Leonidas, Spartan military king
Leonidas was a Spartan military king in 5BC, who is famous for leading his 300 Spartans, as well as Thespians and Thebans, against the Persian army of Xerxes in 480BC- this was the Battle of Thermopylae.
Leonidas was defeated by Xerxes’ much larger army and killed, with the Persians mangling his corpse. According to Herodotus, the Thebans surrendered when Leonidas had been killed, as they had never wanted to be there in the first place.
