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Leonidas, Spartan king whose stand against the invading Persian army at the pass of Thermopylae in central Greece is one of the enduring tales of Greek heroism, invoked throughout Western history as the epitome of bravery exhibited against overwhelming odds.
- Battle of Thermopylae
Battle of Thermopylae, (480 bce), battle in central Greece...
- Aristides The Just
Aristides The Just (flourished 5th century bc) was an...
- Battle of Thermopylae
- Training as A Hoplite
- Xerxes and The Persian Invasion
- Battle of Thermopylae
- After The Battle
Leonidas was the son of the Spartan king Anaxandrides (died c. 520 B.C.). He became king when his older half-brother Cleomenes I (also a son of Anaxandrides) died under violent, and slightly mysterious, circumstances in 490 B.C. without having produced a male heir. As king, Leonidas was a military leader as well as a political one. Like all male Sp...
Ancient Greece was made up of several hundred city-states, of which Athens and Leonidas’ Sparta were the largest and most powerful. Although these many city-states vied with one another for control of land and resources, they also banded together to defend themselves from foreign invasion. Twice at the beginning of the fifth century B.C., Persia at...
Under Xerxes I, the Persian army moved south through Greece on the eastern coast, accompanied by the Persian navy moving parallel to the shore. To reach its destination at Attica, the region controlled by the city-state of Athens, the Persians needed to go through the coastal pass of Thermopylae (or the “Hot Gates,” so known because of nearby sulfu...
Leonidas’ sacrifice, along with that of his Spartan hoplites, did not prevent the Persians from moving down the Greek coast into Boeotia. In September 480 B.C., however, the Athenian navy defeated the Persians at the Battle of Salamis, after which the Persians returned home. Nonetheless, Leonidas’ action demonstrated Sparta’s willingness to sacrifi...
Leonidas I (/ l i ˈ ɒ n ɪ d ə s,-d æ s /; Greek: Λεωνίδας; died 11 August 480 BC) was a king of the Greek city-state of Sparta, and the 17th of the Agiad line, a dynasty which claimed descent from the mythical demigod Heracles.
May 12, 2013 · Leonidas was the Spartan king who famously led a small band of Greek allies at the Battle of Thermopylae in 480 BCE where the Greeks valiantly defended the pass through which the Persian king Xerxes sought to invade Greece with his massive army.
- Mark Cartwright
Leonidas was born around 540 BCE into the royal Agiad dynasty of Sparta, a lineage that traced its roots to the mythical hero Heracles. His father, King Anaxandridas II, was a respected ruler in a society where lineage and military prowess were paramount.
Apr 30, 2018 · Leonidas I was born around 540 BCE in the Greek city of Sparta. At that time Greece was made up of hundreds of city states, of which Athens and Sparta were the largest. Leonidas’ father, Anaxandrides, was the king of Sparta. For the Greeks, warfare was the supreme statement of a citizen.
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Leonidas (540-480 BC), the legendary king of Sparta, and the Battle of Thermopylae is one of the most brilliant events of the ancient Greek history, a great act of courage and self-sacrifice.
