This band of heroes in their way, savage, bloodthirsty freebooters as they were, had been placed there in this latter-day thermopylae, to die-to die in order that the rest might renew the combat under more favourable conditions, and what more formidable foe can there be than a cornered combatant?
"The Luck of Gerard Ridgeley"
Bertram Mitford
Such a deed is done when a handful of brave men sacrifice their lives at the call of duty, and in defence of country, as at thermopylae.
"In the Track of the Troops"
R.M. Ballantyne
The Lacedaemonians thus placed between two fires, and in the same dilemma, to compare small things with great, as at thermopylae, where the defenders were cut off through the Persians getting round by the path, being now attacked in front and behind, began to give way, and overcome by the odds against them and exhausted from want of food, retreated.
"The History of the Peloponnesian War"
Thucydides