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Just visit historyhit.com slash subscribe. Late summer 480 BC, and a massive Persian army, more than 100,000 strong, approaches the gates of Thermopylae, a narrow pass with mountains to its south

and a gulf of water to its north. Get through this pass and the road to great cities

like Athens lies open for the Persian King Xerxes and his mighty host. But in their way stands

an army, tiny in comparison, but determined

to block the pass, commanded by a figure who would become steeped in legend. Leonidas,

King of Sparta, Hero of Themopoli. Thanks to the ancient Greek historian Herodotus,

Frank Miller's 300 comic series, and two Hollywood films,

today most of us carry a ready-made image of Leonidas as a fearless warrior king

hurling himself against endless ranks of Persian soldiers.

But who was the real Leonidas? Before all of the

glory, all of the legend, how much actually survives about him? In today's episode, we peel

back these layers of legend to explore the complicated world which shaped him, and the twisted

and tragic politics in his family, Sparta's royal

Aegean dynasty.

We'll look at the reign of his half-brother, Cleomenes, the scandals, the alleged madness,

and the political rupture that ultimately opened the way for Leonidas to rule.

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