Leonidas

Spartan king (r. 490 b.c.e.-480.b.c.e.)

• Born: c. 510 b.c.e.
• Birthplace: Sparta, Greece
• Died: August 20, 480 b.c.e.
• Place of death: Thermopylae, Thessaly, Greece

The bravery and supreme sacrifice of Leonidas and his men at Thermopylae sent a surge of pride through all Greece, made the Greeks aware of their heritage, and stiffened their resolve to face—and, eventually, to prevail over—what seemed to be overwhelming odds.

Early Life

When Leonidas (lee-AHN-uhd-uhs) was born, it was not expected that he would be king. Leonidas’s father, King Anaxandrides, and his wife at first had no children. In order that the royal line not die out—for it was said to be directly descended from the mythical hero Hercules—the Ephors, or administrators of Sparta, asked the king to take a second wife, with whom he had a son, Cleomenes. The king’s first wife then had three sons: Dorieus, Leonidas, and Cleombrotus. When Anaxandrides died, Cleomenes was named king—to the indignation of Dorieus, who considered himself better qualified.

Not wishing to stay in Sparta under the rule of Cleomenes, Dorieus went to Sicily to found a colony, and he died there. Cleomenes was a controversial king; some considered him mentally ill. He forced his coruler Demaratus into exile, then tried to expand and consolidate his limited power to the extent of attempting to bribe the sacred oracle at Delphi. His policies aroused so much controversy that he was forced to leave Sparta. When Cleomenes returned, Leonidas, now king, had him arrested and imprisoned. Cleomenes was later found in his cell badly mutilated, and he died soon after. It was said he had bribed his jailer to give him a knife with which to commit suicide. Others maintained that Leonidas had a hand in his half brother’s death. Leonidas subsequently married Cleomenes’ daughter, Gorgo.

In appearance, Leonidas was a typical Spartan, possessing a lean body hardened by years of gymnastics and military exercises, free of physical defects. (No Spartan infant with deformities was permitted to live.) A characteristic of Spartan warriors was their long hair, which they took care to groom, especially if they were about to die on the battlefield. Like all young Spartans, and the more so because of his royal status, Leonidas, from the age of seven, spent his life in military training. He became king in 490 b.c.e., the year of the first Persian War, in which a small Greek force defeated a much larger Persian army on the plain of Marathon. The victory belonged mainly to Athens. Sparta, Greece’s most formidable military power, did not participate because its citizens were celebrating a sacred festival. Leonidas was determined, should a second Persian attack occur, that Sparta and its army would participate.

Life’s Work

Leonidas’s life’s work and short reign as king revolved around the preparation for and participation in one important battle, one of the most significant in Western history. Humiliated by the defeat of his forces by the Greeks in 490 b.c.e., Darius, the Persian king, ruler of one of the world’s largest and richest empires, was determined to avenge the defeat, but he died in 486 b.c.e. His mission became that of his son Xerxes I, who began assembling the largest military force known to the ancient world to defeat the Greeks. The exiled Demaratus, who was living at the court of Darius, sent a message to the Spartans, concealed under a layer of wax on a table, warning them of the danger. The message was reportedly discovered by the sharp eye of Queen Gorgo.

The Panhellenic League was formed at a military conference held in Corinth the fall of 481 by those Greek states willing to take a stand against Xerxes. Leonidas was given command of the army. Athens had the most powerful fleet, and naval activities were largely under the command of the Athenian Themistocles. Greece at the time consisted of many independent, often warring states. The Greeks, however, shared a language and value system, and, as the war was to prove, they could act in unison if necessary.

In the early spring of 480 b.c.e., Xerxes and his mighty army began the slow march to the Greek mainland. The Persians crossed the Bosphorus, the waterway between the Black and Mediterranean Seas, by constructing pontoon bridges. Skirting the Aegean Sea and marching parallel to his fleet, Xerxes sought to capture Athens in central Greece. The land through which he marched could not support such a mighty army, and Xerxes was therefore dependent on his ships to replenish supplies. Without the necessary naval support, the expedition would fail.

The Persians prepared to enter central Greece in August, again the time of the festival that had kept the Spartans home ten years before. Leonidas marched nevertheless with only three hundred Spartans, expecting to pick up allies en route and to be joined by the rest of the Spartan army once the festival was over. It was decided to try to check the Persian advance by holding the pass of Thermopylae between northern and central Greece. Only about fifty feet wide, the pass lay between high cliffs and the Malian Gulf.

By the time he reached Thermopylae, Leonidas had assembled a force of about seven thousand men. He reconnoitered the area, laid waste the valley through which the Persians would have to pass, and coordinated his activities with Themistocles and the fleet. The bodies of water bordering Thermopylae are among the most complex and dangerous in the Mediterranean region. It was an area the Greeks knew well. They also knew that the Aegean in August was subject to violent, unexpected windstorms, and storms did occur with extraordinary force and frequency, destroying a significant portion of the Persian fleet. The naval battle of Artemisium, which coincided with the land battle of Thermopylae, gave the Greeks a small victory and valuable experience.

Leonidas deployed his forces to the rear of the pass and the adjoining mountains, leaving mainly the Spartans to face the Persians. The Persians called on the Spartans to lay down their arms; Leonidas shouted back that the Persians would have to come and get them. On August 18, Xerxes gave the order to attack. Wave after wave were sent against the Greeks, but the first encounters proved how badly equipped the Persians were for close-quarter fighting. Their armor was too thin; their shields were too small and weak; their short spears were ineffective against the Greek long spears; and their arrows dashed harmlessly against the great bronze shields of the Spartans. Successive attacks only succeeded in piling up bodies in the narrow pass and made no progress in dislodging the Spartans and their allies.

At the end of the second day of fighting, Xerxes ceased his attacks in favor of another plan. A Greek traitor revealed the existence of a path through the mountains that led around and behind the Greek position. Xerxes dispatched the captain of his best troops to lead a contingent of chosen soldiers along the path and thus cut off Leonidas’s forces from the rear. Leonidas, who had learned of the path soon after he reached Thermopylae, had sent an inexperienced contingent of Greek soldiers to guard it, for he could spare no Spartans. The soldiers fled as the Persians approached, and word came to Leonidas that before noon of the third day he would be trapped between enemy forces. After a hurried conference and with the road to the south still open, Leonidas sent away most of his troops, leaving only the Spartans and some hand-picked soldiers. As his men sat down to eat their last meal, Leonidas with wry humor told them to eat heartily, for they would next dine in Hades.

The little band was determined to fight to the last. In order to kill as many of the enemy soldiers as possible, Leonidas had his men leave the defensive wall behind which they had been fighting and prepare for hand-to-hand combat. Seeing how few the defenders were in number and realizing that their resistance could at last be broken, Xerxes ordered column after column of Persians to sweep down on the Greeks. Four times the Spartans and their allies flung them back. Shouts from the rear told the Greeks that the escape route was closed, so the heroic remnant gathered for a last stand on a small knoll. Leonidas was among the first to fall, and a struggle for his body ensued. Fighting without their leader, their weapons broken, those Greeks still standing fought with their fists and even their teeth until the last of the Spartans was killed. Xerxes had his men find the body of Leonidas, cut off the head, and impale it on a pole to show his army that the great warrior was mortal.

Significance

Why the heroic stand of Leonidas and his men? Retreat and regrouping were permitted a Spartan commander; cowardice and surrender were not. Legend has it that Leonidas willed his own death because the Delphic oracle had warned him that either a king or Sparta must fall. Closer to the truth is probably that Leonidas realized that the manner of his death would be a source of inspiration to other Greeks, enabling them to resist the Persian foe. His assessment was correct, for Leonidas almost instantly became one of Greece’s greatest heroes. His sacrifice imbued the Greeks with the pride and confidence necessary for them eventually to expel the enemy.

The Greek naval forces shared in the confidence. The knowledge gained of the composition and tactics of the Persian navy enabled the smaller, more maneuverable Greek ships to ram and sink so many Persian ships in a later naval battle that the Persian navy was no longer an effective fighting force. Even the windstorms served to bolster Greek confidence, for they believed their gods of the wind and sea were supporting their cause.

The Greco-Persian War made Europe possible. It enabled Western civilization to develop its own political and economic life, its tradition of democratic government, and its emphasis on the rights of the individual, as opposed to the theocratic absolutism and social orientation of the East. In its aftermath, Greece entered its golden age of art, philosophy, literature, and science, the single greatest influence on the development of Western civilization.

Bibliography

Bowra, C. M. Classical Greece. New York: Time-Life Books, 1965. Using a pictorial approach to history, the book is rich in details such as models of the Greek ships and the pontoon bridges across the Bosphorus.

Bradford, Ernle Dusgate Selby. Thermopylae: The Battle for the West. New York: Da Capo Press, 1993. Despite its detailed and thorough research on the battle, Bradford’s account is easy to read and is presented in a chronological format. Also of value is the discussion of the sequel to Artemisium and Thermopylae at the battles of Salamis and Platea, which brought an end to the Persian menace.

Durant, Will. The Life of Greece. New York: MJF Books, 1992. A comprehensive yet easy-to-read work on Greek civilization. Chapter 4 contains an excellent description of Sparta; book 3 examines Greece’s golden age.

Herodotus. The History of Herodotus. Translated by George Rawlinson. 2d ed. Chicago: Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1994. Much of the knowledge of the Persian Wars, including the Battle of Thermopylae, is from Herodotus. Known as “the father of history,” Herodotus, although detailed, is remarkably easy and interesting to read. Book 7 deals with the Battle of Thermopylae; book 5 contains background information on Leonidas. Includes maps and an index.