Leonti'ades
（
Λεοντιάδης).
1. A Theban, of noble family, commanded at Thermopylae the forces supplied by Thebes to the Grecian army. (
Hdt. 7.205; comp.
Diod. 11.4.) They came unwillingly, according to Herodotus, and therefore were retained by Leonidas, rather as hostages than allies, when he sent away the main body of the Greeks (
Hdt. 7.220-
222; but see Plut.
de Herod. Mal 31; Thirlwall's
Greece, vol. ii. p. 287.)
In the battle--a hopeless one for the Greeks-- which was fought after the Persians had been conducted over Callidromus, Leontiades and the force under his command surrendered to the enemy and obtained quarter. Herodotus tells us, however, that some of them were nevertheless slain by the barbarians, and that most of the remainder, including Leontiades, were branded as slaves by the order of Xerxes. (
Hdt. 7.233.) Plutarch contradicts this (
de Herod. Mal. 33),--if, indeed, the treatise be his,--and also says that Anaxander, and not Leontiades, commanded the Thebans at Thermopylae. [EURYMACHUS.]
