Many years ago, in the land of Greece, there was a man, a warrior, named Leonidas.
Leonidas was the warrior king of the ancient city of Sparta, whose surprising rise to the
throne, was by rare luck, an unforeseeable situation.
He was the third son of King Alexandridas, the then king of Sparta.
Alexandridas they said, had 2 wives.
His second wife, bore a him a son first, named Cleomenes.
And soon after, his first wife also bore him a son, named Dorieus.
And the birth of Dorieus was followed by the birth of Leonidas.
So you see, with the position of Leonidas in his family, kingship was far beyond his
reach.
When Alexandridas died, the throne went to his eldest son, Cleomenes.
However, Cleomenes died without a son to carry on after him, and so Dorieus was next in line
for the throne.
But Dorieus lost his life during an adventure in sicily.
This, was how the throne of sparta, went to leonidas.
The time of Leonidas was a time of war, and strife, and his days as king, were very hard
on him and his people, as well as the whole of Greece.
Some years earlier, before the reign of Leonidas, the Persian king, Darius, had led his large
persian army in an invasion against the greeks.
The invasion however, was a failed attempt, which led to the death of the Persian king,
darius.
Now leonidas was king, he was about to face a second persian invasion, for Xerxes, the
new persian king, and son of Darius, continued with his father's ambition, and sought to
conquer all of greece.
By 480 BC, Xerxes had assembled a vast army of 150,000 men, and a navy of six hundred
ships.
Xerxes then lauched an attack, and the Greeks responded with their own smaller army of about
7000 men.
This showdown, resulted in what is known today, as the battle of Thermophylae.
the most famous battle of the Greco-persian wars, and one of the most famous battles in
European ancient history.
Before the battle began, Leonidas visited the renowned oracle of Delphi.
There, the oracle prophesied.
For you, inhabitants of wide-wayed Sparta, Either your great and glorious city must be
wasted by Persian men, Or if not that, then the bound of Lacedaemon
must mourn a dead king, from Heracles' line.
The might of bulls or lions will not restrain him with opposing strength; for he has the
might of Zeus.
I declare that he will not be restrained until he utterly tears apart one of these.
From the words of the oracle, Leonidas knew he had only two options.
To surender to the persians, or to stand and fight for what was theirs, even though it
would mean his death.
The brave warrior king chose the second option, to fight for his city, to fight and die for
his people.
Leonidas selected 300 of his spartan men, those who had living sons, to carry on their
lineage, should they fall in battle.
Then they joined forces with warriors from other Greek states.
With a total of about 7000 men, the greeks went to war.
They chose a narrow pass between the mountains of central Greece and the sea, called Thermophylae,
as their first line of defense.
With the narrowness of the pass, only a small number of the persians could advance at a
time. and this, was an advantage on the part of the greeks.
The Battle of Thermopylae lasted three days.
For the first two days, the Greek forces maintained the front line.
With their clever phalanx formation, they prevented the Persians from breaking through
the narrow pass.
Their long spears, heavy shields, and body armor, were another advantage over the Persians,
who had shorter spears, weaker shields, and very light armor made of woven linen.
unfortunately, on the third day, a greek native, called Ephialtes, betrayed the Greeks, by
revealing to the persians, a path that led around the mountain, allowing them to surround
the defending greek forces, on both sides.
News of the betrayal soon reached Leonidas, their position had been exposed.
With the persian army drawing very close, Leonidas made a decision, he was not going
to retreat.
He knew they were greatly outnumbered, he knew they wouldn't make it out alive, so he
gave each of his men the chance to choose, to choose to turn around and go back home,
or stand their ground and fight till their death.
Many of the warriors went back home, but none of the spartans left.
And in the end, there were only 700 Thespians, 400 Thebans, and the 300 spartans, who chose
to remain and fight, alongside leonidas.
Xerxes demanded that the greeks surrender their weapons, to which Leonidas replied,
"Come and take them!".
After a heated battle, the Greeks were defeated, Leonidas and all his men were slain.
When Xerxes came to Leonidas’ corpse at the end of the battle, he ordered his men
to cut off Leonidas' head and stick it on a pole.
This was a sign that Leonidas was a huge thorn in Xerxes’ flesh.
With Leonidas out of the way, Xerxes and his remaining persians marched on to Athens.
He could easily conquer all of Greece now, he presumed.
But he was wrong, the news of what the greek defenders did at Thermophylae had quickly
spread around Greece. and warriors began to rise from all cornersof greece.
The courage and fearlessness of Leonidas had boosted their morale, it had motivated them,
it had replaced the fear in their hearts with courage.
Soon enough, a new set of defenders assembled against the persians, and successfully defeated
the persian army in the battle of Salamis and the battle of plataea, which marked the
end of the second persian invasion.
Indirectly, the greeks defeat at thermophylae, led to their victory at salamis and plataea.
Thus, the sacrifice of leonidas and his men, was not in vain.
The battle of Thermophylae left a long lasting legacy, it demonstrated the courage of a small
number of warriors, who in the face of a much larger enemy, stood their ground until the
bitter end.