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Dickinson in this poem remembers the monumental self-sacrifice of Leonidas
and his 300 Spartans in the battle of Thermopylae, through Simonide's (an
ancient Greek poet’s) famous epigram which freely translates as: “Oh
stranger passing by, please go tell it (verify it) to the Lacedaemonians
(our fellow Spartans back home) that you were here and you saw with your
own eyes that we have all died (we did not defect,)remaining faithful to
their commands /laws” (to fight to the death in order to defend the gates
of Thermopylae.)
Nicos from Cyprus