King Leonidas - Sparta - Greece
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ripraff
N 42° 07.614 W 076° 01.368
18T E 415462 N 4664371
King Leonidas "led the Spartan forces during the Second Persian War, and is remembered for his death at the Battle of Thermopylae."
Waymark Code: WMRPAZ
Location: New York, United States
Date Posted: 07/17/2016
Views: 6
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"Leonidas I ...was a Greek warrior king of the Greek city-state of Sparta. He led the Spartan forces during the Second Persian War, and is remembered for his death at the Battle of Thermopylae. Leonidas was the third son of Anaxandridas II of Sparta, and thus belonged to the Agiad dynasty, who claimed descent from the hero Heracles...Leonidas was chosen to lead the combined Greek forces determined to resist the Second Persian invasion of Greece in 481 BC. This was not simply a tribute to Sparta's military prowess...Whatever the reason Sparta's own contribution was just 300 Spartiates (accompanied by their attendants and probably perioikoi auxiliaries), the total force assembled for the defense of the pass of Thermopylae came to something between four and seven thousand Greeks. They faced a Persian army who had invaded from the north of Greece under Xerxes I. Herodotus stated that this army consisted of over two million men; modern scholars consider this to be an exaggeration and give estimates ranging from 70,000 to 300,000."