Gates of Fire

While Xeones tells his story, the Persian army continues its pillaging. Xeones now relates how he first came to know Alexandros. They had been punished simultaneously one day, and Alexandros ended his beating by letting go of the bar first. Xeones is then assigned as his sparring partner as a humiliation, and he realizes that this is his chance to be a part of the Spartan army.

Xeones describes the oktonyktia, grueling eight-night training exercises, and how, during one oktonyktia, Alexandros allowed his shield to fall flat on the ground, an unforgivable lapse. Polynikes, a famed Spartan warrior, spots the shield and puts Alexandros’s platoon through shield drills while lashing their faces with a shield stand, breaking Alexandros’s nose.

Xeones describes how Alexandros’s asthma made it impossible for him to keep up with his peers. Xeones notes that Alexandros’ broken nose did not mar his physical beauty or singing ability, so that it must be “somehow that fear, rather than physical incapacity, was the trigger for these attacks” (120).

Xeones provides a description of phobologia, the Spartan training to resist fear. The basic training exercise involves touching the student in various parts of the body until the boy has learned to quell all involuntary responses to the stimulation.