Leonidas spartan king biography
Ancient spartan king!
Training as a Hoplite
Leonidas was the son of the Spartan king Anaxandrides (died c.
Leonidas spartan king biography
520 B.C.). He became king when his older half-brother Cleomenes I (also a son of Anaxandrides) died under violent, and slightly mysterious, circumstances in 490 B.C. without having produced a male heir.
Did you know?
The Thermopylae pass was also the site of two other ancient battles. In 279 B.C., Gallic forces broke through Greek forces there by using the same alternate route that the Persians did in 480 B.C. In 191 B.C., the Roman army defeated an invasion of Greece by the Syrian king Antiochus III at Thermopylae.
As king, Leonidas was a military leader as well as a political one.
Leonidas spartan king biography wikipedia
Like all male Spartan citizens, Leonidas had been trained mentally and physically since childhood in preparation to become a hoplite warrior. Hoplites were armed with a round shield, spear and iron short sword. In battle, they used a formation called a phalanx, in which rows of hoplites stood directly next to eac