Cf. the struggle over the body of Patroclus, Il. xvii. 274 f.
παρεγένοντο: no doubt by the Eastern Gate, left undefended, in rear of the Spartans. They may also have been on the heights above the pass; cf. Liv. xxxvi. 18 ‘ni Porcius ab iugo Callidromi . . . super eminentem castris collem apparuisset’.
ὁ κολωνός is the mound or hillock just behind the Phocian wall. ‘The position was well designed for a last desperate stand. The rear was protected by a small but deep valley,’ Grundy, p. 312 n.; cf. 289.
λέων: at once the symbol of royal power (v. 92. β 3) and a play on the name Leonidas. A lion was later set up over the Thebans who fell at Chaeronea (Paus. ix. 40. 10 with Frazer, v. 209-10, and v. 141). There Pausanias interprets it of their ill-fated valour.
ἐπὶ Λεωνίδῃ, ‘in honour of Leonidas’; cf. Hom. Il. xxiii. 274, 776; Od. xxiv. 91.
