And this is what the Persian scout saw at the place of the Hot Gates so long ago: He saw the Spartan warriors engaged in oiling their bodies and dressing their long hair outside the ramparts of Thermopylae. He saw others of the Spartans exercising at gymnastics and swordplay and general forms of leisure activity. He saw the Spartan warriors sunning themselves. And he saw that the Spartans did not seem to consider his presence worthy of much notice.
When Xerxes heard his scout's report, so says Herodotus, the king found it laughable that the Spartans were engaging in such antics when they were, under his sway, in doubt of present peril. The Spartans were after all in a fix, and it was a fix of Xerxes' making. But then Xerxes called in a man named Demaratus who, having been deposed from a joint-kingship of Sparta, had become a turncoat and allied himself personally to Persia; hence, to Xerxes. And after the king recounted his scout's report on the activity of the Spartans, Demaratus explained to Xerxes: This is the way Spartans prepare to go into battle and almost certain death. They exercise, oil their bodies, and dress their hair. They go into battle shining.
Demaratus then warned Xerxes that the contingent of Spartans sent out to engage his vast armies was but a sample of Sparta's military enterprise, and he advised the king to attack and conquer Sparta herself, since Sparta was herself so arrogant and timocratic that no other nation would care to aid her. But Xerxes, being ignorant, ignored Demaratus' advice.
