No one is more amazed than I that Gates of Fire has sold a million copies. No one will be interested in this except me. Gates of Fire is required reading at West Point and Annapolis and for all officers in. It’s about a battle nobody has ever heard of, that they can’t spell, can’t pronounce–and it was fought by a nation nobody knows anything about and doesn’t care. The story of the 300 Spartans and the battle of Thermopylae, 480 BCE. This test was to check and make sure that there were no deformities. Each baby was sent to have the ten, ten, one test done on them as explained in the novel, The Gates of Fire by Steven Pressfield. Then I thought, Wait a minute, this idea is even crazier than the idea for Bagger Vance. From the time that Spartan men were born, they were evaluated for their future services to the Spartan society. I’d read this passage before, as I said, but this time it leapt out at me. Dienekes, however, quite unfazed by the prospect of dueling such multitudes, remarked only, “Let the Persians hide the sun we’ll fight them in the shade.” So vast were these myriads, the scout declared, that when they fired their volleys, the mass of arrows blocked out the sun. It is said that on the eve of battle, a native of the district appeared in camp spreading alarm by his report of the numbers of the Persian archers. Although extraordinary valor was displayed by the entire corps of Spartans and Thespians, yet bravest of all was declared the Spartan Dienekes.
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