Constantine P. Cavafy poems that deal with other situations such as closure (for example, "The walls"), debt (for example, "Thermopylae"), and human dignity (for example, "The God Abandons Antony"). The poem "Thermopylae" reminds us of the famous battle of Thermopylae where the 300 Spartans and their allies fought against the greater numbers of Persians, although they knew that they would be defeated. There are some principles in our lives that we should live by, and Thermopylae is the ground of duty. We stay there fighting although we know that there is the potential for failure. (At the end the traitor Ephialtes will appear,
Battle of Thermopylae (191 BC) only the Aetolian League actually joined forces with Antiochus; other states either remained neutral or sided with the Romans. Antiochus managed to capture some cities in Greece, but was unable to obtain reinforcements from Asia before in 191 BC a large Roman army under the consul Manius Acilius Glabrio crossed from Italy and advanced on his position. Knowing he was outnumbered around 2:1 by the approaching Roman army, Antiochus hoped to use the narrow pass at Thermopylae to his advantage, taking inspiration from the earlier Greek city-states' stand against the much larger Persian army at the Battle of Thermopylae (480