KING LEONIDAS OF SPARTA

Leonidas I was born in 540 BC, the son of King Anaxandridas II. At the age of forty nine Leonidas himself would be crowned King of Sparta. In 490 BC King Darius of Persia invaded Greece but was decisively defeated by the Athenian army under Greek general Miltiades at the Battle of Marathon.

In 480 BC, Xerxes succeeded his father as king of the vast and powerful Persian Empire and with a new army numbering one hundred thousand strong, invaded Greece once again. A military alliance was quickly formed by the leading Greek city states to resist Xerxes.

Command of the coalition army was given to Sparta under King Leonidas and that of the navy to general Themistocles of Athens.

An initial plan to defend Thessaly was abandoned as unrealistic, instead the Greeks fell back on the narrow pass at Thermopylae. To protect the army from being outflanked by sea, Themistocles stationed his fleet of two hundred and seventy warships at Artemisium.

The night before hostilities were to commence, a tremendous storm rose up and destroyed much of the Persian naval fleet while the Greeks remained safe in port.

With high cliffs to the left and the sea on his right, Leonidas' central position guarding the pass at Thermopylae was the ideal position with which to block the Persian advance. Against Xerxes formidable army, Leonidas along with his personal body guard of three hundred, had just over five thousand men.

On day one, despite being vastly outnumbered, Leonidas repulsed multiple Persian attacks to force the pass. On day two, after a series of Persian defeats, Xerxes then called upon his elite Immortals ten thousand strong, but even they could not force the pass.

Tragically on the evening of the second days battle, a Greek traitor named Ephialtes informed Xerxes of an old goat path through the mountains which would allow the Persians to outflank Leonidas.

When the Greek forces protecting the mountain passes were surprised and then defeated by superior Persian numbers, the overall Greek position became untenable.

When news reached the defenders that they were being surrounded, Leonidas was urged by the other Greek commanders to retreat. The Spartan King however instead chose to remain with his Spartan bodyguard and dismissed the remaining forces.

Other Greek patriots also chose to remain and fight, seven hundred Thespians and four hundred Thebans. The next morning the Persians launched an all out attack against the Greeks. 

For most of the day and into the evening hours, Persian archers rained down thousands of arrows upon Leonidas and his men from the cliffs above until the entire force was wiped out to a man.

Leonidas's sacrifice allowed the other Greek city states time to assemble a larger army capable of  confronting Xerxes on equal terms. Shortly after the Persians sacked the city of Athens, burning it the the ground, they were decisively defeated at sea by Themistocles at the battle of Salamis and then defeated on land the following year at the battle of Plataea putting an end to Xerxes attempt to conquer Greece.