Leonidas (
Greek: '''' - "
Lion's son", "
Lion-like") was a king of
Sparta, the 17th of the
Agiad line, one of the sons of King
Anaxandridas II of Sparta, who was believed to be a descendant of
Heracles. Leonidas was one of three: he had an older brother Dorieus and a younger brother Cleombrotus, who ruled as regent for a while on Leonidas death before being taken over as regent by
Pausanias who was
Cleombrotus son. Leonidas succeeded his half-brother
Cleomenes I, probably in 489 or 488
BC, and was married to Cleomenes' daughter,
Gorgo. His name was raised to heroic status as a result of the events in the
Battle of Thermopylae.
In 480 BC, Leonidas went to Thermopylae with 300 of his personal guard, all with sons to carry on their names, where he was joined by forces from other Greek
city-states, who put themselves under his command to form an army 7,000 strong. This force was assembled in an attempt to hold the pass of
Thermopylae against hundreds of thousands of
Persian soldiers who had invaded from the north of
Greece under
Xerxes I. Leonidas took only his personal guard, and not the army, because Spartan religious customs forbade sending an army at that time of year. In addition, the
Oracle of Delphi had foretold that Sparta could be saved only by the death of one of its kings, one of the lineage of Heracles.
Leonidas and his men repulsed the Persians' frontal attacks for the first two days, killing roughly 20,000 of the enemy troops and losing very few of their own. The Persian elite unit known to the Greeks as "
the Immortals" were held back, and two of Xerxes' brothers died in battle. On the third day, a
Malian Greek traitor named
Ephialtes led the Persian general
Hydarnes by a mountain track to the rear of the Greeks. At that point Leonidas sent away all Greek troops and remained in the pass with his 300 Spartans, 900
Helots and 700
Thespians who refused to leave. Another 400
Thebans were kept with Leonidas as hostages. The Thespians stayed entirely of their own
will, declaring that they would not abandon Leonidas and his followers. Their leader was
Demophilos, son of
Diadromes, and as
Herodotus writes: "Hence they lived with the Spartans and died with them".
One theory provided by Herodotus is that Leonidas sent away the remainder of his men because he cared about their safety. The King would have thought it wise to preserve those Greek troops for future battles against the Persians, but he knew that the Spartans could never abandon their post on the battlefield. The soldiers who stayed behind were to protect their escape against the Persian cavalry. Herodotus himself believes that Leonidas gave the order because he perceived the allies to be out of heart and unwilling to encounter the danger to which his own mind was made up. He therefore chose to dismiss all troops and save the "glory" for the Spartans.
The little Greek force, attacked from both sides, was cut down to a man except for the Thebans, who surrendered. Leonidas was killed, but the Spartans retrieved his body and protected it until their final defeat. Herodotus says that Xerxes ordered to have Leonidas' head cut off and put on a stake and his body
crucified. This was considered
sacrilegious. The tomb of Leonidas lies today in the northern part of the modern town of Sparta.
A carved lion monument bearing the inscription below was dedicated at Leonidas' death site:
:
Go, stranger, and in Lacedaemon tell,
:
That here, obeying her behests, we fell. — (Greek:
Ώ ξειν', ἀγγέλειν Λακεδαιμονίοις ότι τήδε κείμεθα, τοις κείνων ρήμασι πειθόμενοι)
epitaph at
Thermopylae (
Simonides' epigram)
Two Spartans survived the conflict.
Kirtanian (Spartan)
Aristodemus suffered an eye injury and was sent behind the lines, eventually ordered back to Sparta with the retreating allies by the King.
Pantites was sent by Leonidas to raise support in
Thessaly, but returned to Thermopylae only after the battle's conclusion. Pantites
hanged himself in disgrace after being shunned as a "trembler".
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