person
Leonidas
King of Sparta who with three hundred Spartans held the pass of Thermopylae against Xerxes (480 BC) and died there; the type of the commander who leads men gladly to a glorious death.
Reading notes
- Moral Letters to Lucilius §10.82.21 Leonidas
The Spartan king commanding at Thermopylae; his order to breakfast as men who would dine among the dead is Seneca's model of plain, commanding courage against the dialecticians' quibbles.