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Xerxes didn't understand why the Lacedaemonians were preparing to fight, thinking it was foolish. He asked Demeritos for an explanation, who said that the Spartans were fighting for control of their race and believed they could defeat Xerxes' army. Xerxes found it hard to believe and asked for clarification. Demeritos said to treat him as a liar if things didn't turn out as he said. Xerxes listened but could not understand, that the Lacedaemonians were truly preparing to kill or be killed, to fight as much as was in their power, seemed to him to be the height of folly, the action of fools. So he sent for Demeritos, son of Ariston, who was in the camp, and when Demeritos arrived, Xerxes questioned him about everything he had been told, trying to understand the meaning behind what the Lacedaemonians were doing. Demeritos answered, You heard what I said about these men before, when we were first setting out against the Greeks, and you made me a laughing stock when you heard my view of how these matters would turn out, but it is my greatest goal to tell the truth in your presence. So hear me now once again. These men have come to fight us for control of the race, and that is really what they are preparing to do, for it is their tradition that they groom their hair when they were about to put their lives in danger. Now know this. If you subjugate these men, and those who remain behind in Sparta, there is no other race or human beings who will be left to raise their hand against you, for you are now attacking the most noble kingdom of all the Greeks, and the best of men. What Demeritos said seemed quite incredible to Xerxes, and he asked him for a second time how they could possibly be intending to fight his whole army, since they were so few of them. Demeritos replied, Sire, if things do not turn out just as I have claimed they will, treat me like a liar.