Gates of Fire: Chapter 16 Summary & Analysis

Xeo backtracks to an event that occurred several years earlier, about a year after the battle at Antirhion. In a battle between the Spartans and Thebans, Rooster, as Olympieus’ squire, displayed great heroism. During a moment of chaos on the battlefield, Olympieus received a crippling foot wound. Three Theban cavalryman go after him. Rooster, unarmored, grabbed a spear and raced to his master’s aid, taking on the horsemen single-handedly, even capturing one of their horses in the process. Back in Sparta, Rooster is the talk of the city and is even offered “stepbrother” warrior status—but he turns it down.

Though Rooster cites his age as the reason (he’s already 15), the Peers are furious, seizing upon the fact that he’s an “ungrateful” Messenian slave. Similar events happen on subsequent campaigns. Rooster keeps proving himself, repeatedly raising the question in Spartan minds as to whether this “treasonous” youth is trustworthy, especially now that Persia is on Greece’s frontier.

On the eve of the proclamation of the Three Hundred, Rooster is again offered the chance to become a Spartan, and again he turns it down. Later that night, Xeo finds Alexandros arguing with Rooster. Rooster has decided to flee that night to the Temple of Poseidon, where he’ll be granted sanctuary. In Rooster’s hut, his wife, Harmonia, and two children are packed and ready to go. Alexandros gives him a handful of money, telling him, “It is the gods’ injustice that makes you a slave and me free.” Rooster is disarmed by Alexandros’s candor and integrity.

Suddenly four krypteia assassins burst into the hut and bind Rooster. Polynikes is one of them. In outrage, he tells Alexandros that his presence there constitutes treason. Alexandros refuses to leave. He and Xeo are bound, too, and taken away along with Rooster’s wife and children.