King+Leonidas+Paper

Sam Florsheim History 3rd **__ King Leonidas __**

Of all of the Greek kings, King Leonidas was the most powerful and effective ruler in all of Greece. There are several reasons why King Leonidas was an unsurpassed leader. One reason was that he formed an army with over 7000 people to fight the Persians. He sent warriors away for their own safety and never would abandon his post on the battlefield. He would fight to the death. King Leonidas would never back down and fought through many wars to prove that Sparta was the best city- state. He was also very popular among his warriors. These are the reasons that made him the greatest Spartan king. The first great feat that Kind Leonidas did was fight with his 300 Spartan warriors against the Persian army in the Battle of Thermopylae. The secret to the Spartans battle strategy was have strong powerful weapons as well as strong powerful warriors. The Persians had weak armor as well as weak weapons and were killed easily. But then the Persians found a secret trail to come from behind the Spartans to attack them from behind the Spartans. After the Persians found out about the secret trail to attack from behind, King Leonidas sent the non-Spartan soldiers back. He wanted to have an army at ready if they struck again and didn’t want the guilt of having those soldiers being killed. The Spartans were outnumbered. The Persians had thousands of archers which when they fired their arrows, the sky was blackened with the arrows. King Leonidas sacrificed himself for his queen. Kind Leonidas was most definitely the most noble of soldiers and he died with pride. King Leonidas was especially noble because he would never abandon his post on the battlefield. He would always be fighting and also it would be humiliating for them to lose a battle. Whenever Spartan Soldiers lost a battle they would never live it down. They tried their absolute hardest to win battles. He would also build up a lot of strength for his battles so he would never be exhausted. He also made his warriors train all day so they would rarely lose in wars. Then on August 11th 480 BC Leonidas was killed along with his 300 soldiers. The Persians killed Leonidas along with his soldiers but he was not afraid to die. He had fought for his queen and it was his time to die. That is why King Leonidas was the most powerful and effective king in all of Sparta.