Leonidas

Leonidas son of Anaxandridas II, Agiad king of Sparta from c. 489 and commander of the advance Greek force sent north to hold the pass of Thermopylae in August 480 BC. He led 300 Spartiate hoplites — all with living sons, by Herodotus's report, so the line would not die out with them — plus a contingent of Peloponnesian and central-Greek allies totalling ~7,000. When Ephialtes showed the Persians the Anopaea flanking path on the second night of the defence, Leonidas dismissed the bulk of the allies, kept the 300 Spartiates plus 700 Thespians and 400 Thebans, and fought through the third day to the last. His body was recovered by the Greeks only after three Persian charges and several Persian deaths; Xerxes in anger had the corpse beheaded and crucified — a posthumous mutilation Herodotus notes was wholly alien to Persian royal custom and marks the depth of Xerxes's fury.

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