Thermopylae is a narrow spit of land where an ancient Spartan army of one hundred (100) Hoplyte soldiers held off one thousand Persian soldiers for three days before being overrun and killed to the last man. You can go to Greece and find a monument to this epic battle and there was a special television program on the Discovery Channel.
The Persians.
There were several kings of Sparta, the most famous is either Leonidas(led the 300 Spartans at the famous battle of Thermoplylae) or Menalaus(king of the Spartans in the seige of Troy). There were two spartan kings at any one time, a peace king and a war king. The peace king took care of diplomatic negotiation, whilst the war king took command of battles and war.