Leonidas I.

Leonidas I., son of Anaxandrides, king of Sparta, succeeded his half-brother, Cleomenes I., about 491 B.C. When the Persian monarch Xerxes approached with an immense army Leonidas opposed him at the narrow pass of Thermopylæ (480 B.C.) with a force of 300 Spartans, and rather more than 5000 auxiliaries. The Persians attempted in vain to win over Leonidas by the promise of making him ruler of the whole of Greece; and when Xerxes sent a herald calling the Greeks to lay down their arms, the Spartan answered: 'Let him come and take them.' The treachery of one Ephialtes having made it impossible to bar any longer the progress of the foe, Leonidas and his little band, having sent away the auxiliary force, threw themselves on the swarming myriads, and found a heroic death.