In my current course at school, we need to write a piece on a historical figure of our choosing. I'd love to do the spartan king Leonidas, and I was wondering if anyone had some knowledge on good books or sources I can use?
These should be a good starting point:
Alfred S Bradford, Leonidas and the Kings of Sparta: Mightiest Warriors, Fairest Kingdom (Santa Barbara, California: Praeger, 2011).
Paul Cartledge, The Spartans: The World of the Warrior-Heroes of Ancient Greece (New York, Vintage Books, 2002).
Philip De Souza, The Greek and Persian Wars 499–386 BC (Oxford: Osprey Publishing, 2003).
W G Forrest, A History of Sparta 950–192 B.C. (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1968).
Herodotus, Herodotus, with an English translation by A. D. Godley (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1920).
A H M Jones, Sparta (New York: Barnes and Noble, 1967).
Ian Macgregor Morris, Leonidas: Hero of Thermopylae (New York: The Rosen Publishing Group, 2004).