Leonid I is one of the kings of ancient Sparta in Greece. The only act by which he entered the annals of history was the unequal battle at Thermopylae, during which he died heroically. This battle is the most famous of the history of the second Persian invasion of Greece. Later, the hero became a model of military prowess and patriotism.
Spartan king Leonid: biography
What is known about him today? The basic information from the life of the Spartan king Leonid I has survived thanks to the ancient Greek historian Herodotus. He came from a kind of agiad. According to the data that Herodotus cites in his work History, the roots of this dynasty date back to the legendary ancient Greek hero Hercules, the son of Zeus.
The exact date of birth of Leonid I is not defined, presumably this is the 20s. VI century BC e. Almost nothing is known about his life. In his youth, he received good physical training, like other Spartan boys. This is also evidenced by the fact that at the time of the historical battle of Thermopylae he was no longer young - he was 40-50 years old, but the physique of the Greek military leader was strong and athletic.
His father, Alexandrid II, was the first representative of the Agiad. He had 4 sons - Cleomenes, Doria, Leonid and Cleombrot. The first wife, the daughter of sister Alexandrida, could not become pregnant for a long time, but he did not want to part with her. Then representatives of the government board of Ancient Sparta allowed him to become a bigamist so that the line of kings would not end. From the second wife, Cleomen was born, and a year later, the first wife of Alexandrid gave birth to the remaining three sons.
Accession to the throne
After the death of father Leonid I in 520 BC. e. the national assembly decided to elect Cleartera as king of Sparta. Doria did not agree with this and left the state. He tried to create his own settlement in Africa, then in Sicily. 10 years later he was killed, and in 487 BC. e. died and Cleomenes.
The cause of death of the latter is not known for certain. According to one version, he lost his mind and was arrested at the initiative of his siblings, and subsequently committed suicide. According to another hypothesis, Cleomenes was killed by order of the government board or Leonid I. After this tragic event, the latter was able to become the full ruler of Sparta. The years of the reign of Tsar Leonid - 491-480. BC e.
Family and Children
The wife of Tsar Leonid - Gorgo - also belonged to the family of Agiad. She was the daughter of his half-brother, the ruler of Sparta Cleomenes I. In those days, marriage between close relatives was the norm in society, it was forbidden only to children from one mother. Childbirth in Sparta was very encouraged, and the main purpose of the woman was motherhood. There is even a historical joke according to which, when asked about how Greek women manage their spouses, Gorgo replied: "We are the only ones who give birth to husbands."
The wife of the Spartan king was beautiful, for her large and languid eyes she was called Voloooka from childhood. At 17, when her mother died, the aunt was engaged in raising the girl, who instilled in her a love of poetry.
According to some researchers, Gorgo was not the first wife of Leonid. Before her, he lived for 15 years in a marriage with Mnesimaha, who bore him two daughters and two sons. Both boys died at an early age. The eldest daughter Dorida was 18 years old, and the youngest Penelope was 15, when Leonid, at the insistence of his elder brother and elected officials, divorced their mother and married Gorga. This was done for political reasons.
The Spartan king was very worried about this, since he had a good relationship with his former family. He often visited his ex-wife and children. Mnesimachus never remarried because she loved him just as much.
That year, when Leonid was killed, Gorgo gave birth to an only child. After the Battle of Thermopylae, Plistarch, son of Leonid I, became the successor of his father. The uncle Kleombrot was appointed regent of the boy, and after the death of the latter, his son Pausanias. The plistarch did not leave children behind, and the clan of Leonid, king of Sparta, broke off.
Greek Persian Wars
At the end of the VI century. BC e. The Persian empire has become a powerful power with claims to world domination. Its structure included such developed territories as Egypt, Babylon, Lydia, Greek cities on the coast of Asia Minor. The beginning of the Greco-Persian wars is associated with an anti-Persian uprising in 500 BC. e. (Ionian rebellion). After 6 years, it was suppressed. According to Herodotus, this was the impetus for the Persian attack on the Balkan Peninsula.
The first military campaign was organized by them in 492 BC. e., but due to a strong storm, the Persian fleet suffered heavy losses, so the Greeks received a respite of 2 years. In many cities of the ancient Greek state, defeatist sentiments were formed among the population, and only Sparta and Athens showed determination to fight a formidable enemy. In both cities, the ambassadors of the Persian king Darius I were executed, who arrived there with a proposal to recognize the power of the Achaemenid dynasty.
Up to 480 BC e. fate favored the Greeks. The Persians were defeated in the Battle of Marathon, as a result the Greeks had the opportunity to prepare for a future war and build their fleet. In addition, the forces of the Persian state at that moment were aimed at suppressing the uprisings in Egypt and within the country.
Thermopyllic battle
In 481 BC e. At the congress in Corinth, a common defensive union of the Hellenes (Sparta and Athens) was created. The high command over the ground and naval forces was transferred to the Spartan king Leonid. When the Persians approached the borders of Greece, it was decided to meet them in the Tempei Gorge, on the border of Macedonia and Thessaly. The Thermopilian Gorge was chosen as the second echelon of defense.
In the narrowest place of the gorge then only one cart could drive. In addition, there were old defensive structures, once built to protect against the attacks of the Thessalians. In ancient times, this was the only land route from northern Greece to its middle part.
About 7,000 soldiers from various regions arrived to conduct the defensive operation, among which was a small elite squad of Spartans of 300 people. This military unit never disbanded, even in peacetime. It was used mainly inside Sparta and could be quickly mobilized for foreign policy purposes. Other allies refused to help Leonid on the pretext that it was necessary to complete the Olympic Games, the beginning of which coincided with a military campaign.
When the Persian king Xerxes I approached the Thermopilian Gorge with his huge army (according to modern historians, it numbered from 70 to 300 thousand soldiers), most of the commanders of the Hellenic units decided to retreat. The countless Persian army instilled fear into the hearts of Greek military leaders. In such a difficult situation, the Spartan king Leonid I was forced to take the only possible decision for himself: to defend the gorge, even if there is no chance to survive the battle.
Death
Xerxes I gave the Spartan king 4 days to meditate, waiting for the rest of the Persian army to catch up. On the fifth day, he sent to the gorge his troops of soldiers from Media and Kissia, the number of which significantly exceeded the Greek unit. This attack, like the subsequent two days, was repelled. The long spears and heavy shields of the Greeks gave them a distinct advantage over the Persians, who had shorter spears, wicker shields and armor made of woven fabric. According to some estimates, about 10 thousand Persians were killed during these defensive battles.
The Greek detachment consisted entirely of heavy infantry, which easily blocked the narrow passage of the Thermopyllian Gorge. The Spartans also used a cunning strategy: they pretended to retreat so that the Persians pursued them. Then they suddenly turned and attacked, taking enemies by surprise.
The outcome of the battle of Thermopylae was decided by the oversight of the Fokidyan detachment, which was supposed to defend another mountain trail leading around the mountain. According to Herodotus, this path was indicated to the Persians by a traitor from the Thessaly tribe, but modern historians believe that the Persian reconnaissance units themselves could find out about its existence. As darkness fell, Xerxes sent his soldiers along a mountain trail to attack the Greeks from the rear. The Fokidians noticed the Persians too late and, without showing any resistance, fled.
Of all the allies of the Spartan king Leonid, only 2 small detachments remained at the end of the battle. According to one legend, he even insisted that the Allies retreat from Thermopylae, so that their sons could continue the clan and save the Greek army for subsequent battles. At that time in Sparta there was already a shortage of soldiers, so Tsar Leonid formed his detachment only from those men who already had children.
During a fierce battle, he was killed. The culmination of this event was the struggle for the body of the hero. The Greeks managed to recapture him from the Persians, and they retreated to one of the hills. The entire detachment of Leonid was destroyed, except for two Spartans who did not participate in the battle. Upon returning to their homeland, dishonor awaited them, one of them was given the nickname Coward, and the second committed suicide.
Xerxes' Revenge
According to contemporaries of the Spartan king Leonid, no one felt as much hatred towards him as the Persian ruler. Immediately after the battle, he decided to personally inspect the battlefield. Seeing the corpse of Leonid, he ordered a mockery of him - his head was cut off and the dead man was put on a stake.
Usually this was done with the rebels, and not with the soldiers who fell in a fair battle. It was a blasphemous act on the part of Xerxes. Thus, the Persian king wanted to express his personal hostile feelings towards Leonid, who destroyed his two brothers and put up active resistance.
There is also a legend according to which Xerxes’s demand to surrender, Leonid said the catch phrase: "Come and take it." These words were subsequently knocked out on the basis of a monument built in honor of this military leader in Sparta.
The image of a hero in art
The feat of Tsar Leonid I inspired many artists, writers and artists. The image of the hero fighting for freedom at the cost of his life was sung in the works of the English poet R. Glover (poem Leonid), David Malle, Byron, V. Hugo (poem Three Hundreds) and others. The name of the king of Sparta from the Agid clan was also mentioned by A.S. Pushkin, V.V. Mayakovsky.
In the picture of the French artist Jacques Louis David "Leonid at Thermopylae", written in 1814, the commander is depicted while preparing for the decisive battle. Next to his half-naked figure is the altar of the famous ancestor - Hercules. Napoleon Bonaparte was familiar with this canvas of the artist, and when asked whether the vanquished can be the hero of the picture, he replied that the name of Leonid was the only one that reached us through the depths of eras, and all the others were lost in history.
In 1962, the director of Polish descent, Rudolf Mate, shot the film “Three hundred Spartans”, dedicated to the feat of the Spartan king. The most striking scenes in this movie are those in which the hero and his associates refuse to surrender to the Persians in exchange for mercy. Impressed by this film, American illustrator Frank Miller created a graphic comic book about the event in 1998, which was filmed in 2007 by American filmmaker Zack Snyder.
In 2014, another Israeli director Noam Murro shot another film adaptation of Tsar Leonid’s battle “Three hundred Spartans: the heyday of the empire,” but the 1962 film has the greatest historical certainty.
Criticism
Before his death, Leonid I knew that the Persians were approaching his detachment from the side where no one was waiting for them. But still he decided to defend himself and perish, fulfilling his duty. The appropriateness of such a decision has been much debated by ancient historians. The rest of the military leaders were inclined to retreat before it was too late. They tried to convince this and their leader.
It is possible that the final decision of the king of Sparta Leonid was influenced by the religiosity inherent in him and his compatriots. Even at the very beginning of the Greco-Persian wars, the Delphic oracles predicted that Sparta would be destroyed or their king would die. Leonid himself served as the high priest and understood the meaning of this prediction so that the price of saving his homeland is his death. On the other hand, defending the Thermopyllian Gorge, he provided an opportunity for the Allied forces to save their soldiers and gave time to catch up with the rest of the Greek army.
In the writings of ancient Greek writers it is also mentioned that funeral games were arranged before the tsar’s speech from the city, and one of his farewell instructions for his wife was a desire to find a new husband.
Memory of the hero
Soon after the destruction of the detachment of the Spartan king Leonid in the battle of Thermopylae, all the fallen soldiers were buried at the place of their death. There, contemporaries of the hero erected 5 steles with epitaphs and a stone lion (the name Leonid in Greek means “lion”). This monument is still on the battlefield.
After 40 years, the remains of the hero were transferred to Sparta, and a festive celebration was held annually near his tombstone, held competitions and made speeches. In our time, a monument was erected to the hero in Thermopylae in 1968. The battle scene is depicted on the monument. The Spartan king is still revered and flowers are laid at his monument.
Even in antiquity, this feat became a canonical, peculiar moral bar for the Greeks. The hero was mentioned in his works by the Athenian comedian Aristophanes, the writer Pausanias, Plutarch, who wrote his biography, which has not survived to our time. The defeat of the Greeks at Thermopylae was only formal. This battle turned out to be a culturally significant event, which had a greater historical significance than any other victory.