Leonidas the first who died at 480 BC, was a warrior king of the Greek city-state of Sparta. He led the Spartan forces during the Second Persian War and is remembered for his heroic death at the Battle of Thermopylae. Leonidas was the third son of Anaxandridas II of Sparta,[2] and thus belonged to the Agiad dynasty, who claimed direct descent from the demigod Heracles.