When was leonidas king

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. In B. Under Xerxes I, the Persian army moved south through Greece on the eastern coast, accompanied by the Persian navy moving parallel to the shore. In the late summer of B. Leonidas established his army at Thermopylae, expecting that the narrow pass would funnel the Persian army toward his own force.

For two days, the Greeks withstood the determined attacks of their far more numerous enemy. A local Greek told Xerxes about this other route and led the Persian army across it, enabling them to surround the Greeks. Much of the Greek force retreated rather than face the Persian army. An army of Spartans, Thespians and Thebans remained to fight the Persians. Leonidas and the Spartans with him were all killed, along with most of their remaining allies. In September B. Leonidas achieved lasting fame for his personal sacrifice.

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The Battle of Marathon in B. The battle was fought on the Marathon plain of northeastern Attica and marked the first blows of the Greco-Persian War. With the Persians closing in on the Greek capitol, Athenian general His accession to the throne of Sparta was not straightforward: he was in fact the third son of his father, Anaxandrias II.

According to the ancient historian Herodotus, who chronicled the lives of the Greek kings, his father and mother were uncle and niece, and the marriage initially failed to produce any children. The new wife quickly bore a son, Cleomenes. One year later the first wife would also produce a son, Dorieus, followed by two more: Leonidas and Cleombrotus.

He is said to have travelled to Africa and then Sicily, where he was living when he died 10 years later.

Ironically, if Dorieus has not left Sparta, he would have become king after Cleomenes, as the king was deposed in BC — reportedly on grounds of insanity — and had no sons to succeed him. The crown passed to Leonidas as the next eldest surviving son of Anaxandrias, when he was around 50 years of age. As well as his doubly royal blood his parents were both from the Agiad line , Leonidas would have considered his agoge training an important symbol of his worthiness to be king.

Before he succeeded to the throne, Leonidas had married Gorgo, daughter of Cleomenes — marrying his niece like his father did before him. She bore Leonidas a son and heir, Pleistarchus. The Greeks altogether were about 4, soldiers, while the Persian army consisted of 80, soldiers. Xerxes waited for 4 days before he attacked, believing that the Greeks would surrender. When Xerxes sent his heralds to the Greeks, asking for their weapons, as a sign of submission, Leonidas said the historical phrase Come and get them!

The first days, the Greeks were resisting, until a local man, Ephialtes, revealed to the Persians a secret passage to circle the Greeks and win the battle. Seeing that the Persian army were about to circle them, Leonidas asked the other Greeks to leave the battlefield. He proposed that he and his army would stay back to cover their escape, while the other Greeks would leave to protect the rest of Greece from a future Persian invasion.

Therefore, Leonidas with his Spartans and Thespians, who refused to leave, stayed back to fight the huge Persian army. They were all killed in the battlefield, in this deathtrap, protecting theie homeland and their values. After all, it was disgraceful for a Spartan to return to Sparta beaten in war. A Spartan would either return from war as a winner, or he should not return at all. Today, a modern monument lies on the site of the battle in Thermopylae to remind of this courageous action, while the tomb of this legendary king lies in his homeland, Sparta.

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