Why Sparta HATED This 300 Survivor

He was one of the 300 Spartans at Thermopylae, and an eye infection saved his life. Then Sparta made him wish it hadn't. Aristodemus was so sick he could barely see, so King Leonidas sent him away from the pass before the last stand against the Persians. He walked home to Sparta alive, and nobody would speak to him or even give him a light for his fire. They called him "Aristodemus the Trembler". A year later, at the Battle of Plataea (479 BC), he broke out of the Spartan line and charged the Persians alone. Herodotus called him the bravest man on the field. Sparta still refused to honour him, because he was trying too hard to die. Source: Herodotus, Histories, book 7 (229 to 231) and book 9 (71). Herodotus also records a second version of why Aristodemus survived (7.230). #history #sparta #thermopylae