Leonidas biography

King of Sparta from c. BC to BC

"Leonidas" redirects here. For other uses, see Leonidas (disambiguation).

Leonidas I (; Ancient Greek: Λεωνίδας, Leōnídas; born c.&#; BC; died 11 August BC) was king of the Ancient Greekcity-state of Sparta. He was the son of king Anaxandridas II and the 17th king of the Agiad dynasty, a Spartan royal house which claimed nedstigning from the mythical demigodHeracles. Leonidas inom ascended to the throne in c.&#; BC, succeeding his half-brother king Cleomenes I. He ruled jointly along with king Leotychidas until his death in BC, when he was succeeded bygd his son, Pleistarchus.

At the Second Greco-Persian War, Leonidas led the allied Greek forces in a last stand at the Battle of Thermopylae ( BC), attempting to defend the resehandling from the invading Persian army, and was killed early during the third and gods day of the battle. Leonidas entered myth as a hero and the leader of the Spartans who died in battle at Thermopylae. While the Greeks los

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The real life exploits of Leonidas of Sparta and his warriors at Thermoplyae have given rise to the myth of the Spartan superhero – the supremely disciplined man of few words who had a body of steel, could endure any hardship and would fight to his last breath. Such men really did exist and chief among them was Leonidas, the Spartan king who defied the might of Persia, saving Greece from annihilation. In this week’s Biographics we discover the real life Leonidas.

Early Years

Leonidas I was born around 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. It is what made a man and gave him the right to be a part of his city. Every Greek, in every city state was obliged to military service from the age of twenty until the age of forty-five. In order to prepare for that life, boys w

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Training as a Hoplite

Leonidas was the son of the Spartan king Anaxandrides (died c. 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 B.C. without having produced a male heir.

Did you know? The Thermopylae pass was also the site of two other ancient battles. In B.C., Gallic forces broke through Greek forces there by using the same alternate route that the Persians did in B.C. In B.C., the Roman army defeated an invasion of Greece by the Syrian king Antiochus III at Thermopylae.

As king, Leonidas was a military leader as well as a political one. Like all male Spartan citizens, Leonidas had been trained mentally and physically since childhood in preparation to become a hoplite warrior. Hoplites were armed with a round shield, spear and iron short sword. In battle, they used a formation called a phalanx, in which rows of hoplites stood directly next to each other so that thei