Gates of Fire: An Epic Novel of the Battle of Thermopylae

Steven Pressfield's classic novel of the Battle of Thermopylae, told from the perspective of a helot squire who survives the battle. The book put the 300 Spartans back into the popular imagination two decades before the Hollywood film and is still the most respected work of Spartan historical fiction. Pressfield invents dialogue but stays close to the historical facts on the agoge, command structure, and battlefield geography.