Xerxes invited his sailors and commanders to visit Thermopylae to witness the victory of his army, but not before he had twenty thousand dead Persians buried to make the losses look more even.
Later the Spartans sent an envoy to Xerxes asking for payment as compensation for the way Leonidas body was desecrated after his death. Xerxes laughed, stating that his general Mardonius would deliver the Persian reply to the request when he destroyed Greece during the next year’s campaign. Of course, the next year Mardonius was killed at the Battle of Platea, which ended Persian attempts to conquer Greece.