Leonĭdas

, a celebrated king of Lacedæmon, of the family of the Eurysthenidæ, sent by his countrymen to oppose Xerxes king of Persia, who had invaded Greece with about five millions of souls. He was offered the kingdom of Greece by the enemy, if he would not oppose his views; but Leonidas heard the proposal with indignation, and observed, that he preferred death for his country, to an unjust though extensive dominion over it. Before the engagement Leonidas exhorted his soldiers, and told them all to dine heartily, as they were to sup in the realms of Pluto. The battle was fought at Thermopylæ, and the 300 Spartans who alone had refused to abandon the scene of action, withstood the enemy with such vigour, that they were obliged to retire wearied and conquered during three succe ive days, till Ephialtes, a Trachinian, had the perfidy to conduct a detachment of Persians by a secret path up the mountains, whence they suddenly fell upon the rear of the Spartans, and crushed them to pieces. Only one escaped of the 300; he returned home, where he was treated with insult and reproaches, for flying ingloriously from a battle in which his brave companions, with their royal leader, had perished. This celebrated battle, which happened 480 years before the christian era, taught the Greeks to despise the number of the Persians, and to rely upon their own strength, and intrepidity. Temples were raised to the fallen hero, and festivals, called Leonidea , yearly celebrated at Sparta, in which free-born youths contended. Leonidas, as he departed for the battle from Lacedæmon, gave no other injunction to his wife but, after his death, to marry a man of virtue and honour, to raise from her children deserving of the name and greatne of her first husband. Hero dot us , bk. 7 , ch. 120 , . — Cornel i us Nepos , Them is toc les .— Justin , bk. 2 .— Valerius Maximus , bk. 1 , ch. 6 .— Pausanias , bk. 3 , ch. 4 .— Plutarch , Lycurgus & Cleomenes .――A king of Sparta after Areus  II. , ♦ 257 years before Christ. He was driven from his kingdom by Cleombrotus his son-in-law, and afterwards re-established.――A preceptor to Alexander the Great.――A friend of Parmenio, appointed commander, by Alexander, of the soldiers who lamented the death of Parmenio, and who formed a separate cohort. Curtius , bk. 7 , ch. 2 .――A learned man of Rhodes, greatly commended by Strabo, . ♦ omitted word ‘years’ added