Here obedient to their laws we lie

Simonides of Ceos. While a prolific poet in his time, only fragments have survived the 2,500 years. But what fragments. This, from a stone engraved at Thermopylae to mark the site defeat of the Spartans and Thespians which ensured that their names and lives would be marked down the centuries.

Go, tell the Spartans, stranger passing by,
that here, obedient to their laws, we lie.