[3] Paul Cartledge, however, argued it would have represented a mythical hero or a god rather than the historical person of Leonidas.

[4]: PT198  One estimation dates the sculpture before rather than after 480 BC, the year of the Battle of Thermopylae where Leonidas died.

[1]: 253  Sponsored by a group of Greek Americans, the planned site was in the modern city of Sparta, but the project was met by objection there because the statue was naked.

In 1969, another bronze statue of king Leonidas, again made by Vasos Falireas, was erected in downtown Sparta.

Its design and pose differs from the monument in Thermopylae, but Paul Cartledge describes both statues as based on "the exact same model",[4]: PT341  the excavated 'Leonidas' torso.