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Garvey,Ainsley 20140216 GATES OF FIRE BOOK REPORT In GATES OF FIRE, Steven Pressfield displays perfectly the ruthless training tha t Spartan youths had to go through to become apart of a legendary army. He not only shows leadership through the main plot, which is the final battle place of 300 of Spartans finest solders at Thermopylae but also displays the courage, le adership, bravery, and honor of the main character Xeo. In the storyline Xeo,is forced into the woods with his cousin Di omache and his former half blind slave Bruxieus when his city is betrayed and sa cked. There they stay in the woods for a couple years, learning valuable skills such as, hunting with a bow and finding for themselves. Surviving became increas ingly difficult with Bruxieus getting ill. With the winter setting in there was less animals to hunt for food.this forces Xeo one night to try and steal food fr om a nearby farm. He gets caught and before he could be rescued his spear hand w as broken. This causes Xeo to believe he'll never be a man now with him never be ing able to handle a spear again.one night he try's to commit suicide by freezin g to death. Half way frozen dead Xeo is visited by Apollo The Archer God, who te lls him that he still has one good hand which he could use to become a archer. L ike him. Xeo had no other choice than to fight to live.that same night Bruxieus, the former slave dies. Xeo and Diomache decide that it was time to leave the woo ds in search for a new city. Xeo knows that his cousin is beautiful and the only life for her is to be married to a citizen of Athens. Xeo and Diomache are even tually separated, with Diomache going to Athens and Xeo to Sparta. Xeo is placed as a sparring partner for Alexandros, son of a Spa rtan solider Olympus's. Alexandros turns out to be one of the weaker of the Spa rtan youths. Xeo, Alexandro's slave and training partner is forced to go with Al exandros to chases the Spartan army. Chasing the army causes Xeo and Alexandros to get betrayed by a pirate and thrown of board. they eventually swim to shore a fter a a long gruesome night. Upon reaching the Spartan army, they witness the b attle between the Spartans and Syrakusans. The Spartans murder many of the enemy army with only few Spartans dead. among the dead was Polemarch, a friend and me ntor of Alexandros. This affects the young Spartan tremendously. This causes him to not like war.Xeo amd Alexandros are both whipped for departing the city on t here own. Alexandros is tormented by the Olympian champion Polynikes for being w eek. Alexandros eventually is awarded his shild and helmet when he becomes twent y.by this time the world now knows that the Persian king Xerxes marches towards Greece and Sparta. Most of Greece has became allies with the Persians in able to save themselves for demise. The Spartans however has no intentions of joining t he Persian king to become a slave. The counsel, being bought off by the Persians have not agreed with the Spartan king Leonidas to send Spartans army north. Leo nidas take 300 of his best to Thermopylae to give Greece enough time to muster u p an army. among them is Xeo. Steven Pressfield was a prior Marine leaving the Marine Corps i n 1966, he was inspired to write this book based of the resemblance he saw with the Marines he served with and the ones he met presently and the warrior culture of the Spartans. His book has been taught in multiple places of military signif icance including the Marine Corps Basic School at Quantico, and it is added to t he curriculum of the Naval War College. The book itself is about the legendary b attle of Thermopylae and the three hundred Spartans who fought that battle knowi ng that the outcome was certain death. When reading the book you can clearly tel l the levels of Honor, Courage, and Commitment these men had, and how they were willing to sacrifice everything for their homeland. After reading this book read ers will clearly see how the author found the link between the Spartans, and the

Marine Corps.