The Real Leonidas Was Even More Brutal Than On Screen D
Spartan warrior king leonitis I came from a family tree so Twisted that it even put the Lannisters to shame when it came time for leonitis to find a wife he would take dark inspiration from his ancestors depraved inclinations but before we get to that let’s dive into the life of King leonitis I of Sparta he’s the most legendary Warrior King in history with his 300 Brave Spartans behind him King leonitis stood against the mighty invading Xerxes and stopped him in his tracks the story has been told and retold countless times but how much of what we’ve heard is true it turns out there’s a lot more to the ruthless leonitis than what we saw on screen leonitis came from the legendary line of aad Kings reaching back centuries leonitis and his family claimed to be descended from the mythological Heracles it’s a miracle that leonitis was ever even born for years his father
anex Andrus and mother whose name is lost to history failed to produce a child eventually the lack of an air began making the Spartan Elites nervous the e4s the powerful Council of officials who helped rule Sparta demanded that anex Andrus leave leonidas’s mother and take a new wife this would have changed Greek history as we know it but anex Andrus had a better idea he deeply loved his first wife but he knew the e4s could be dangerous enemies so he came came up with a compromise he took a second wife but stayed married to leonidas’s mother this pacified the Twitchy e fors but it quickly caused some serious problems in the Spartan Court almost as soon as Annex andredas took his second wife she bore him a son cleomes Sparta finally had an air and the e4s let up on anex Andrus but the upper echelons of Spartan society rarely stayed calm for long not long after the
birth of cleomes anex Andria’s first wife finally gave birth to a son dorius suddenly there were too many heirs to go around and in a place as ruthless as Sparta there was no way this was going to end well by the time that leonitis was born he was technically third in line to take the throne upon his father’s death that may seem like a ways off but this is Sparta we’re talking about few Spartan men live to old age and so it should come as no surprise that both of leonidas’s Brothers met a grim fate when Annex Andrus died his eldest son leonidas’s half brother cleomes took the throne but not everyone was happy about that dorius the firstborn son of anex andreas’ first wife felt that he should rule Sparta unfortunately he was about to learn that not everyone agreed with him the people of Sparta near unanimously supported cleomes as king and it made dorius
absolutely Furious spurned by his own people the hot-headed dorius left Sparta in disgust but only failure and death awaited him outside of his homeland he tried to start his own colony in Africa but was eventually forced to abandon it he then tried to set up shop in Sicily but he crossed the wrong person and was killed that left leonitis with only one older brother King cleomes but he wouldn’t have to wait long before cleomes met a similarly Dark End for most of history Sparta actually had two kings at any given time so when cleomes was King he ruled alongside a man named demaratus but the two were bitter enemies and their Feud provided the perfect chance for leonitis to take what was his like his brother cleomes was a fierce warrior king and his rule saw Sparta grow into a powerful and feared citystate but soon his life
took a dark turn after he was caught plotting against his co- King the Spartans exiled cleomes he quickly began amassing an army to retake his throne by force if necessary the Spartans knew a civil war could tear them apart so they allowed cleomes to return but once they laid eyes on him they couldn’t believe the man he’d become according to historical sources cleomes was utterly insane by the time he returned to his homeland he couldn’t be allowed to bring Sparta to to ruin so leonitis his own brother cruy betrayed him almost as soon as cleomes was back leonus ordered his men to throw his brother in prison who knows if it was the insanity or heartbreak at the Betrayal but cleomes took his own life soon after leonitis took his place as king after cleon’s death something he clearly believed was his right in one
famous story someone tried to bring him down a peg by sneering except for being King you are not at all Superior to us leonitis however was having none of it and a clapback for the ages leonitis responded but were I not better than you I should not be king the guy had confidence I’ll give him that and he was going to need every ounce of it for what was coming next sure leonitis had something of a superiority complex but at least he had the receipts to back it up while the firstborn sons of Spartan kings were exempt from the agogi the brutal Spartan training program leonitis was not so lucky he spent his childhood fighting for his life alongside the rest of the Spartan boys and he had thrived when he finally took the throne he was one of the deadliest men alive something the Persians would have to learn the hard way the legend of leonitis had already started to grow by the time
Xerxes marched his massive Army into Greece when the leaders of the Greek city states gathered to decide who would lead their for forces against the Persians they unanimously selected leonitis soon after their faith in him would be rewarded at one of the most legendary battles in history leonitis accepted command of the Greek forces even after a dark Prophecy from the mysterious Oracle at Deli predicted his certain Doom the oracle’s Grim words presented an ultimatum if the Persians invaded either the city of Sparta would be laid to waste or the Spartans would mourn a dead King for the Greeks the Oracle was a direct line to the gods and they took her words extremely seriously maybe other men would have wavered but leonitis did not fear death he marched off to face the Persians and see the oracle’s prophecy come true according to the historian
Herodotus the Oracle prophecy might be part of the reason why leonitis brought so few men to face Xerxes at thermopol leonitis knew that he was marching his men to their certain Doom so he made a difficult choice to ensure that the Spartan bloodline continued on he only selected soldiers who had living Sons to carry on their name Xerxes marched his men into Greece at a really inconvenient time for leonitis and the Spartans he arrived during the carnea an extremely sacred religious Festival the carnea was so so important in fact that Spartan law forbade all Warfare during the festival you know it was important if it even made the Spartans stop fighting festival or no the e4s realized that xerx Army was not something they could ignore in an unprecedented move they allowed leonitis to leave the carnea early and take an advanced guard to hold Xerxes off the 300 Spartans but contrary to
what most stories will have you believe there was much more to leonidas’s Army than that leonitis really did March out of Sparta with 300 of his finest soldiers but most stories leave out the 900 helit or Spartan slaves they brought with them add in the many other Greek soldiers who joined them and leonidas’s army actually consisted of as many as 7,000 men in total but hey I get it 300 sounds way cooler while leonitis commanded a much larger Force than we’ve been led to believe it was still absolutely tiny in the face of Xerxes Mighty Army we’ve gone over why leonitis brought so few men but some historians believe there’s another reason the warrior king left so many good soldiers behind he figured if the other Greeks saw him confidently marching his minuscule Army against Xerxes they would be shamed into joining the resistance at thermopol leonitis fought for all of the Greeks but if some
Spartans had had their way he wouldn’t have been there at all Sparta is located on on the pelones a large Peninsula that’s connected to the mainland only by the narrow ismos of Corin many Spartans thought that leonitis should set up his defenses at the ismos leaving the rest of Greece to the Wolves this idea terrified the other Greek cities that would have been left undefended but in a shocking move leonitis ignored his comrades and agreed to defend thermopol thermopol is a mountain pass in Central Greece its name translates as hot Gates and it’s the perfect place for a small Force to hold off a large army unfortunately it has one fatal flaw a small treacherous path that leads around the main pass locals warned leonitis about the path so he left a group of 1,000 fian soldiers to guarded his entire plan rested on those men but as he would learn on his last day on Earth
his faith in them was misplaced while stories paint Xerxes as a cruel bloodthirsty Tyrant the Persian king at least tried to go the Diplomatic route and to be honest his terms sound pretty fair the Greeks would have still had their freedom they would simply need to take the title Friends of the Persian people Xerxes even offered them the chance to settle on land that was far more fertile than what they possessed if you ask me that sounds like a sweetheart deal but leonitis was Cut From a Different Cloth when he heard xery’s offer his response was quite literally legendary leonitis refused Xerxes offer a friendship so Xerxes gave him a second offer he sent leonitis a simple message hand over your arms leonitis response was just as laconic come and take them the Zack Snider movie 300 is filled with
cool quotable onliners from leonitis and it’s remarkable how many of them actually come from historical sources for instance there’s the story that one of leonitis soldiers complained that the Persians had so many archers their arrows would make it impossible to see the sun according to the ancient historian Plutarch leonitis actually responded won’t it be nice then if we shall have shade in which to fight them while several different ancient sources claim that Xerxes horde numbered in the millions modern historians are a little more conservative it’s far more likely that the Persian force was somewhere between 70,000 to 300,000 men that still means even at the lowest estimate the Greeks were outnumbered by 10 to1 thermopol should have been an utter slaughter a forgettable blip that wouldn’t even make the history books but leonitis made sure that the battle would be remembered for all time by all
accounts Xerxes really didn’t feel like bothering with the Greeks and their piddling Defense Force after first offering them friendship then telling them to give up their weap weapons he waited for a full 4 days in the hopes that leonitis would come to his senses and flee obviously Xerxes didn’t know the kind of man leonitis was but when he finally decided to attack he learned that the hard way leonitis didn’t just choose the hot Gates because they had a cool name the spot where he set up his men had the ocean on one side and sheer impassible Cliffs on the other The Only Way Forward was straight through the Greek Army and on the fifth day that’s exactly where Xerxes sent his tools one can only imagine that the Persian army felt rather confident as they stared down the diminutive Greek Force but that confidence did not last long according to the historian teius the first wave of
Persian sent in was cut to Ribbons while the Greeks only lost two or three men in return Xerxes sent wave after wave of men against leonitis formation and watched in horror as each one was cut to Pieces he’d set up a throne in viewing range of the battle and sources say that he leaped out of his seat three times as his men were decimated in front of him his regular forces were clearly not working but Xerxes had an ace up his sleeve The Immortals were the most feared group of soldiers in xerx army they represented the very best that the massive Persian Empire had to offer after his regular troops failed Xerxes unleashed the Immortals on leonitis and the Spartans fought them off with ease the Immortals were lethal but they were no match for the Greeks the Persian king endured this Slaughter for two full days by the end
of the second day 10,000 of his men including his own two brothers lay dead on the battlefield if this had continued for much longer maybe Xerxes would have abandoned his invasion but then a single Greek man wandered into the Persian camp and whispered into the king’s ear the Greek who had entered xerx Camp was named epiales and there’s a reason his name came to mean nightmare in Greek soon after though the 300 movie made him out to be a deformed Outcast Spartan in reality his motivation was much simpler greed epiales assumed the Persians would make him Rich if he betrayed his homeland and he did just that epiales told Xerxes about the secret path through the mountains and he personally led the Persian forces behind leonitis and his men but don’t worry leonitis left that group of fian
soldiers to protect their flank right well let’s just say that didn’t exactly go as planned when the fian saw the Persian army approaching through the hidden path they quickly formed into a defensive position they assumed the bloodthirsty Persians would throw themselves against their Shields but the fans made a fatal error informing their huddle they left the path to leonitis completely clear the Persian army shot a couple of straight arrows towards the fans then just kept on marching towards the main Greek Force whoops that is the epitome of you had one job leonitis learned he’d been outf flanked at dawn on the seventh day he called an emergency war council and made a shocking decision he sent the vast majority of the Greek forces home though leonitis and the other Spartans would never Retreat he realized that their cause was lost and that the remaining Greeks were better off living to fight another day but not
leonitis he knew death was certain but he and his men stayed anyway following the Spartan Maxim come back with your Shield or on it so this is where the legendary story of the 300 Spartans standing alone against a massive Persian army comes from right nope even after leonitis told the rest of the Greeks to stay home the men from thespia were similarly unafraid they refused to abandon the Spartans and 700 of them stood alongside leonitis when their chilling fate came later that day leonidas’s Last Stand wasn’t just a matter of honor and pride by staying to fight the Persian cavalry leonitis and his men sacrificed themselves so that the remaining Greek forces would have time to escape many of the men who escaped thermopol would be there when the Greeks finally repelled Xerxes once and for
all like the thespians a force of 400 thebans also stayed behind to face the Persians but they weren’t quite as proud as their allies while every Last Spartan and thespian was cut down in the Persians final assault the thebans said screw this and surrender leonitis finally met his end during the final Persian assault shot down by Persian archers once the King was dead the two sides began feverishly fighting to claim his corpse the Spartans in a valiant final effort managed to take possession of their King’s body but it was all for not eventually every last remaining Spartan joined leonitis and the Persians got their hands on the king’s Remains the Persian soldiers immediately brought leonitis his body before Xerxes who had a disturbing plan for it for leonitis death was only the beginning Persian custom stated that the remains of enemy leaders should be
honored but Xerxes was not feeling generous when he laid eyes on leonidas’s body he had just spent two days watching this man’s tiny Army kill SES of his men and he was utterly Furious in an act of sacrilege Xerxes ordered ordered his men to cut off leonidas’s head and mount it on a stake then as if that weren’t enough he had the body crucified Xerxes tried his best to humiliate and disrespect leonidas’s remains but he couldn’t stop the Spartan King’s legend from growing almost as soon as leonitis was dead Sparta began worshiping him as a hero his legacy was such that the Spartans actually managed to bring his remains back home a full 40 years after the battle where they buried him with full honors the cult of leonitis persisted for centuries after his death but even with all this Glory we
can’t forget his Twisted family tree though his mother’s name is lost to history we know one disturbing fact about her she was his father’s niece as if that wasn’t bad enough when it came time for leonitis to find a wife he would take dark inspiration from his father while leonitis older brothers cleomes and dorius utterly hated each other no historical Source mentions how leonitis himself felt about his kin he couldn’t have hated cleomes that much though because he ended up marrying his daughter the beautiful gorgo that’s right just like his daddy leonitis married his own niece as for his heroic last stand against the Persians you can actually visit thermopol today if you do you’ll find a statue of a lion standing where leonitis made his last stand the Stone
Beast Bears a simple inscription inscribed in Greek come and take them if you enjoyed learning about the fascinating life of king leonitis I don’t forget to like And subscribe for more awesome content [Music]
