Leonidas I

Leonidas I was king of Sparta from about 489 to 480 BCE. He commanded the Greek force that resisted the Persian army at Thermopylae in 480 BCE.

Battle of Thermopylae: A 480 BCE battle in which Greek forces under Leonidas resisted the Persian invasion at a narrow pass. The battle where Leonidas led the Greek defense and died.
Agiad dynasty: One of Sparta’s two hereditary royal houses, traditionally descended from Eurysthenes. Leonidas belonged to this royal house.
Xerxes I: Achaemenid Persian king who invaded Greece in 480 BCE. He commanded the invading empire against the Greek force Leonidas led.
Greco-Persian Wars: A series of conflicts between Greek states and the Achaemenid Persian Empire from the early fifth century BCE. Leonidas’s defense was one episode in this larger conflict.
Battle of Salamis: A 480 BCE naval battle in which the Greek fleet defeated the Persian fleet near Athens. This Greek victory followed Thermopylae and helped turn the invasion against Persia.
Spartan dual kingship: The Spartan system in which two hereditary kings from separate royal houses held office simultaneously. Leonidas ruled alongside a king from Sparta’s other royal house.
Themistocles: An Athenian statesman and naval commander who helped organize Greek resistance to Persia. His naval strategy complemented Leonidas’s land defense at Thermopylae.
Herodotus: A Greek historian of the fifth century BCE whose Histories recount the Greco-Persian Wars. His account is the principal ancient narrative of Leonidas and Thermopylae.
Battle of Plataea: A 479 BCE land battle in which a Greek alliance defeated Persian forces in mainland Greece. It completed the mainland Greek resistance that Leonidas’s stand had helped sustain.
Cleomenes I: A king of Sparta from the Agiad dynasty who ruled in the late sixth and early fifth centuries BCE. Leonidas succeeded his half-brother Cleomenes as Agiad king.

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Second Persian invasion of GreeceRelated: His stand became the most famous episode of the invasion’s opening phase.