Gates Of Fire

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I was a little surprised that the oncoming Persian invasion was dealt with in such isolation. We get references to Spartan efforts to shore up alliances, but we get little specific and never really find out what obstacles they faced (aside from fear). We also get little to no detail about Marathon, the Ionian Revolt (not even mentioned), the causes of the invasion more generally, or the grand Hellenic council. We don’t even hear about the famous scene of Spartans throwing the Persian ambassadors down a well. I think this was a bit of a missed opportunity to show the tenuous nature of the Greek alliance and what held them together, but I can tell that Pressfield is a bit singleminded in his focus on the experience of war. a b Marcus, Lilit (10 January 2022). "Gates of Hell: Turkmenistan's President wants to close Darvaza gas crater". CNN. Archived from the original on 28 April 2023 . Retrieved 28 April 2023.

Throughout Xeones’s time in the agoge (Spartan training regimen), the threat of Persian invasion looms. The Spartans attempt to form a defensive alliance in anticipation of the invasion. If a city declines, the Spartans invade and forcibly draw it into the alliance. These are significant issues and, although not really ruinous to the book as a whole, they don’t exactly bode well. One of the reasons why each of these questions is broken into two parts is because it can often be easier to answer the question about the purpose of a training technique when the student is detached from the lesson being taught. You can answer Part A of the question objectively by only focusing on the Spartans with a degree of separation, as the lesson and explanation have no impact on your life. You can then apply that “truth” to your situation in the military and reflect on it at a much deeper level when thinking about Part B than if you were to jump right into thinking about why you are being yelled at without having first understood the intentions of that particular method. These ten questions can help you think about what you truly are preparing for and how the military is going to prepare you for that challenge, and you will find that you are empowered to and capable of answering the question of “why” on your own. Why bother to read books? After all, there's no money in reading, and it will not help you to obtain a fashionably well-developed musculature. I don't understand why other people read books, but then again, I don't understand why people do pretty much everything, including but not limited to going to flea markets, voting for defenders of the rights of the well-to-do, and having interest in the lives of movie stars, to name just a few.

In the coming years, Xeo, Alexandros, and Rooster all marry and father children. After a failed confrontation at Tempe, the Spartans, goaded by their wives’ disdain, soon plan for a defense at Thermopylae. The news comes that a force of three hundred soldiers will be sent to fight to the death there. Because only men with sons are being chosen, Dienekes must stay at home. It's still difficult for me to understand why anyone would willingly ignore the pointless bullying, the tedious machismo, the cynical grasping and snatching after pathetic shreds of power, and the sheer unadulterated lunacy (all adequately portrayed in this novel) that seem to invariably accompany military life. However, I think that I caught while reading this book certain glimpses of a rationale, if something mostly disconnected from reason can still be called a “rationale”.

For new officers entering the military, I recommend that you reflect on how you might apply the answers to the above questions as a platoon commander. Knowing that part of being a leader means you should be prepared to answer the question from someone in your platoon about why a certain training exercise is being conducted, having comprehensive answers that explore each of the ten questions above in depth is an essential starting point to earning the respect of your platoon. Whether it is applied as you design your own training evolutions in the future or when you are developing the leaders within your unit, knowing the purpose behind any action is critical in training. For example, training methods like the verbal abuse discussed in the book can often go too far or deviate from their actual purpose. If your understanding about what the goal is for that method isn’t well defined, then you could be facilitating a culture of bullying in your unit as you allow that technique to be applied incorrectly. While leaders often have the flexibility to determine how they want to apply a method, the intentions for the action must always be clearly defined. What I liked most about the book was that it is unflinching in its presentation of both the glory and the pity of war – most books tend to pitch one line or the other. Do you think the Spartan defence at Thermopylae was worth it? Authors? Outside of Shakespeare, Chaucer and Tolstoy, nothing good has been written in the past 2500 years. Just kidding. Well, only halfway. I really admire the ancients, Eastern as well as Western. I can’t read novels and the more contemporary they are, the less they mean to me.Gates of Fire". New York Times. 1998 . Retrieved 18 August 2016. My childhood home, before fate set me upon the road which found its end at the Hot Gates, was originally in Astakos in Akarnania, north of the Peloponnese, where the mountains look west over the sea toward Kephallinia and, beyond the horizon, to Sikelia and Italia. Arete is in some ways the most powerful character in the book. Do you think Sparta was a good place for women? Did you make any use of re-enactors? Have you ever worn hoplite armour? How did you come to the way that you imagine the warfare and tactics of the time?

There's a recurring character in my books named Telamon, a mercenary of ancient days. Telamon doesn't say much. He rarely gets hurt or wounded. And he never seems to age. His view of the profession of arms is a lot like my conception of art and the artist: Soldiers are philosophers by trade, as opposed to nature. Whether they are gifted logicians or readers or not, their profession demands a close association with death and life, fear and courage, love and hate, joy and sorrow. A soldier gets acquainted with these, not as abstract ideas, but as intimate realities which are a part of the day-to-day environment.This is a character driven story. It is about what drives us as individuals, and how important friendship is. It looks at the power of being a part of something greater than itself, and it discusses these philosophical topics in such a natural and organic way. It comes straight from our characters, so that these themes do not detract from the story, but are used to enhance our emotion and understanding of the cast of characters. An excellent historical fantasy that tells the story of "300" from the eyes of a servant in the Spartan army.