300: The True Story Of King Leonidas' Spartans

[Music] The Man known to history as King Leonidas the first of Sparta was born around 540 BC in the Greek city state which he would one day rule his father was anx andrias II the 15th King of the agiad line who ruled Sparta for nearly 40 years between around 560 BC and 520 BC together with his Co King Ariston Alex andrias ruled Sparta during a time when it cemented its position as the most powerful citystate in the Greek world the name of leonidas's mother is unknown but according to the near contemporary Greek historian Herodotus she

was the niece of her husband anex andredas after several years of marriage she had not produced an heir prompting the powerful Council of ephas the most powerful magistrates in Sparta next to the Kings to demand that anex andredas divorce her and marry a woman who could bear children when anex andredas refused to do so the ephas allowed him to take a second wife while remaining married to his first the King's new wife soon gave him his first son a boy named cleomes after he obtained his desired Heir by his second wife anex andrias returned to

his first wife who then surprisingly gave birth to three sons in quick success sucession dorius Leonidas and Cleon brus Leonidas was born into the Agia Dynasty the senior of the two lines of Kings who jointly ruled over Sparta both of whom claimed descent from the legendary hero Heracles as the third son of King anex andrias II he was not expected to become king but he would in the end succeed to the kingship and become one of the most legendary figures of classical antiquity despite this reputation little is known about leonidas's life and the main source

of what we do know comes from the histor of Herodotus the 5th Century BC historian nicknamed the father of History who was the first writer to take an investigative approach towards events of the past however Herodotus was also notorious for embellishing his accounts of Greek history and this makes determining the details of Leonard's life additionally difficult the city state of Sparta also known by the ancient Greeks as Ladon was located on the otus river in the Southeastern portion of the peloponese the peninsula connected to the rest of Greece via the ismos of Corinth the peloponese

had been settled by the aans one of the four major Greek ethnic groups during the early period of Greek history Sparta was home to the legendary King menus who led the Spartans in the Trojan War and fought to rescue his wife Helen after her abduction by the Trojan Prince Paris menaus is said to have ruled from the hilltop town of thne while classical Sparta was founded on Lower ground near the otus by the dorians from the East unlike other Greek city states Sparta was not properly urbanized and was more of a collection of villages the

town of spart itself was divided into the four Villages of patana limni SOA and sinos sua the four Villages together with that of Amai to the South collectively formed the city state of Sparta since the 900s BC Sparta was jointly ruled by two kings of the agiad and euronte dynasties the Spartans owed their constitution known as the great retra to a legendary figure called lerus who is said to have introduced his reforms around the 7th Century BC under this system the two two kings of Sparta served as commanders of the army and were also members

of the gasa a Council of Elders whose membership included 28 other men aged at least 60 who were elected for Life In addition to serving as the Supreme Court the Gia debated political issues before they were put to a vote in the assembly they also had the power to veto the assembly's decisions the members of the assembly were Sparta's full citizens all of whom had to be of legitimate Spartan birth and each underwent a rigorous training regime to serve in the Spartan army during their youth every year the assembly elected a council of five ephas

one for each of the five Villages who shared executive power with the Kings and sometimes overruled them the ephas had extensive Powers over foreign relations and served as ambassadors additionally two epas would always accompany the King on milit campaigns and could put him on trial for misconduct by the middle of the 7th Century BC Sparta had a formidable hoplight army hoplight were heavy infantrymen who fought in phanes eight ranks deep distinguished by a wooden round Shield based in bronze and decorated with the Greek letter Lambda the Lassa Diamond which They carried on their left arm

they wore a large bronze helmet a bronze breastplate bronze abdominal guard and Greaves their main weapon was a long wooden spear with an iron tip and they also carried a short sword for close combat Spartan hoplight were distinguished from other Greek warriors by their long hair and long red cloaks Sparta was a very religious society and its Kings would make sacrifices and consult oracles before going on campaign Even In the Heat of Battle Spartan commanders were known to take time to make sacrifices to inform their decisions they had a unique attitude to death considering it

a badge of honor to be killed in battle while survival in defeat was a humiliation these customs and values were instilled into the Spartans from a young age as a warrior Society boys of legitimate Spartan birth were separated from their families from the age of seven and brought up in the compulsory agog system where they would be raised by Young Spartan adults who trained them as Warriors at the age of 18 the graduates with the greatest potential would join an elite military unit who served as members of the royal bodyguard of 300 men senior Army

commanders and would eventually become candidates for the Gia the only Spartan boys Exempted from the agog were the crown princes of the two Royal houses as Leonidas was not his father's eldest son he would have joined his brothers dorius and Cleon brus in the arduous training regime the elite Spartans were also members of a secret service called the crypti whose main function was to control the helots the lower class of Spartan society who were effectively exploited as slaves and had once been from neighboring states such as msia which were brought under Spartan domination from the

8th Century onwards since the helots vastly outnumbered the Spartans the Spartan Constitution included measures to keep them under control after a new set of ephas took office in the Autumn they would issue a declaration of war on the helots which allowed free Spartans to kill the helots without being punished a third class which existed between the Spartans and helots were known as perosi and these were men from neighboring towns and Villages who were free subjects of the Spartans with obligations to serve in the Army as the Spartans were banned from engaging in any economic activities

the perosi served as merchants and Craftsmen making the armor and weapons for the Spartan military Sparta was just one of over a thousand city states dotted around on the Mediterranean and Black Sea coasts from The Straits of jalta in the west to modern-day Georgia in the East which collectively made up the Greek or helenic World although these communities were connected by a shared language culture and religion they were independent entities who would often fight each other over control of land AB an economic resources most Greeks lived in Europe but there was also a large population

in Western Asia and a handful of settlements in North Africa along the coastline of places such as siren the ancient name for Libya by the 6th Century many of these city states had become democracies but some continued to retain their kings or had been taken over by dictators and tyrants Sparta was unique in being a diak with two kings around the time of leonidas's birth the most important and Powerful city states in Mainland Greece included thieves Corinth Argos Sparta and Athens these city states would then establish colonies further a field some of which would become

powerful city states in their own right Syracuse in Sicily was founded by Corinth Ephesus in Turkey was founded by Athens while modern day Naples in Italy which was known as neapolis in ancient times was initially settled by Sailors from roads the only overseas Colony founded by Sparta was that of Taris modern day Toronto in southern Italy unlike other Greek city states the Spartans satisfied the need for land by Conquering the neighboring regions of Laconia and msia to the south and west by the middle of the 6th Century BC the Spartans turned their attention to the

region of arcade in the North in around 550 BC during the reign of leonidas's Father anex andredas the Spartans marched into battle against The Arcadian city state of tigia carrying rods with which they would divide the land they expected to conquer and chains to Shackle the prisoners they expected to capture instead they suffered an unexpected defeat and ended up wearing the same chains as prisoners of war the setback at the so-called battle of fets prompted Sparta to change its policy from one of Conquest to one of diplomacy under the influence of an eepo named kylin

the Spartans soon claimed to have discovered the bones of arestes and dis menus the legendary son and Grandson of King Agamemnon the elder brother of menus and supreme commander of the Greeks in the Trojan War by bringing these remains back to Sparta for reburial they claimed the inheritance of the aan Kings and by extension the whole of the peloponese through these and other means the lacedemonians were able to secure an alliance with toia over the course of the second half of the 6th Century BC these diplomatic initiatives led to the formation of an alliance known

as the peloni league Sparta was the leading power of the alliance and was not bound by reciprocal obligations to defend its allies the one major pelop city state which remained outside the league was Argos a traditional rival which unsuccessfully challenged Spartan dominance in battle on several occasions in the 6th Century BC the death of annex andreus II in around 520 BC led to a succession crisis between his sons cleomes and dorius while dorius claimed seniority as the son of his father's first wife and on account of his military prowess by going through the agay the

Spartans kept a tradition and and acknowledged the Elder cleomes as the rightful king after his fail attempt at claiming the crown for himself dorius tried unsuccessfully to found a Spartan colony in North Africa and later Sicily but was killed in battle against the carthaginians in Sicily in around 510 BC cleomes proved to Be an Effective King whose influence extended across much of the Greek World in 510 BC he led a land in invasion of Athens that resulted in the expulsion of the Tyrant hippus and his sons the Spartan intervention enabled the Athenian politician kthis to

establish a democratic government and in 507 BC cleomes responded to the calls of the pro- Spartan politician isagoras to overthrow clenis and install an oligarchy although the Spartans managed to occupy the Athenian Acropolis the people declared in favor of clenis and forced the Spartan King to withdraw sending isagoras into Exile in the process the failed intervention prompted cleomes Del lead a large pipian army alongside his co- King of the U poned Royal House demaratus against Athens the following year experience the past like never before with history hits awardwinning original documentaries and adree podcasts with our

expert historians like Dan snow Susanna lipam Lucy Worley Mary beard Tristan Hughes and myself Matt Lewis sign up for an exclusive discount using the link in the description and embark on your historical Journey from the wonders of ancient Egypt and the life of Anberlin to the rise of Napoleon bonapart and the discovery of shackleton's endurance get history Wherever Whenever exclusively on History hit the campaign of 506 BC proved unsuccessful when the Army disintegrated after the Corinthians decided to withdraw their forces halfway through following which king demaratus also abandoned the Army following the incident Sparta agreed

to create a Congress of the pelian league where the Allies could vote for or against military action in order to prevent future disagreements on campaign the Spartans also changed the Constitution forbidding the two reigning Kings from leading the Spartan Army on Campaign together at the same time according to Herodotus the aured and ured kings of Sparta tended to view each other with suspicion and hatred and after 506 BC the disagreements between cleomes and demarius were not only political but personal this animosity continued for many years in 494 BC after defeating Argos in battle cleomes was

put on trial for failing to capture Argos itself it is likely that dearius was behind the initiative on this occasion cines successfully defended himself and was acquitted when placed on trial before the ephas then in 491 BC following another disagreement between the two men cines deposed his co- King and bribed the Oracle of Deli to declare that demarius was the illegitimate son of his father King Ariston and therefore his deposition was divinely sanctioned soon afterwards the bribery was discovered and cleomes is said to have gone mad and went into Exile he was then recalled to

Sparta and arrested by the authorities his accusers on this latter occasion may have included his brothers Leonidas and cleombrotus after being placed in prison with a helot guard he soon persuaded one of the guards to give him a knife and killed himself Herodotus presents a number of alternative theories for the king's Madness and suicide the most common being that he had angered the gods when he bribed the Oracle at Deli and his descent into Insanity was divine retribution the historian Paul cartilage has raised the possibility that clein's death was not a suicide but that he

was actually murdered by his half brother Leonidas who was next in line to the agiad throne and who succeeded cines as King Leonidas I first in 489 BC by the time he became King Leonidas was married to goorgo the daughter and only child of cleomes as gorgo was born around 510 BC the marriage would have taken place in the late 490s when gorgo was in her late teens and Leonidas was already around 50 years old marriage between close blood relatives was not uncommon for the Spartan Royal houses and leonad ASI's own father mother had been

uncle and niece furthermore as gorgo was clein's only child and stood to inherit all his wealth Leonidas would reunite a large part of his father's inheritance that had been divided among his four Sons Leonidas came to the throne towards the beginning of the Greco Persian Wars which saw Greek city states in Ionia on the western coast of modern-day turkey clash with the rapidly expanding Persian Empire the Persian Empire was founded in the 550s BC by Cyrus II of anhan a client King of the median Empire ruled by his maternal grandfather King aages both of these

Empires were based initially out of the region around modern-day Iran in 553 BC Cyrus rebelled against his grandfather and by 550 BC he captured the median capital of e batana overthrowing ay ies's Empire and proclaiming himself King of Kings upon learning of this king croesus of Lydia in Western Anatolia the region around Western turkey along the coast of the aan sea sought to take advantage of the collapse of the mes and consulted the delic Oracle which informed him that he would destroy a great Empire if he were to launch an invasion confident of Victory cissus

invaded Cyrus's Empire from the West only for the Persian king to Counterattack and overrun Lydia by 546 BC deposing croesus and transforming the region into a Persian province in 539 BC Cyrus also captured Babylon and allowed the captive Jewish population to return to their ancestral home in Jerusalem the great king then turned his attention East where he managed to establish tributary relationships in India but generous faced greater resistance he is said to have died in battle in Central Asia fighting against an army led by Queen tomis of the massetti in 530 BC the Persian Empire

continued its expansion under Cyrus's son and successor cambes II who conquered Egypt and the Levant during his brief Reign cis's death in 522 BC led to a power struggle which eventually resulted in in the accession of Darius I a powerful Warrior who married Cyrus's daughter at tossa and claimed to be distantly related to the Persian Royal house after his coronation at Cyrus's capital of paged in around 515 BC he established a ceremonial Capital at pepolis in the region of far in southern Iran though the main administrative Center was in Souza around 160 Mi to the

east of the Tigris River in 500 3 BC Darius embarked on his seian campaign during which he built a pontoon bridge to convey his army Across The bosor Straits into European thce a region covering parts of modern-day Bulgaria Northwestern turkey and Northeastern Greece although he struggled to defeat the nomadic cians Darius subjugated the thians and forced king amus of Macedonia to submit to his Empire as a vassel these new conquests strengthened the Persian Empire's Northwest Frontier and served as a base for further incursions into Greece by 500 BC Darius ruled over a vast multiethnic Empire

which Incorporated Indians in the East and Greeks in the west and he set about reorganizing his father-in-law's desperate conquests in order to administer the provinces more effectively Darius introduced a universal currency known as the DK in his honor he also divided the empire into around 20 provinces called satrapies each governed by a satrap each of these governers was required to provide a minimum annual tax or tribute as well as military obligations and the satraps were expected to collect these taxes and raise contingents of soldiers on behalf of the great king although the Persian kings were

zoroastrians who claimed to be representatives of the god Aura Mazda or Lord wisdom they were generally tolerant of other religions and were satisfied as long as they received the taxes and tributes they demanded from their Imperial subjects in each of the provinces by the end of the 6th Century BC many of the Greeks in the Persian Empire in Lydia and Ionia were unhappy with Persian Rule and in 499 BC the ionian Revolt broke out under the leadership of aristagoras tyrant of the city state of militus in Southwestern Anatolia although several Greek regions rose up in

Revolt the rebels needed alliances with the powerful city states on the Greek mainland in order to stand any chance of defeating the mighty Persian Empire aristagoras personally went to Sparta to ask for aid from King cleomes claiming untruthfully that the Persians could be easily defeated this was not the first time the Spartans had received a request for military assistance against the Persians a half century earlier king cisus of Lydia had recognized Sparta as the most powerful city state in the Greek world and when he faced a counter invasion of Lydia by Cyrus's armies in the

440s BC cisus requested military assistance from Sparta which on this occasion decided to only send a diplomatic Envoy to warn Cyrus not to invade Lydia by the time the Spartan arrived Cyrus had already occupied the lydian capital of Sardis when cleomes asked how long it would take to get to Persia aristagoras informed him that it would take three months to March Overland from Ionia to Souza when cleomes refused due to the great distances involved aristagoras informed the Spartan King of the great wealth of the Persian Empire and attempted to bribe him gradually increasing his offer

according to Herodotus aristagoras eventually offered cleomes 50 talents of silver an enormous sum of money at the time but clein's daughter and leonidas's future wife gorgo who was not yet 10 years old warned her father not to become corrupt and urged him to dismiss the Foreigner after Sparta's refusal to help aristagoras went to Athens and made the same arguments in an attempt to obtain Athenian assistance as the Athenians claimed leadership of the ionian Greeks and had recently survived attempts by the former Tyrant hippus to overthrow the nent Democracy with Persian support they agreed to support

the revolt and joined the ionians and eritreans in sacking the lyan capital of Sardis in 498 BC later that year the Allies were defeated by the Persians at the Battle of Ephesus and Athens withdrew from the alliance the Revolt continued until 494 BC when a Persian Fleet defeated the ionians at the naval battle of vade near militus after restoring his control over Ionia Darius planned an invasion of Greece both to punish Athens and erria for sighing with the rebels and to reduce the threat of the Greek city states joining together to attack the Empire again

thus in 492 BC darius's son-in-law and nephew mardonius led a campaign to re established Persian authority over thce and forced Macedonia to give up its previous autonomy but any further incursions into Greece were frustrated when most of the Persian fleet was Shipwrecked near Mount Athos the following year the Persian king sent ambassadors to all the Greek States seeking their submission to Persian Authority Athens and Sparta signaled their refusal to submit by killing the Persian envoys but a direct showdown between between the Greeks and the Persians was drawing near in 491 BC King cleomes of Sparta

had tried to use his influence to create an anti-p Persian alliance between Athens and the nearby Island City state of aena which had recently submitted to Persia but his efforts at fostering Greek Unity against the Persian threat were undermined by King dearius back home in Sparta who criticized his co- King for siding with Athens traditional enemy against aena a long-standing Ally of Sparta dearius is conspiring against Kines led directly to the latter maneuvering to depose the former after being mocked in public by his successor leotus thei demarius left Sparta and took refuge in Persia where

he was given Land by King Darius in 490 BC Darius launched an amphibious invasion of Greece l by his nephew arapan and a general named datis after easily subduing erria and burning the city to the ground the Persians turned their attention to Athens although the Athenians were an emerging Naval power they did not yet have the capability to prevent the Persian army from landing at the Bay of marathan around 25 mil to the east from Athens the Athenians sent the long-distance Runner fiotes to request help from Sparta it's it's uncertain if cleomes or Leonidas was

king at the time but when the Athenian arrived after running over 150 miles in 48 hours the Spartans agreed to send 2,000 hop lights however they stated that they could not leave until a religious Festival which was being celebrated in Sparta at the time was over as a result by the time these Spartans arrived the Athenians and Persians had already fought the Battle of Marathon the Athenian Army was commanded by miltiades who had previously ruled over an Athenian colony in thce and fought on the Darius in his cian campaign of 5133 BC before siding with

aristagoras in the ionian Revolt armed with his experience of Persian Warfare meles deployed his army to block the exits of the plain of Marathon after several days the Persians decided to sail their army straight to Athens while the Persian Cavalry were embarking from their ships miltiades LED his army of 10,000 men to attack the flanks of the Persian infantry before turning towards the center over 6,000 Persians were killed during the battle at the cost of 192 Athenian dead and an unknown number of casualties among Athens allies from the city of platea the Persians abandoned their

Ambitions to conquer Athens and returned home this was the background against which Leonidas became one of Sparta's two kings not much is known about what happened in Sparta in the 480s BC after Leonidas became king although the Persians had been defeated at Marathon the Spartans Athenians and others fully expected that they would return before long Darius died in 486 BC without fulfilling his Ambitions to conquer Greece and was succeeded by his son Xerxes after restoring internal order within his Empire he resolved to complete his father's unfinished work and made preparations for a campaign to defeat

and subjugate the Greeks once and for all news of these preparations reached Sparta in around 484 BC regretting the earlier decision to kill the Persian Envoy sent by Darius in 491 BC the Spartans decided to send a human sacrifice to the Persians in an attempt to appease the gods for their sacriligious deed 7 years earlier two men volunteered for the sacrificial Mission and both were sent on the journey but when they arrived at xery's court at soua and informed the great king of the proposed sacrifice Xerxes laughed and considered it a joke the cultural misunderstanding

may have spared the lives of the two Spartans but preparations for the invasion of Greece continued as before as part of of his preparations Xerxes ordered a canal to be dug through Mount Athos in northeastern Greece hoping to prevent a repeat of the disaster when the Persian Fleet had attempted to go round the AOS prometer during mardonius his invasion of 492 BC Xerxes also ordered the construction of a bridge of boats across the bosporus or helispot like Darius had done more than 20 years earlier when he first conquered th unlike his father Xerxes took steps

to prevent any sabotage of these Invasion Plans by ensuring that his Greek subjects were not involved in the project instead he ordered his Phoenician and Egyptian subjects to chain the boats together with thick Papyrus rope Xerxes could also count on a large contingent of Greek subjects including the thians and macedonians many Greek city states which retained monarchies preferred the protection offered by the Persian Empire to the prospect of being overthrown by Democratic Revolution and despite attempts by Herodotus to give the impression of a United Greek resistance to this latest Persian Invasion it is likely that

more Greeks fought for Xerxes than against him when he launched the latest Persian invasion of Greece in 480 BC Sparta was the first of the Greek city states to be warned of an imminent Persian Invasion according to Herodotus the deposed King demaratus who was in Exile in the Persian Empire continued to sympathize with his native land and decided to send a warning to Sparta in order to keep the message secret he inscribed it on a wooden tablet which he covered with wax to conceal the message when the item arrived in Sparta everyone was confused as

to what it meant but leonad das's wife gorgo suspected that there could be a hidden message underneath and suggested removing the wax after the wax was burned away Dem marius's message was revealed and the Spartans passed on the warning to the other Greek city states while Sparta and its allies in the pipian league served as a powerful Armed Force on land the Greeks continued to lack a major Naval Force the Athenian political leader The mysticle Who emerged as the most influential politician in Athens during the 480s BC was a keen advocate for Athens to build

its Naval Capac it in order to resist a Persian Invasion Fleet in 483 BC the mystically exploited the discovery of a rich seam in the Silver Mines at Lum and proposed to the Athenian assembly that the silver should be used to finance the construction of a fleet of 100 or 200 new trims the fast and agile warships named after their three tiers of ORS as the Persian threat was considered rather distant for the time being theistic claim claimed that the fleet was to be used against aena which had inflicted a series of Naval defeats upon

Athens since siding with the Persians in 491 BC the assembly voted in favor of the proposal allowing Athens to build a fleet capable of confronting the Persians thus by the time Xerxes began his final preparations for the invasion of Greece in 480 BC the Oracle at Deli was able to inform envoys from Athens that while their City would be destroyed the wooden wall shall remain unconquered while some Athenians claimed that the Oracle referred to the hedges that used to surround the Acropolis the mles convinced his fellow Athenians to place their faith in his Navy which

he believed was the wooden wall which the Oracle was referring to as the salvation of Athens in 481 BC the representatives of the Greek city states which sought to resist the imminent Persian Invasion met at the ismos of Corinth the narrow neck of land between the peloponese and Northern Greece where they agreed on a mutual defensive pact bound as they were by religious linguistic and cultural ties the alliance included 31 city states half of which were members of The pelop League or otherwise associated with Sparta given its preeminent position among the city states Sparta was

the Undisputed leader of the Coalition and Spartan military commanders would lead the Allied Greek forces on both land and sea during the war even though the Spartans were not known for their Naval prowess on land however there was no disputing King leonidas's credentials to lead the Allied Army in the spring of 480 BC Xerxes finally LED his invasion Force across the pontoon bridges he had painstakingly constructed over the helispot in the past few years years while Herodotus claimed that The Invasion Force numbered over 2 million men based on the capacity of the Persian Empire at

the time it is unlikely that xery's Army would have exceeded more than 200,000 men Herodotus claims that The Invasion Force included up to 60 ethnic groups including Persians mes and parthians from Iran bactrians from the region around modern day Afghanistan Indians from what is now the Punjab as well as a WI array of other subject peoples such as the lyans Arabians Egyptians Ethiopians libyans and even many Greeks the Persian Force included the 10,000 strong Royal bodyguard known as The Immortals who were commanded by a nobleman named hyanis according to Herodotus the Persian Fleet numbered over

a thousand ships including large contingents from the Phoenicians Egyptians cypriots and more than 300 ships from from the king's Asian Greek subjects among the latter were five warships commanded by a woman named emesia who was Queen of halikan nasus the large Persian army proceeded at a slow pace through northern Greece partly as a result of the Army's long Supply train and partly due to xery's desire to use its imposing presence to present a sense of inevitable Victory which would convince wavering Greeks to submit to Persian rule in July the Persians approached the veil of the

Tempe on the border between Macedonia and thessaly an Allied Greek army of 10,000 men under the joint command of the Athenian theistic and a Spartan named U anitus awaited the invading Force when King Alexander I of Macedonia alerted the Allied Army of the imminent arrival of Xerxes he informed theistic and yanus not only of the vast numbers of men ships in the invading Force but also that the Allied defenses could be outflanked this information prompted the Allied Army to withdraw and return to the ismos of Corinth for further deliberations the wavering thesans submitted easily to

the Persians allowing Xerxes to continue his March South without much difficulty in the meantime the Persian Fleet sailed to Cape seus opposite the island of UIA after with drawing from their first defensive position the Greek allies decided to resist the Persians by land at the pass of themop and by sea at nearby Cape Arium on the Northern tip of UA despite the desperate military situation the religious calendar proved a complicating factor for the Greek Coalition as the Olympic Games were due to be held that August held in honor of Zeus King of the Gods The

Olympian games were one of four panh helmic games which brought together athletes and Spectators from all over the Greek World Sparta's religious obligations were twofold as they were also preparing for the Annual carnea Festival in honor of the god Apollo nevertheless as leaders of the anti-p Persian Coalition the Spartans had to send an army to thopi as a gesture of resistance otherwise the Coalition could easily fall apart with individual city states siding with Xerxes in the face of his advancing Army furthermore the Spartans had consulted the Oracle at Deli which had informed them that either

Sparta would be occupied by the Persians or they would be mourning the death of a king Guided by these considerations Sparta sent king leonidus and a small army of 300 hoplight for the defense of thopi although this was a small percentage of the 8,000 or so Spartan warriors available most of the 300 would have been part of the elite Royal bodyguard Leonidas also stipulated that the men who accompanied him were to have a living son a sign perhaps that the King was convinced perhaps owing to the Oracle declaration that he and his 300 men were

destined to die in battle accordingly he wished to ensure that each of the 300 men's family line could be continued by their surviving Sons when Leonidas left for thopi he advised his wife gorgo to quote marry a good man and have good Sons though they already had a young son of their own named plist starus with this done Leonidas and the 300 marched to themop perhaps aware that death awaited them there it is this Spirit which led two men to volunteer to sacrifice themselves to the Persians in the name of Peace in 484 BC only

to be misunderstood by Xerxes such misunderstandings were less likely during xery's Invasion 480 BC as he had with him a prominent Spartan advisor the same demarius who had been removed as King of Sparta by cleomes 11 years before earlier in the campaign the great king asked him whether the Greeks would be motivated to resist demarius replied that his fellow Spartans quote will fight as no others no matter how few against however many and that they were ACC accustomed not to retreat from the battlefield even when outnumbered to stay in formation and either to win or

to die however Xerxes foolishly dismissed the very notion that men would fight so courageously of their own volition in addition to the 300 Elite hop lights the Spartan Army also included around 1,000 perosi and the same number of helots these were reinforced by small contingents of pelian allies allowing leonides to march to themop with around 4,000 men as they approached the pass in northern Greece the Coalition Army was joined by 1,100 boans and contingents from the neighboring loans and fans each of whom contributed around a thousand men adding all these desperate contingents together Leonidas commanded

an army of some 7,000 men at themop awaiting the Persian horde the name themop means hot gates in Greek this describes a narrow pass between the CID droman massive a mountain to the west and the Gulf of malakos to the east there were three such Gates through the region Leonidas deployed most of his men at the Middle Gate a 15 to 20 M long stretch at the narrowest point of the pass the gate was already protected by an existing fan wall and upon their arrival the Greeks began to refurbish it the yadas was soon informed

by men from nearby trais that there was a narrow mountain path called anaia which snaked around the pass and emerged around the east gate to the rear of the Greek position accordingly the Spartan King ordered his 1,000 strong fan contingent to guard the path which was so narrow that in places men could only advance in single file any attempt by the Persian Fleet to attack the Greek position from the sea was protect Ed by the Greek Fleet at artemisium commanded officially by the Spartan Ur radis but in effect by thetic leonad das's pipian allies may

have hoped that Xerxes would not arrive until the end of the Olympic Games and their home cities would have time to summon their full contingents to do battle at thermopol but the Persian army arrived in mid August with the religious festivities still ongoing at this juncture the penans suggested to Leonidas that they should withdraw to the ismith of Corinth and await further reinforcements there the King of Sparta briefly considered this but protests from the local loans and fans at the prospect of being abandoned to face the Persians alone prompted Leonidas to keep his army at

themop while sending Messengers to Allied city states to request reinforcements as soon as possible a famous incident occurred at this time when a soldier complained to Leonidas that the Persian army was so large that its arrows would blot out the Sun the Spartan King unfazed by such a daunting Prospect remarked that if that were so the Greeks would have a comfortable time fighting in the shade however Herodotus attributes the quote to a Spartan warrior named Dianes when Xerxes was deploying his army at the Western end of the pass he sent a scout on Horseback to

find out what the Greeks were up to the Scout returned to report that he had seen a small number of Greeks doing gymnastic exercises in the nude While others were combing their long hair the report astonished the great king who summoned dearius to explain the seemingly effeminate Behavior dearius immediately recognized these men as Spartans and informed Xerxes that by dressing their hair they were performing a rich as part of their preparations to fight to the death Xerxes had come to distrust Dem maritus by this time and took this warning lightly dismissing the notion that these

men were the boldest and noblest of all the Greeks expecting that sooner or later Leonidas and his men would take flight Xerxes waited for four or 5 days until he finally decided to attack on the 17th of August 480 BC before doing so he sent an Envoy to Leonidas promising the Greeks their freedom and lands in Asia if they surrendered after the Persian Envoy was refused he returned with a message from Xerxes asking Leonidas and his men to hand over their weapons in response the King of Sparta uttered a characteristically brief two-word challenge Molen L

come and take them Xerxes answered leonad das's challenge by sending a 2,000 strong median contingent who were among the best soldiers in his Army against the Greeks however the lightly armed mes were unable to make much progress and hundreds fell as they clashed with the heavily armed Spartan hop lights the median javelins were much shorter than the hoplight spares and the narrow confines of the pass at thopi negated the advantage of numbers that the Persians enjoyed the Spartans also enjoyed tactical superiority and their high level of discipline enabled Leonidas to rotate his men at the

front line behind the fan wall at regular intervals to ensure that the men fought as effectively as possible Leonidas also successfully ordered his men to Stage feigned Retreats before Wheeling them around and inflicting maximum damage on the enemy forces which had begun to advance in a chaotic fashion increasingly frustrated by the inability of his army to overcome the resistance of a tiny Greek hoplight army zer ordered his Elite Immortals into the fry but even they could make no progress against the wall of Spartan Shields and fell back with heavy losses thus ended the first day

of hostilities Xerxes knew he had a genuine problem on his hands at the end of it on the second day of battle Xerxes continued his frontal assault at the pass launching wave after wave of men against the Greek hoplight wall as the Persian king rued a second day of no progress a local man named epiales arrived at the Persian Camp offering information that would enable the Persians to win the battle expecting a huge reward from the great king the infamous traitor informed Xerxes that it was possible to circumvent the Greek position by taking the narrow

anopia mountain path Xerxes at once investigated this possibility and ordered hyanis to lead his Immortals on a special mission with eales serving as their guide hyanis and his men set off at nightfall and climbed the mountain path in the middle of the night during the early hours of the third day of battle the fan contingent detached by Leonidas to guard the root heard the rustling of leaves signaling the unexpected advance of the Immortals and hurried to arm themselves for battle and equally surprised hyanis feared that these were Spartans but after eales informed him him that

they were not the Immortals managed to overcome the inexperienced fan hoplight and descended into the thopi pass east of the Middle Gate as a result of these developments on the morning of the third day Leonidas and his men faced being trapped in a pincer to the east and west when the Spartan Royal diviner mistas carried out his sacrifice that morning he read the signs of impending death which would hardly have come as a surprise Leonidas and his subordinate commanders decided what to do now that their position was untenable the account given by Herodotus states that

leonatus dismissed his allies after recognizing that they were unwilling to continue the fight the king himself decided to continue the fight with what remained of the 300 Spartans the perosi and helots as well as the boans who chose to stay and fight it is equally likely perhaps more also that the Allied contingents withdrew in fear without any orders from Leonidas that the Spartans decided to stay and fight until The Bitter End was fully expected of their Warrior culture and Leonidas might also have been persuaded to stay by the message from the Oracle that a Spartan

king would have to die to spare Sparta from the Persian horde as the remainder of his army prepared to take breakfast that morning Leonidas is supposed to have said to them this evening we shall dine in Hades after 9:00 on the morning of the third day of battle Xerxes launched his assault Leonidas and the remaining Greeks made their last stand in front of the fan wall with nothing to lose except their lives they fought like men possessed and inflicted more casualties on the enemy than in the previous two days after their Spears broke the Greeks

took their swords in hand and charged against the enemy fighting hand to hand King Leonidas fell in the melee and the Greeks and Persians fought over possession of the Dead King's body although the Greeks were initially successful at retrieving their fallen leaders corpse once the outflanking maneuver was complete and they were trapped in the rear the remaining Greeks retreated to a small hill where they fought to the end with only the thebans surrendering to the Persians of the 300 Spartans who accompanied Leonidas to the I only two survived neither of whom fought in the battle

a man named panites had been absent because Leonidas sent him on a diplomatic mission to thessy and when he realized he missed the battle he hanged himself in shame a second man aristodemus was unable to fight due to an eye infection even though a fellow member of the 300 named uritus had been suffering from the same illness he ordered his helot attendant to lead him him into the battle acting as his eyes on the battlefield where he met his end upon his return to Sparta aristodemus was subjected to humiliation from his fellow citizens and at

the Battle of platea the following year he attempted to redeem himself by breaking ranks and charging alone into the midst of the enemy although the Greeks lost up to 4,000 men at theop over 20,000 Persians fell during the battle incl including two of xerx half Brothers infuriated by how much blood he had to expend in order to eliminate such a small enemy Force once the Persians recaptured leonidas's body Xerxes ordered the dead King to be decapitated and his head displayed on top of a pole Herodotus noted that the Persians usually treated the bodies of Fallen

enemy warriors with great honor indicating exactly how enraged Xerxes was by how Leonidas had man managed to oversee the resistance at the mopi the death of Leonidas led to the accession of his young son play starus as king the Fallen King's younger brother clom brus was named Regent for the underage player starkus and also took over command of the Coalition land forces in the peloponese while Leonidas and his small army fought at thopi 271 Greek tries fought with a Persian Fleet of up to 800 ships at artemisium on the first day of battle the Greeks

sank 30 enemy ships while a Persian Detachment sent around the eastern coast of Yuba to outflank the Greeks was Shipwrecked after a day of relative calm the Persian Fleet launched a sustained assault on the Greek Fleet and both sides incurred considerable damage over the course of the day when the mysticle received news of the defeat at themop he realized that there was no longer any strategic value in remaining in artemisium and ordered the fleet to withdraw to salamis on the seric gulf to the west of Athens on land clom brus prepared to make a stand

on the ethos of Corinth by ordering his men to destroy the road leading through it and to build a defensive wall across the region but as Athens was located in the region of ateka located outside the wall the Athenian citizens were ordered to abandon their city and evacuate to Sal and the meticles was able to use the Athenian Fleet to help out in the final stages of the evacuation after the few remaining Athenians who barricaded themselves on the Acropolis were defeated Xerxes ordered the city to be destroyed and the Athenian Acropolis was raised to the

ground fulfilling another Prophecy of the Oracle at Deli although leonidas's stand at theop ended in defeat and xery's army continued its advance the heroic defense of the pass inspired the Greeks to fight on and the three days of fighting at themop provided much needed time for the meticles to inflict significant damage to the Persian Fleet the Spartans and their pipian allies anticipated that the next phase of the war would follow in a similar vein to that of themop and artemisium with a pelian army fighting to hold the choke point at the ismos of Corinth while

the Allied Navy held the Persian Fleet in check at salamis but thetic had other ideas and believed it was possible to end the war by destroying the Persian Fleet although he had received reinforcements since artemisium and commanded a fleet of almost 400 ships the mysticle were still outnumbered by the Persians during the Battle of Salamis in late September the Allied Navy managed to win a decisive victory over the Persians sinking over 200 enemy ships in the process the naval battle marked the turning point of the war and prompted Xerxes to return home with much of

his army fearing that the Greek Fleet might sail up the helison and Destroy his pontoon bridges to trap him in Greece while Xerxes personally abandoned the campaign the war was not yet over and the Persians continued to occupy much of the Greek Peninsula the great king left behind a large Force Under the command of his cousin mardonius the same man who had led the invasion of th in 492 BC now mardonius evacuated ateka and spent the winter in thessy while the Athenians reoccupied their native City and their pipian remained behind the ismos wall since the

Athenians lacked the protection of the isos wall they urged the Spartans to lead an army North to attack and defeat mardonius when the Spartans refused the Athenians withdrew their Navy from the Allied Fleet enabling King leotus of Sparta to take command in early 479 BC mardonius aimed to exploit the disagreements among the Allies by sending a peace offering promising freedom to the Athenians but this was rejected prompting the Persian General to reoccupy Athens and completely destroy the city the Athenian refugees appealed for military assistance from the Spartans threat in to accept the Persian terms if

none was given after overseeing the completion of the ismos wall Cleon brus returned to Sparta and died soon afterwards leaving his son panus as Regent and commander of the Allied Army panus raised an army of some 70,000 men which marched North from the ithos where they were joined by 8,000 Athenian hoplight while mardonius hoped to do battle on the open Plains near pla panus managed to occupy a position on the heights overlooking the Persian Camp the two armies faced each other for several days before the Greeks decided on a strategic Retreat to secure their lines

of communication as the Greeks were retreating in different directions mardonius LED his army up the Heights in Pursuit but as at themop the lightly armed Persians proved no match for the Greek hoplight and mardonius was killed in battle alongside more than half his army of some 120,000 men at around the same time King Leo tydus sought battle with the Persian Fleet and caught up to it at the foot of Mount micali in Ionia rather than do battle on their damaged ships the Persian Sailors joined a large army Xerxes had left there and did battle with

the Spartans on foot with predictable consequences the twin victories of platia and M Cari definitively ended any further attempts by Xerxes and his successors to invade Greece and the invasion was abandoned after the Persians evacuated Greece the Greeks erected a stone Lion at themop in memory of Leonidas near the spot where he fell they also raised a monument commemorating the Dead with an epito composed by the poet simonides which read go tell the Spartans stranger passing by that here obedient to our laws we lie around 40 years after the battle a Spartan delegation sent to

themop recovered the supposed remains of Leonidas and carried them back to Sparta for reburial in a grand funeral while the Spartans worshiped all their kings as semi- Divine beings after their deaths in later centuries Leonidas was given the additional honor of an annual Festival in his name the Leona the focal point of the Spartan worship of the cult of Leonidas was a building known as the leonan which may have contained The ferary Monuments of Leonidas and panus the two preeminent Spartan Heroes of the Persian Wars even though we know very little about his life in

the centuries after his death Leonidas served as a reminder to the Spartans of their former glory the Roman emperors sought inspiration from the warrior tradition of Sparta and the Leona Festival was revived during the reign of emperor traan in the early 2nd Century ad the Greek historian and biographer plutar wrote a life of Leonidas which has regrettably not survived the legacy of Leonidas extends beyond the ancient world during the Italian Renaissance the independent city states threatened by French and German invasion were inspired by Leonidas and the 300 as Defenders of Liberty against foreign tyranny in

the late 16th century the prolific French essayist Michelle de montine claimed that salamis fatia and other Greek victories against Persia paled in comparison to the Glorious defeat of King Leonidas and his men in the pth of theop in 184 the French neoclassical painter Jac Lou David completed his canvas of Leonidas at theop although his Patron Napoleon bonapart was initially puzzled as to why David would choose as his heroic subject an ancient warrior who succumbed to defeat he later recognized the power of the Spartans patriotic sacrifice the example would have seemed extremely relevant as David completed

his painting after Napoleon for of valiant But ultimately unsuccessful campaign defending France from Invasion by a coalition of Austrian Prussian and Russian armies in his epic poem Don Juan the English romantic poet Lord Byron championed and later perished in the cause of Greek Liberation laments the lack of Valor among his contemporary Greeks Earth render back from out thy breast a remnant of our Spartan dead of the 300 Grant but three to make a new thermop as the Royal Air Force faced the German lufer over the Skies of Southern England in the summer of 1940 Winston

Churchill must have had Leonidas in the 300 in mind when he proclaimed quote never in the field of human conflict has so much been owed by so many to so few yet the legacy of Sparta was claimed not only by the Allies but also by Nazi Germany the organization of Spartan society with a pureborn masterclass of Warriors supported by an underclass of helots served as a model for Hitler's racial Utopia and Herman guring alluded to the glory of the 300 when referring to the German sixth Army surrounded by the Soviets at singr the legacy of

the Spartans with Leonidas and the 300 as one of the most prominent examples remains controversial and complex while the 300 have gone down in history as the heroes of theop the helots and perosi who had no choice but to comply with leonidas's orders to fight to the death have largely been forgotten in spite of all the legends that have emerged concerning Leonard's life over the centuries we know surprisingly little about him as the third son of King anex andreus he went through the rigorous agogi training program alongside his two brothers and was brought up to

follow the principles of Sparta's Warrior culture including a sense of honor and glory in death at around the age of 50 he married his wife gorgo the daughter of his half brother King cleomes and not long afterwards may have been involved in his deposition and death following which leonidis became one of Sparta's co- Kings he would have played a leading role in Spartan deliberations over how to deal with the Persian threat but he does not come into Focus until the invasion of 480 BC as commander of an understrength Greek army weakened by religious obligations and

a reluctance to face the enormous Persian horde he decided to make a stand at thermopol despite the poor numerical odds offering unbreakable resistance and inflicting a considerable amount of damage on the Persian army over two full days even after being outflanked he decided against withdrawing his whole Army and fought a desperate rear guard action that inflicted a disproportionate number of casualties on the enemy before succumbing to the last man while theonidas and his army were defeated at theop their Brave resistance inspired the Greeks to triumph over the Persians at salamis and platea what do you

think of King Leonidas the first of Sparta was he a defender of Freedom against a despotic imperial enemy or was he himself a despot who ruled over a state which routinely oppressed and humiliated its subject peoples in order to preserve the Privileges and culture of a small Warrior Elite please let us know in the comment section and in the meantime thank you thank you very much for watching care