Leonidas, << lee ON ih duhs, >> I (?-480 B.C.) was a king of ancient Sparta. His heroic death in battle at Thermopylae made Leonidas famous (see Thermopylae ).
Leonidas became king of Sparta about 489 B.C. In 480 B.C., King Xerxes I of Persia invaded Greece with a vast army. Leonidas, with a much smaller army of about 7,000 Greeks, tried to stop the Persians at Thermopylae, a narrow mountain pass on the east coast of ancient Greece. The Greeks held the pass for two days. When Xerxes sent part of his army to attack the Greeks from another direction, Leonidas sent most of his soldiers to safety. But Leonidas, along with 300 other Spartans and hundreds of other Greeks, died fighting. Leonidas and his men became the supreme example of Spartan bravery and devotion to duty.
See also Sparta .
