to be an archer. Xeones then goes on to Sparta. When Xeones enters Sparta, he then becomes a helot for Dienekes, who was an old soldier, and became his battle squire. Xeones becomes the sparring partner of Alexandros. Against his …show more content…
The scribe then continues to take his account of the war. The Athenian navy wins an important battle against the Persian navy, which then causes Xerxes ti retreat back to Persia from Greece. The Greeks finish off the Persians and win the war. The Spartan war tactics are some of the most intelligent and most destructive tactics at that time. The quote, “Because a warrior who carries helmet and breastplate for his own protection, but his shield for the safety of the whole line.” (Page 36) helps explain this line of reasoning. The idea behind the shield is to protect the line and hold off attackers, not to protect yourself. The shield was to be used with other Spartans to create and impenetrable barricade blocking off said attackers providing a formidable force and minimalize death in the army because the armor was to protect