The Islamic Republics supreme leader issued a warning that U.S. bases in the Middle East are no longer safe. Ayatollah Mojtaba Khameneidelivered this warning in a message Tuesday to mark the

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In the Western European Christian tradition, a Crusade was a kind of holy war sanctioned by the Catholic Church, in which Western Europeans could gain salvation by fighting on behalf of God and the Church to protect the Christian holy sites in Jerusalem. This article will discuss the Seventh Crusade, which was fought between the years 1248 and 1254.King Louis IX of Frances Crusader HeritageGemellion (Hand basin) with the arms of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, 1250-1275. Source: The Metropolitan Museum of ArtKing Louis IX ruled France between the years 1226 and 1270. He was only twelve years old when his father, King Louis VIII, died while on the Albigensian Crusade. King Louis IX has gone down in history as a devoutly pious king, with a passion for justice and peacemaking. However, one of the great goals of his reign was to be a successful Crusader king.Louis was not the first of the Capetian Kings of France to go on Crusade. His great-grandfather, King Louis VII, had led a French Army on the Second Crusade in the years 1146-1148. This Crusade had been a disaster, but it began the tradition of French monarchs leading Crusading expeditions.Phillip Augustus, the son of King Louis VII and the grandfather of King Louis IX, had led another army to the Holy Land as part of the Third Crusade in the years 1189-1190. Later in 1226, King Louis VIII, the father of Louis IX, led an expedition into Languedoc in what is now Southern France as part of the Albigensian Crusade.Louis IX Vows to Go On CrusadeFrench Reliquary Cross ca. 1180. Source: Wikimedia CommonsIn December 1244, King Louis IX of France was seriously ill, and the court feared for his life. One day, while he was in a coma, and two maidservants were arguing over whether he was dead, the king woke up and asked for the cross.In asking for a cross, he was making a vow to go on Crusade, and in making this vow, he was acting in opposition to many in his kingdom who increasingly questioned the practicality of a king abandoning his kingdom to go on Crusade, as well as its value in obtaining salvation.The kings mother, Queen Blanche of Castile, opposed her sons Crusade and tried to persuade him to give up his vow, but he was adamant about his decision. Crusading continued to hold value and resonance for people, including the king, despite the doubts of many.King Louis IX carrying the Crown of Thorns, 1245-1248. Source: The Metropolitan Museum of ArtConsidering the great influence that Queen Blanche had exerted over the king in the years since he had ascended the throne at the young age of twelve, there may well have been an aspect of rebellion and personal emancipation to the kings determination to go on Crusade.As it happened, this vow was made at the perfect moment, for earlier that fall, Khwarezmian Turks had conquered the city of Jerusalem. They then destroyed the Crusader army and their local Muslim allies at the Battle of La Forbie.The news of this defeat had not yet reached France when Louis made his vow, although these events would have made his departure on the Crusade the more pressing.Preparing for the CrusadeCarved wood panel with inscription, from 13th century Egypt or Syria. Source: The Metropolitan Museum of ArtKing Louis IX spent over three years preparing for his expedition. In 1245, he met with Pope Innocent IV, who sent a legate to preach the Crusade in France, and the pope also granted the king a tenth of the revenues of all the bishoprics, churches, and monasteries in France, for the Crusade. The king also levied tailles, or arbitrary payments, from the cities of France.The revenues of the church and the towns of France sufficed to cover most of the cost of the Crusade. He used this money to recruit an army of around 15,000-25,000 troops.Aside from nobles from the royal demesne who would have had the king as their direct lord, the king was also able to convince his brothers, Robert Count of Artois, Alphonse, Count of Poitiers, and Charles of Anjou to come with contingents of soldiers from their appanages, and he was able to recruit troops from the Counties of Champagne and Flanders because their Counts were sympathetic to Louis IX.Furthermore, William Longuespee, Earl of Salisbury, a great English nobleman, brought a small force of English knights to join the expedition, and once the king arrived in Cyprus, many knights from there, and the other Crusader principalities in the Holy Land and Greece, as well as a force of Knights Templars, joined him.To take his army to the Holy Land, Pisa and Genoa provided ships in return for promises of commercial favors in the Holy Land.The Capture of DamiettaSword pommel with the arms of Pierre De Dreux, Duke of Brittany and Earl of Richmond, 1240-50. Source: The Metropolitan Museum of ArtKing Louis IX finally set out for his expedition in the summer of 1248. On August 25, the king and his fleet embarked for the Island of Cyprus. Cyprus by this time was a Crusader kingdom ruled by a dynasty of Kings of French origin called the Lusignans.Because it was September when King Louis IX arrived in Cyprus, it was too late in the year for the invasion to begin. So, he and his army spent the winter of 1248-1249 in Cyprus planning their campaign and preparing to attack.Rather than land in Palestine directly, Louis IX and the other French barons were convinced by the Crusader Barons to attack Egypt.Egypt was a wealthy and populous country that threatened Palestine from the south, and as long as it was held by the Muslims, the Crusaders could never hope to hold the Holy Land for long. The Crusaders had learned this from hard experience. Because of the failure of the King of Jerusalem, Amaury, to conquer Egypt for the Crusaders in the 12th century, Nur al-Din and his nephew, Saladin, had conquered it.Realizing the importance of Egypt, the Fifth Crusade in 1217-1221 had tried to conquer Egypt but had done no more than capture Damietta after a year-long siege, before their army was bogged down and destroyed in the Nile delta.Now, with Louis IX and his forces massing in Cyprus, it seemed like an excellent opportunity to renew the old plan to conquer Egypt to regain and secure their hold on Palestine.Map of Egypt with Damietta highlighted in red. Source: Wikimedia CommonsBy May of 1250, a fleet of 1,800 ships had been gathered at the Port of Limassol on Cyprus to take the Crusader army to Egypt. Unfortunately, a storm soon scattered much of the fleet, and so when in early June of 1249 Saint Louis and his flagship the Montjoie arrived off the Egyptian port city of Damietta, he had no more than one-third of his army with him.The troops of the Egyptian Sultan Ayub, meanwhile, waited on the shore to repel the Crusaders. As the French troops began disembarking from their ships to attack, King Louis himself, against advice, jumped into the sea armed with his shield and his lance and rushed to the shore with his first wave of knights. They were soon able to clear the shore and secure a beachhead.The Sultans troops became discouraged, so they retreated and left Damietta to be occupied by King Louis and the Crusaders.Meanwhile, the French army could not yet move inland to attack Cairo because the floods were starting and would bog down any advance until October or November. So, the French army stayed outside Damietta, biding its time. In October of 1249, however, reinforcements led by Alphonse, Count of Poitou, arrived, and the floods began to recede, so Louis met with his council to plan the next stage of the campaign.A Pyrrhic Victory at Al MansourahScene from the Legend of the True Cross, Late 14th century. Source: The Metropolitan Museum of ArtAt the end of October 1249, the French army moved out. They planned to march down the Nile valley and capture Cairo, thereby conquering and securing Egypt for the Crusaders.They marched south through the Nile Valley, crossing the many streams and canals in their path, and engaging in occasional skirmishes with the Egyptian army. Finally, they arrived at a tributary of the Nile called the Bahr Es Seghir, where they faced the Egyptian army encamped across the river, and shortly beyond the Egyptian camp lay the city of Al Mansourah, whose capture was the next goal of the Crusade.The Crusaders spent the next month and a half or so unsuccessfully trying to cross the Bahr es Seghir in the face of Egyptian resistance. However, in early February, the Crusaders were able to bribe a local to show them a ford downstream, which they could cross.French Enthroned Virgin and Child, 1260-1280. Source: The Metropolitan Museum of ArtThe vanguard was under orders not to engage in battle without the permission of King Louis. However, once they had crossed the river, they found that they had taken the Egyptian encampment off guard. Despite the caution of the Master of the Templars, they attacked.The Egyptian camp was soon overrun, many Egyptians were killed before they could get their weapons, and the Vizier, Fakhr Ad Din, was killed after rushing to arms from his bath. Refugees from the camp soon fled to the town of Al Mansourah.Against the advice of the Templars, Count Robert of Artois led the Vanguard in pursuit and soon rode into the town. They were then ambushed and almost completely wiped out by the Egyptian troops garrisoned in the town, led by their general, Baibars Al Bundukdari.In all, over 500 Knights were killed, a serious loss of leadership and elite troops in an army that contained only about 2,500-2,600 knights. The Count of Brittany was among those few who managed to escape, and he was able to warn Louis as he crossed the ford with the bulk of the Crusader army.Saint-Louis taken prisoner, Seventh Crusade, by Gustave Dor, 19th century. Source: Wikimedia CommonsKing Louis now formed the main body of his army to face an Egyptian counterattack. The force of this counterattack soon pushed Louis and the Crusaders back, but the king was soon able to rally his troops and regain his lost ground. The battle remained undecided until evening, when a pontoon bridge over the Bahr Es Seghir was completed, and crossbowmen were rushed across the river, at which point the Egyptians finally retreated into Al Mansourah, and King Louis and his army kept the field.Unfortunately, Louis had lost more troops than he could afford, and so he was unable to attack the town of Al Mansourah. Louis had word that the Sultan of Egypt, Ayub, had died, and there was strife between his son and heir, Turanshah, and the Mamluk slave commanders raised by his father. So Louis and his army remained, hoping that soon there would be a palace revolution that would throw Egypt into chaos and give him the advantage again.Meanwhile, a few days after the Battle of Al Mansourah, the Egyptian army attacked again, and after another long and hard-fought battle, they were repulsed.The Disastrous RetreatThe Hours of Jeanne DEvreux, Queen of France, 1324-1328. Source: The Metropolitan Museum of ArtBy now, the new Egyptian Sultan Turanshah had arrived, and so a new effort was made to force the Crusaders to retreat by having boats brought by camel and launched in the Nile River above the Crusaders camp. This was done to cut the Crusaders supply link with Damietta.The Egyptians captured many boats bringing supplies to the Crusader camp, so the Crusader army was soon short of food, and disease began to ravage them. With the army severely weakened, the Egyptians becoming stronger, and with no evident opportunities coming from discord within the Egyptian ranks, King Louis IX and his barons decided it was time to retreat.Assassination of Turanshah, 1330-40. Source: Wikimedia CommonsMost of the army marched along the banks of the Nile, while the sick and wounded Crusaders were loaded onto boats. The Crusaders started up the Nile, hoping to return to Damietta and regroup.The Christians had neglected to destroy the bridge that they had thrown across the Bahr Es Seghir, and so the Egyptian army soon followed and began attacking the retreating Crusaders. The king had to flee to a nearby village, where he took shelter in a house, with only a few knights to guard him, and chased off Egyptian soldiers.The Duke of Brittany was sent to negotiate terms with the Egyptians to allow the army to escape. Meanwhile, however, a soldier named Marcel, who had probably been bribed by the Egyptians, spread word that the king had surrendered, and they all had to drop their arms, thus ending the negotiations.The ships carrying the sick and wounded were soon captured, and the sick and wounded prisoners were unloaded and beheaded by the hundreds.Many of the prisoners on land were offered conversion or death, and many refused to be converted and so were put to death with the sword. The Egyptians, however, on further reflection, decided that they ought to spare the rest of the prisoners and use them as a bargaining chip to get concessions.A Knight of the DAluye family, 1248-1267. Source: The Metropolitan Museum of ArtMeanwhile, Louis IX himself was soon captured. Louis was very sick, but Muslim doctors were sent in to care for him, and he soon began to mend.The Egyptian sultan demanded that all the Crusader holdings in the Levant be turned over to him. Louis IX, however, said that he did not have the authority to do so, because Emperor Frederick II held the title King of Jerusalem. However, they soon made a deal that Damietta would be given back in exchange for King Louis, and 800,000 bezants, or 400,000 livres of Paris, would be paid for the surviving prisoners and captured supplies.After a deal had been concluded, the Sultan Turanshah was finally overthrown and murdered by the Mamluk officers who made one of their number, Aibek, the new sultan.The new ruler of Egypt decided to keep the deal that his predecessor had reached with Louis IX and the other crusaders, and in May, the down payment of 200,000 livres of Paris was paid to the Egyptians. Damietta was also handed over, and Louis IX and his brothers were freed. They then sailed to the city of Acre.The Decision to StayFrench Head of King David, 1145. Source: The Metropolitan Museum of ArtLouis IX had to now decide if he would return home to France or stay a little longer and see if he could repair some of the damage that his failure had caused.The loss of so many knights from the Crusader principalities had weakened them and left them vulnerable to attack. As a result, the Barons of the Crusader states implored the king to remain for a time. However, the kingdom of France itself was in peril, because given that King Henry III of England might attack.As a result, most of the French barons advised the king to return to France. However, King Louis decided he would remain in the Holy Land for a time because his kingdom would be fine with his mother and regent Blanche of Castille still there, while if he left the Holy Land, then the Crusader principalities would certainly fall.Most of the French barons, including the kings two brothers, Alphonse of Poitiers and Charles of Anjou, went home to assist the queen mother and regent Blanche of Castille and to send money and reinforcements. Louis and a small force remained behind.Getting the Captured Crusaders FreedFrench Head of an Angel, 1250. Source: The Metropolitan Museum of ArtBecause of the palace revolution in Egypt, in which the Mamluk commanders had overthrown and murdered their sultan, the Egyptian Mamluks and the Ayyubid rulers of Damascus were now in a state of war. The cousins of the Ayyubid rulers of Damascus had been the Ayyubid rulers of Egypt, who had now been overthrown and killed by the Mamluks.This state of things allowed King Louis IX to gain concessions by playing the Egyptian Mamluks and the Ayyubid rulers of Damascus against each other. An initial offer by the rulers of Damascus of an alliance between them and the Crusaders had to be rejected by Louis IX because his men were still prisoners in Egypt. However, because of this offer, King Louis was able to pressure the Egyptian Mamluks to free many prisoners, and they soon were able to make an agreement in which the rest of the Crusader prisoners were freed, and the rest of the ransom was cancelled.In return, Louis would lead his forces to support the Mamluk attack on the Sultanate of Damascus, and after Damascus was defeated, the Christians would get Jerusalem and other lands in Palestine. Their forces ended up unable to combine for their attack, and the Mamluks and Ayyubids made peace, thus nullifying the alliance with the Crusaders.French Diptych with the Coronation of the Virgin and the Last Judgement, 1260-1270. Source: The Metropolitan Museum of ArtMeanwhile, King Louis IX began an extensive project of repairing the walls of the coastal Crusader cities. He spent the first year, 1250-1251, repairing the walls of the city of Acre, which at this time was the capital and chief port city of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem. He also went on to repair the fortifications of the cities of Caesarea, Jaffa, and Sidon.At Sidon, the workmen on the fortifications were surprised and massacred by the Damascene army before they could finish repairing the walls. King Louis subsequently came to the city and personally helped bury the bodies of the slain Christian workmen, after which he built a new series of fortifications around the city.The Return HomeGerman Keystone from a vaulted ceiling, 1220-1230. Source: The Metropolitan Museum of ArtMeanwhile, in the summer of 1252, Blanche of Castille, the mother of King Louis IX, who had been left as regent, died, leaving a leadership vacuum. King Louis IX heard of her death the following year. After her death, King Louis knew he needed to return to France as soon as possible.The barons and churchmen of the Kingdom of Jerusalem agreed that the king could now go home, as he had done everything he could to strengthen the kingdom after the failed Egyptian expedition, and now he could do more good back home.In July 1254, King Louis IX and his family and entourage landed at the port of Hyeres, after six years of absence and four months at sea.

The heroic last stand of King Leonidas of Sparta and his elite bodyguard of 300 men against the Persian army at the Battle of Thermopylae in 480 BC is one of the best known episodes from the history of ancient Greece. Despite Leonidass fame, most of what we know of his life comes from a few short passages in the Histories of Herodotus. Many details of his life and kingship before his climactic death at Thermopylae have to be inferred from the context of Spartan politics and the Graeco-Persian Wars.A Spartan PrinceThe Spartan Mother by Louis-Jean-Franois Lagrene, 1770, via National Trust UKLeonidas was born in c. 540 BC into the Agiad dynasty, one of the two royal dynasties in the city-state of Sparta. For hundreds of years, Sparta was jointly ruled by two kings from the Agiad and Eurypontid dynasties. This unusual arrangement avoided the excesses of an autocratic regime, but often encouraged competition and rivalry between the two kings.Leonidas was the third son of King Anaxandridas II of Sparta, who reigned for approximately four decades between c. 560 BC and c. 520 BC. According to Herodotus, Anaxandridas had initially been married to a niece who remained childless for several years. He refused demands to divorce his wife but agreed to take a second wife while remaining married to the first. After his second wife bore him a son named Cleomenes, Anaxandridass first wife gave him three more children: Dorieus, Leonidas, and Cleombrotus.As the third son of Anaxandridas, Leonidas was not expected to succeed to the kingship. Like all boys of the Spartan citizenry, at the age of seven he would have been separated from his family to undergo the Agoge, an arduous physical training regime to prepare Spartan men for military service. At the age of 18, the most accomplished young men would join an elite body that included senior army officers and members of the 300-strong royal body guard.The Age of CleomenesMap of the Greek world during the Persian Wars. Source: Wikimedia CommonsFollowing the death of Anaxandridas in around 520, the Spartans recognized his eldest son as King Cleomenes I. The succession was challenged by Dorieus, who claimed seniority by virtue of being the eldest son of Anaxandridass first wife. After being forced into exile, Dorieus attempted to set up his own power base in North Africa and later Sicily, but was killed in battle in around 510. While Leonidas was now the heir of the childless Cleomenes, little is known about his life during his half-brothers reign. However, Cleomeness reign would have profound consequences for Leonidass reign decades later.After vanquishing Dorieus, Cleomenes proved to be one of Spartas most ambitious kings. In 510, Cleomenes led a Spartan invasion of Athens to overthrow the Athenian tyrant Hippias. While the Spartans hoped to install a pro-Spartan oligarchy, the Athenian statesman Cleisthenes introduced democratic reforms, prompting Cleomenes to consider further intervention in Athens.In 506, the Spartan kings Cleomenes and Demaratus launched a campaign against Athens at the head of a large Peloponnesian army. However, the alliance soon disintegrated after the Corinthians withdrew from the coalition, prompting Demaratus to follow suit and abandon the campaign. The disintegration of the Spartan alliance may have been due to a news of a recent Athenian alliance with the Persian Empire, but the incident fatally undermined relations between the two Spartan kings.At the turn of the century, Cleomenes refused to join the Ionian Revolt against Persian rule. Instead, Sparta went to war against Argos in 494 and destroyed the Argive army in battle. However, after returning to Sparta, Cleomenes was put on trial for failing to occupy the city. Although he was acquitted, the trial may have been an attempt by Demaratus to undermine him.King of SpartaStatue of King Leonidas I on the Thermopylae Battlefield. Source: Greek City TimesIn 491, following another disagreement between the joint kings, Cleomenes deposed Demaratus after bribing the oracle in Delphi to pronounce Demaratus illegitimate. Demaratus fled Sparta and was granted refuge in the Persian Empire. Cleomeness corruption was soon exposed, and Herodotus claims that the king became insane and fled the city. He was captured and imprisoned in 490 and subsequently took his own life in prison.Modern historians such as Paul Cartledge suggest that Cleomenes may have been killed by his half-brothers Leonidas and Cleombrotus. In any case, Cleomeness death elevated Leonidas to the Spartan kingship alongside Leotychidas, the Eurypontid king whom Cleomenes had installed as Demaratuss successor. To consolidate his position, Leonidas married Cleomeness daughter Gorgo.Leonidas came to the throne during the Greco-Persian Wars, although it is unclear if he was already king when Athens requested Spartan assistance against the Persians in 490 BC. The fact that the Persians were harboring the deposed Demaratus engendered Spartan hostility towards the Persians, and Sparta was prepared to march to Athenians aid once they finished celebrating the Karneia festival. In the event, the Athenians defeated the Persians at the Battle of Marathon without Spartan assistance.The Battle of Marathon forced the Persians to abandon their first invasion of Greece. The death of King Darius I in 486 BC and his son Xerxess efforts to consolidate his rule in response to a series of uprisings across the Persian Empire allowed the Greeks some respite from further Persian invasion.The Anti-Persian CoalitionRelief of King Xerxes I. Source: National Museum of IranBy the late 480s, once Xerxes had restored order in his empire, the Persian king began preparations for a second invasion of Greece. According to Herodotus, the Spartans received advance warning of the Persian invasion from the exiled Demaratus, who sent a secret message in a tablet covered in wax. The Spartan men were initially confused by the blank tablet, and it was only after Leonidass queen Gorgo suggested burning off the wax that the secret message was revealed.The Spartans responded by inviting the 30-odd Greek city-states committed to resisting the Persians to a meeting at the Isthmus of Corinth to consider the military response. While Sparta and Athens were the leading powers in the coalition, around half of the city-states were members of the Spartan-led Peloponnesian League. This ensured that Spartans would command Greek forces on both land and sea.As King of Sparta, Leonidas would have played a major part in formulating the coalition strategy. The Greek allies identified a series of three defensive positions where they could expect to resist larger enemy numbers on equal terms. The first was the Vale of Tempe in Thessaly in Northern Greece. The second was the narrow pass of Thermopylae at the Malian Gulf. The third was the Isthmus of Corinth itself, which connected the Peloponnese to the rest of Greece.Xerxess invasion force crossed the Hellespont in the spring of 480 BC and slowly progressed southwards towards the Vale of Tempe. A Greek force of 10,000 was initially deployed to defend the position, but withdrew after being informed by King Alexander I of Macedon that that the position could be outflanked.ThermopylaeThe First Stage of the Battle of Thermopylae. Source: TheCollectorDuring the summer, the Greek city-states were prevented from mobilizing their full manpower since they had religious obligations to celebrate the Olympic Games in honor of Zeus. Meanwhile, the Spartans were also due to celebrate the Karneia festival dedicated to Apollo that had prevented them from fighting at Marathon a decade earlier.At this critical juncture, the Spartans sought guidance from the famous oracle at the Sanctuary of Apollo at Delphi, which informed them that either Sparta would be occupied, or they would be mourning the death of a king.After receiving the oracles answer, King Leonidas left for Thermopylae with his elite royal bodyguard of 300 hoplites. The Spartan contingent also included 1,000 enslaved Helots and a similar number of Perioikoi, free men recruited from the Spartan hinterland. Including various allied contingents, Leonidas marched to Thermopylae with some 4,000 men.At Thermopylae, they were joined by around a thousand Boeotians, Locrians, and Phocians each. Leonidass 7,000-strong army was still a fraction of Xerxess invasion force, which modern historians estimate in the tens of thousands. Although he knew there was no prospect of defeating the Persians, Leonidas hoped that he could delay them long enough for the other Greek states to mobilize their forces at the end of the festivities.Upon arrival at Thermopylae, Leonidas fortified an old Phocian wall while Xerxes offered him various inducements to surrender. When a Persian envoy asked the Greeks to hand over their weapons, Leonidas challenged them, Come and take them!For two days, the Persians suffered heavy losses as wave after wave of infantry failed to break through the wall. Even Xerxess famous Immortals could make no headway and were forced to retreat. Meanwhile the Greek fleet held the Persian navy at bay at Artemisium to prevent any Persian landing in Leonidass rear.The Final Stage of the Battle of Thermopylae. Source: TheCollectorAfter nightfall on the second day of battle, a local man named Ephialtes informed the Persians of a narrow mountain pass to the rear of the Spartan position. Leonidas had known about this prior to the battle and deployed the 1,000 Phocians to defend the pass. However, they were no match for Xerxess Immortals, who overwhelmed them on the morning of the third day of battle.Recognizing that his position was untenable, Leonidas intended to continue fighting to the death with his Spartans but offered the allies the opportunity to withdraw. Most of the allies agreed, but the 700 Thespians and 400 Thebans in the Boeotian force remained with the Spartans.Leonidas ordered his men to sally forth beyond the wall, where they engaged in bitter hand-to-hand combat with the Persians. In the midst of the melee, as the Greeks sought to sell their lives as dearly as possible, Leonidas fell in combat. Nearly all the Greeks fought to the death, apart from a small number of Thebans who surrendered. For the loss of some 4,000 men, the Greeks killed 20,000 Persians in response.Leonidas was succeeded by his young son Pleistarchus, but the new king was still a child, so Leonidass brother Cleombrotus assumed command of the Spartan army and prepared to resist the Persians at the Isthmus of Corinth, while the Greek fleet withdrew from Artemisium and sailed to the island of Salamis in the Saronic Gulf to prevent the Persians from landing at the isthmus.Although the Athenians abandoned their city to the Persians, the Athenian commander Themistocles defeated the Persian fleet at Salamis and forced Xerxes to abandon his invasion. In 479 BC, Cleombrotuss son Pausanias decisively defeated a Persian army at Plataea, bringing an end to the Graeco-Persian Wars.Leonidas the LegendLeonidas in Thermopylae, by Jacques-Louis David, 1814, via Louvre MuseumIn the decades after his death, Leonidass last stand at Thermopylae acquired legendary proportions. A monument of a stone lion was raised near the spot where Leonidas fell in battle, and some 40 years after the battle the Spartans recovered Leonidass remains from the Thermopylae battlefield. They may have been placed in a building known as the Leonidaion, which served as the focal point of public veneration for the king.Leonidass legacy has endured over the centuries, and he has often been hailed as a defender of freedom against the tyranny of Persian despotism, even though Sparta itself was one of the most oppressive societies in Greece. The 16th century French essayist Michel de Montgaine argued that Thermopylae was a finer demonstration of Greek military prowess than the victories at Salamis and Plataea.In 1814, after Napoleon fought a brilliant but ultimately unsuccessful campaign against the armies of the Sixth Coalition, French neoclassical artist Jacques-Louis David painted his grand canvas Leonidas at Thermopylae, depicting the king and his Spartans preparing to sacrifice themselves in a noble cause.More recently, the 2006 historical action film 300 has reignited popular interest in Leonidas and the Spartans at Thermopylae. Like many retellings of the battle, it does not account for the contribution of the Helots and the perioikoi in the Spartan army, nor the allied Greek city-states, particularly the 700 Thespians who fought and died alongside the Spartans.

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