LEONIDAS I: BIOGRAPHIES, BATTLES AND WARS, POPULAR CULTURE - ARTE - 2025

Leonidas I (c. 540 BC - 480 BC) was a Spartan king of the Agiad dynasty. He is famous for his participation in the Battle of Thermopylae where, together with 300 Spartans, he defended Greece from the outpost of the Persians commanded by Xerxes I.

His heroic act failed to keep out the invaders from the Archaemenid Empire who captured Athens after confronting Leonidas. However, he conveyed courage to all Greeks and frightened the Persians by the resistance they offered him.

Statue of Leonidas I, photo by gancheva,, via Pixabay.

Some consider that their participation in the Second Medical War was exaggerated by Greek historians, who highlighted the role of the 300 and out of proportion the casualties suffered by Xerxes I.

Like all Spartans, Leonidas was trained for war since he was a child. Although his ascent to the throne was unlikely as he was the third son of King Anaxándridas II, the childless deaths of his older brothers led him to become the head of the agiad.

The story of Leonidas became very popular and became an emblem of Spartan bravery on the battlefield. That is one of the reasons why his life and death passed into popular culture, which gave way to cinematographic representations, stories and graphic novels.

Biography

Early years

Leonidas was born in Sparta around 540 BC. C. He was the third son of the sovereign Anaxándridas II of the Agíada dynasty. His mother was the first wife of the Spartan ruler, in addition to being his niece.

The marriage of Leonidas parents did not produce offspring during the first years, so Anaxándridas requested that he be allowed to marry another woman, but without abandoning the first.

His second wife quickly became pregnant and Cleomenes, the eldest of Anaxándridas' children, was born. Shortly after the king's first wife also bore him a son whom they named Dorieus, followed by Leonidas and Cleombrotus.

In Sparta the system of government was a diarchy, that is, two monarchs ruled together: the Agiadas and the Euripontids. Both families were supposedly descended from Heracles. Royal families were prohibited from joining in marriage.

The ancestry of the future Spartan king was as follows:

"Leonidas, son of Anaxándridas, grandson of Leon, descendant of Eurierátidas, Anaxander, Eurícrates, Polidoro, Alcmenes, Teleclus, Archelao, Agesilao, Doriso, Lobates, Equestrato, Agis, Eurístenes, Aristodemo, Aristomachus, Cleodeo, Hilo and Herácles".

Education

According to the Spartan customs of the time of Leonidas, the young people had to be educated by means of an obligatory system for all the citizens known like agogé. The man who did not complete his education had no rights as a Spartan.

The program was run by the Spartan state. It was collective, that is, the lessons were received in groups and it was addressed to all the inhabitants of the city. At seven years of age, the children left the family bosom and were transferred to military barracks (agelé).

There they began their training to become military and were introduced into a group of young people of similar age.

The only ones who were exempted from this educational model were the first-born of the kings of the two houses that ruled Sparta, that is, the apparent heirs.

They learned to read, write, as well as song, wrestling and athletics, also mastery of weapons and military march. Above all they acquired the main Spartan moral values ​​which were rigor, loyalty to the city and discipline.

Other elements

Young people had to wear their hair shaved and go barefoot, in addition they were given only one garment a year, so that they would get used to withstanding extreme changes in the weather.

They were given little food and allowed to steal, but were punished for their clumsiness if discovered. Thus they created strong soldiers capable of withstanding a battle with few resources at their disposal.

Graduation happened when the boys were 20 years old. Later they had to continue living in the barracks with their military unit, even if they were married. Another of his duties was to take his food rations in the public dining rooms with his companions.

In this way, Sparta was in charge of creating a society in which the inhabitants did not know how to live in solitude, since they created strong relationships with the community from childhood and these were sustained during adult life.

Succession conflict

When Leonidas was about 21 years old, Anaxándridas II died and a succession conflict broke out between his older brothers. Cleomenes, the eldest son, had been selected to take his father's place.

Dorieo, who was the second son, but as a result of the marriage with the first wife of the late agiad monarch, considered that he should be chosen to rule and not his older brother because he belonged to a secondary line.

The rejection of their claims made Dorieus decide to look for a place to settle a colony. So he left the city and went to the Libyan coast, but the locals expelled him two years later. Then he went to Sicily and founded Heradea.

After Dorieo sided with Crotona in his confrontation against Síbaris, it is known that Leonidas' brother died in 510 BC. C. It has not been clarified who was responsible for his death and some claim that it was the Carthaginians.

Ascent to the throne

In Sparta the government of Cleómenes continued, but about 490 BC. The plot that had hatched against the monarch of the Euripóntida dynasty, Demarato was discovered. The agiad had to leave the city immediately.

In 489 a. C., allowed Cleómenes to return to his land. When they realized that he was insane, they made him prisoner and in his confinement the king took his life by dismembering his own body from the feet up.

None of his older brothers had left a male heir, so Leonidas became the new king of Sparta by the Agiad dynasty. To secure his position he took his niece Gorgo, daughter of Cleomenes, as his wife.

Leonidas was approximately three decades older than his wife, but she is thought to be a brilliant young woman. Together they fathered an heir in no time, a boy who was named Plistarco.

During the rule of Leonidas, his companion of the Eurypontid dynasty on the Spartan throne was Leotiquidas. Sparta and Athens shared the top in power and importance within the Greek city-states of the time.

Kingdom

Xerxes I, the Persian successor king and son of Darius I, was preparing a revenge for the defeat that the Greeks had inflicted on his father in the First Medical War (490 BC - 492 BC). That is why Leonidas and the other cities created a Greek confederation or "league".

Sparta and Athens were the leaders of the coalition and those in charge of drawing up strategies to prevent Xerxes from taking the lands that belonged to them. The defense was amphibious, that is, by sea and by land, and the battles fought at the same time were those of Thermopylae and that of Artemisium.

When consulting the oracle of Delphi the Spartans did not get a good sign, since the prophecy told them that Sparta would be destroyed or that their king would die in battle.

However, Leonidas I along with his royal guard of 300 hoplites went to the agreed point followed by soldiers from the other cities. At the Battle of Thermopylae the Spartan king proved himself to be a valuable soldier, as well as a great strategist and military leader.

Thermopylae

After holding his position for several days, nothing could prevent the Greeks from suffering a betrayal by one of their natives, who indicated to the Persians how they could ambush the Hellenic forces.

Leonidas dispatched many of the Greeks in the camp because he knew they could not win, as the invader Archaemenid's numbers outnumbered his own by a large margin.

Only the 300 Spartans, 700 Thespians and 400 Thebans, whose loyalty has been disputed, remained at the site, as some claim they surrendered to the Persians quickly and without a fight.

Death

Leonidas I died on August 11, 480 BC. C. in the battle of Thermopylae. It seems that an arrow or spear of the Persians was in charge of taking the life of the famous warrior who fought until the end to protect Greece.

The legend states that the members of his guard managed to recover his body and guarded it in the center of their formation, but one by one they fell trying to protect the corpse of Leonidas.

After massacring the Greeks present, who also killed off many Persians during the defense, Xerxes found Leonidas' body and ordered that his head be cut off to put on a stake and that his decapitated body be crucified.

His son Plistarco succeeded him on the throne, but being too young to rule, he had as regent Pausanias, Leonidas' nephew and son of his younger brother Cleombrotus.

Second medical war

Background

The Greeks had expanded along the coasts of Asia Minor and occupied parts of present-day Turkey, which was then known as Hellenic Ionia.

The area had been controlled by the Persians, but there were constant uprisings because the settlers considered themselves Greeks and did not share the customs of the Archaemenid Empire, despite the fact that they had great autonomy within it.

Between 499 and 493 a. C., both Athens and Eretria supported the Ionic revolts against Darius I. The Persian ruler decided to punish not only the rebels, but those who supported them. In equal measure he saw an opportunity to grow the Persian frontiers.

In 491 a. C., Darío I sent emissaries to the Greek cities requesting that they were put under his power. Both the Spartans and the Athenians murdered the envoys. A year later the archaemenid sent a mission to Athens to take the city.

Sparta did not participate on that occasion, but nevertheless the Athenians achieved a landslide victory in the Battle of Marathon that humiliated the Persians.

Persian preparations

Darius I began to orchestrate a second invasion of Greece, but on a much larger scale, however, he was unable to carry it out. In 486 a. C., Egypt rebelled against the Persians and shortly after the Archaemenid sovereign died.

He was replaced by his son Xerxes I who quickly put an end to the Egyptian uprising and continued his father's unfinished plans to attack Greek cities.

Greek preparations

Although they were victorious, the Athenians knew that the conflict was not over. That is why they ordered the construction of a fleet of triremes to defend themselves against the Persians.

When they learned of Xerxes I's plans, they began to assemble a confederation in which more than 70 city-states were united under the command of Sparta and Athens.

When the Spartan leaders went to the oracle at Delphi, to learn what the gods had in store for the confrontation that would take place between the Greeks and the Persians, the response was disheartening:

“Look, inhabitants of the vast Sparta,

either your mighty and exquisite city is devastated by the descendants of Perseus,

or it is not; but in that case,

the land of Lacedemon will mourn the death of a king of the line of Heracles.

For the invader will not be stopped by the strength of the bulls

or the lions, since he has the strength of Zeus.

Finally, I proclaim that it will not stop until it has devoured one

or the other to the bone ”.

Action plan

The Greeks had sent 10,000 units to the Tempe Valley to defend the area from the land entrance of the Persians, but Alexander I of Macedon warned the Hellenes of the size of Xerxes I's army and of his possible actions to reduce his soldiers.

Then, the Greeks decided that having the advantage of knowing the terrain they should choose it at their convenience, so it was established that the defensive bastion should be in the narrow pass of Thermopylae, while the Athenian fleet defended the sea.

The oracle's prophecy did not frighten Leonidas. Despite the fact that Sparta was in the religious celebration of the Carneas, in which they could not fight, they decided to send an elite unit of 300 men: the royal guard, plus their respective helot servants.

The Spartan warriors were carefully selected, since only those men who had a living son participated, so that these young men could keep the legend of their parents alive as fierce warriors.

Battle of Thermopylae

Numbers

The number of people who fought for both sides has been disputed for a long time. Contemporary records seemed to decrease the Greek numbers and increase the Persians in order to highlight the participation of the former.

According to Herodotus, the numbers were increasing as the Spartans approached Thermopylae achieving a total of 6000 men. The Greek army consisted of the 300 hoplites of Sparta led by Leonidas I.

They were also accompanied by 1000 men from Tegea and Mantinea, 700 from Tespia, 600 from Orcómeno, 400 from Corinth, 400 from Thebes and others from different places but in smaller numbers. Other sources propose a number close to 7,400 or 7,700 Greeks in combat.

As for the Persian forces, Herodotus spoke of 2.6 million warriors, but some believe that this could be a miscalculation and that he actually meant 260,000 on the Persian side.

Simonides, who also recorded these events, spoke of 4 million men fighting for Xerxes I. Meanwhile, Ctesias proposed 800,000 warriors.

At present it is affirmed that the number of soldiers favorable to the Archaemenid Empire were between 120,000 and 300,000 men.

First day

When both sides were already located in their respective camps, the spies of Xerxes I indicated that the Spartans were decorating their hair and carrying out other recreational activities.

The Persian ruler could not understand this attitude and decided to send an emissary with a message for Leonidas. Xerxes would give them not only the title of "friends of the Persian people", but a better place to settle their city.

The Spartan rejected the proposal, but the envoy insisted that they should lay down their weapons since they could not against the archemenid's numbers. Leonidas replied that if Xerxes wished, he could go and take his weapons in person.

For the next four days, the Persians did not initiate any attack.

Fifth day

Xerxes began the confrontation by sending several waves of soldiers from Media and Khuzestan. Although the Greeks were far outmatched, they had a better position (in the narrowest part of the strait) and had better weapons.

In addition, the Greeks were rotating the units that were located in front so that they were not exhausted in excess during the combat.

When the first attacks that Xerxes had orchestrated proved ineffective, he considered that it was time for the immortals to make way for the rest of the Persian army. But the 10,000 units he sent did not fare better than the previous ones.

Sixth day

The archaemenid emperor believed that the Greeks were exhausted by the heavy fighting of the previous day, so he repeated his strategy, but did not achieve different results. When he noticed that his attack had no effect, he ordered it to stop.

The solution was presented to Xerxes in the form of a treasonous traitor named Ephialtes. There was another pass around the mountain and the Greek informant said that he could guide the Persian army so that they could surround their enemies.

Seventh day

The Phocids had been commissioned by Leonidas to protect the other pass that was little known, but they were unprepared and could not contain the Persian soldiers who were marching in an ambush against the Allies.

Upon learning of the advance of the enemy troops, Leonidas called a council of war in which it was agreed that a withdrawal would be made, but the Spartans would not leave the site.

It is not known if the rest of the allies left Thermopylae voluntarily or if it was on the orders of Leonidas. Likewise, the reasons why the Spartans remained in battle have generated debate.

Some consider that they could not withdraw because their laws prevented it, others that they did not want to demonstrate their courage, it was also said that they intended to protect the withdrawal or that they did not have time to join and were trapped.

Anyway, almost 2000 men remained in Thermopylae and when the fighting began the Greeks were not the only ones to have casualties: two brothers of Xerxes fell in battle that day.

Finally, Leonidas died when being pierced by a Persian projectile. The Spartans fought to collect the corpse of their king, which they guarded in a circle. After this, the men of the guard continued to fight until the last one fell.

In popular culture

The events of Thermopylae not only inspired Greek poets and historians who highlighted in their work the bravery of the 300 Spartans and their king, who decided to give their lives rather than lose their dignity as warriors.

Leonidas had a cult within the Greek religion in Sparta as a hero of the city. Also in 1737 Richard Glover made an epic poem called Leonidas.

Steven Pressfield's novel Gates of fire reconstructed the events of the Battle of Thermopylae and the comic book 300, published in 1998 by Frank Miller, recounts the same events seen from Leonidas' perspective.

That comic inspired the film adaptation of the same name (300), starring Gerard Butler and directed by Zack Snyder.

Also in 1962 a movie called The 300 Spartans by Rudolph Maté had been made.

References

1. En.wikipedia.org. (2019). Leonidas I. Available at: en.wikipedia.org.
2. Herodotus of Halicarnassus (nd). The nine books of history, Book VII. pp.97-114. Available at: domainpublico.es
3. The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica (2019). Leonidas - Biography & Facts. Encyclopedia Britannica. Available at: britannica.com.
4. Little Larousse illustrated. (2007). Barcelona: Larousse. pp. 1464.
5. HISTORY.COM EDITORS. (2009). Leonidas. Available at: history.com.