Leonidas and his allied coalition fought valiantly against the Persians and their massive army. The very fate of Greece hung in the balance while Xerxes tried to batter away at this seemingly impregnable defensive position. Xerxes ended up losing thousands of men against such a small number of men. Ultimately the losses by themselves were merely a drop in the bucket of such a vast host. The ideal of courage and heroism set by the 300 Spartans at Thermopylae conveyed a message of hope and pride to their fellow Greeks. A monument to their sacrifice stands at Thermopylae today with an epitaph penned by the poet Simonides to commemorate the last stand of the Spartans: “Go tell the Spartans, passerby, that here, obedient to their laws, we lie.”