Leonidas I

Leonidas was the Spartan king who died holding the pass at Thermopylae with three hundred of his own citizens. Born around 540 BC, he was a son of Anaxandridas II of the Agiad house and became king around 489 BC after two elder half-brothers died, one of them the unstable Cleomenes I, whose daughter Leonidas married. He would have gone through the agoge, the Spartan public upbringing, which the heirs apparent were exempt from — so unlike most kings he had been trained as an ordinary Spartiate. When Xerxes invaded in 480 BC, the Greek allies chose to hold the narrow coastal pass at Thermopylae, where the Persian numbers could not be deployed. Leonidas was given the command with a force of perhaps seven thousand, of whom three hundred were Spartiates — a small contingent because the Carneia festival and the Olympic truce were being observed, and because the ephors were reluctant to commit further. An oracle had reportedly told Sparta that either a king would die or the city would fall. The Greeks held the pass for two days against repeated assaults, including the Immortals. A local man, Ephialtes, then showed the Persians a mountain track around the position. Warned of the encirclement, Leonidas dismissed most of the allies and remained with the Spartans, the Thespians and the Thebans. They fought until the Spartans were killed to the last man, and Herodotus records that they defended his body four times. Xerxes had the corpse beheaded and crucified. The epitaph asks passers-by to tell the Spartans that they lie here obedient to their orders.

• Lived: 540 BCE – 480 BCE
• Nationality: Greek
• Roles: ruler, general