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A few science fiction authors who I've read have mentioned a complete list of the Spartan dead at Thermopylae. Does such a thing exist in the real world? As usual, all those poor Thespians and Helots don't get a mention, nor do the Persians who were just doing their duty too.
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Was there not a memorial raised, or documented records of those who died in the sources somewhere? I know they raised lists of the dead in Athens during the wars, possibly the Peloponesean. :?
Visne partem mei capere? Comminus agamus! * Me semper rogo, Quid faceret Iulius Caesar? * Confidence is a good thing! Overconfidence is too much of a good thing.
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Byron Angel
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Herodotus says that he knew all the names (Histories 7.224), so I guess that a list was available. They may have been inscribed in the memorial columns erected after the battle.
Jona Lendering
Relevance is the enemy of history
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That makes sense. And all of those authors are writing stories set at least a hundred years in the future, so that gives plenty of time for archaeologists to get lucky and find an inscription or papyrus.
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Sean, What are the stories/authors?
Paul M. Bardunias
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A Spartan, being asked a question, answered "No." And when the questioner said, "You lie," the Spartan said, "You see, then, that it is stupid of you to ask questions to which you already know the answer!"
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Hi Paul,
I can remember two novels. In Jerry Pournelle's "Go Tell the Spartans" (now available with its sequels as "The Prince"), a dying soldier recites the list as he tries to stay conscious long enough to help his comrades. In John Ringo's "There Will Be Dragons," a young man mentally recites the list to deal with a public bath with several attractive young ladies. It wouldn't surprise me if Ringo got the idea from Pournelle. Both books are worth reading, although with Ringo especially you have to learn to skim over the interjections on modern politics. Pournelle's series has a Utopian political experiment modelled partly on Sparta.
Nullis in verba
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Quote:I can remember two novels. In Jerry Pournelle's "Go Tell the Spartans"
Great book, I love Pournelle. Along with Drake, Turtledove, and Stirling he fed my head through most of my youth.
Quote: In John Ringo's "There Will Be Dragons," a young man mentally recites the list to deal with a public bath with several attractive young ladies.
That is so wrong on so many levels... 8)
Paul M. Bardunias
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A Spartan, being asked a question, answered "No." And when the questioner said, "You lie," the Spartan said, "You see, then, that it is stupid of you to ask questions to which you already know the answer!"
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I believe that a memorial stands at Thermopylae which tells the story of the battle and how King Leonidas and 300 spartans perished there defending their home land. I do not believe that it lists any names though.
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![[Image: t4wg016.jpg]](http://www.fiendbear.com/FotosSpr99/t4wg016.jpg)
this is the memorial there...
MARCVS DECIVS / Matthias Wagner
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I was referring to the one raised in ancient times, not the modern one.
They actually put up lists of the fallen from conflicts in the cities, I am sure they still survive in Athens, so I cannot see why they would not have been done in the other towns.... :?
Visne partem mei capere? Comminus agamus! * Me semper rogo, Quid faceret Iulius Caesar? * Confidence is a good thing! Overconfidence is too much of a good thing.
[b]Legio XIIII GMV. (Q. Magivs)RMRS Remember Atuatuca! Vengence will be ours!
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Byron Angel
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Well the Athenians were more likely to write such lists rather than the Spartans who were more the warrior types. It funny that most of the ancient stories concerning the Spartan were written by authors from other Greek cities. May be the Spartans were too macho to be writing stuff down. Just a thought. :lol:
Doug"Suetonius Attius Hispanicus"
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with a sword or spear in your right hand it's not that easy to write 
MARCVS DECIVS / Matthias Wagner
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