To review the stand the Spartans took against the Persians, it is important to know the man who led them. Leonidas was the king of the city-state Sparta, starting from around 490 B.C. and ending with his death at the Battle of Thermopylae in 480 B.C. History.com says that most things we know about Leonidas comes from the Greek historian Herodotus (1). Leonidas was the son of the Spartan king Anaxandrides, who died in 520 B.C., and became king after his brother Cleomenes died without yielding a male heir. Leonidas acted as Sparta’s military and political leader and, just like all male citizens, he was trained mentally and physically to become a warrior starting from a young age.
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