Leonidas of Sparta

Statue of king Leonidas

Leonidas of Sparta had a notable participation in the Second Persian War, where he led the allied Greek forces to a last stand at the Battle of Thermopylae  . In August 480 BC, Leonidas marched out of Sparta to meet Xerxes’ army at Thermopylae with a small force of 1,200 men (900 helots and 300 Spartan hoplites). Where he was joined by forces from other Greek city-states, who put themselves under his command.  They faced a Persian army who had invaded from the north of Greece under Xerxes I.  Herodotus stated that this army consisted of over two million men; modern scholars consider this to be an exaggeration and give estimates ranging from 70,000 to 300,000.

THE BATTLE

Xerxes waited four days to attack, hoping the Greeks would disperse. Finally, on the fifth day the Persians attacked. Leonidas and the Greeks repulsed the Persians, killing roughly 10,000 of the enemy troops. The Persian elite unit known to the Greeks as “the Immortals” was held back, and two of Xerxes’ brothers (Abrocomes and Hyperanthes) died in battle.

On the seventh day (August 11), 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, 400 Thebans and 700 Thespians.  The Thespians stayed entirely of their own will, declaring that they would not abandon Leonidas and his followers. Their leader was Demophilus, son of Diadromes.  And as Herodotus writes, “Hence they lived with the Spartans and died with them.” .  While the Greeks lost this battle, they were able to expel the Persian invaders in the following year.

The sacrifice of Leonidas and his 300 comrades-in-arms became a timeless symbol ,of the battle for freedom.  In the place where Leonidas and his comrades fell, the ancients GREEKS erected a monument with the famous epigram of Simonides engraved on it:

GO TELL THE SPARTANS PASSING STRANGER,THAT HERE ,BY SPARTAN LAWS,WE HAVE FALLEN.

Ὦ ξεῖν ’, ἀγγέλλειν Λακεδαιμονίοις ὅτι τῇδε κείμεθα, τοῖς κείνων ῥημασι πειθόμενοι.