This story appears in the November/December 2016 issue of National Geographic History magazine. Sparta’s enemies, when facing the intimidating Spartan forces, would see a wall of shields ...

Faced with such an overwhelming force, only a small confederation of city-states, led by Athens and Sparta, determined ... designed to detain the Persians just long enough for the rest of the ...

During the intervening year the Persian force, now led by the satrap Mardonius, had attempted to forge an alliance with Athens against Sparta. When his terms were rudely rejected the satrap ...

17 x 25.3 in. (43.2 x 64.3 cm.) Subscribe now to view details for this work, and gain access to over 18 million auction results. Purchase One-Day Pass ...

It was in 480 BC during the second Persian invasion of Greece, when King Leonidas of Sparta ahead of the legendary Battle of Thermopylae responded by the phrase "Molon Lave" ('Come and Take Them' in ...

Sparta and Athens fought a long war ... Their biggest enemy were the Persians, who came from an area around modern day Iran. The Persian kings tried to conquer Greece a few times but the Greeks ...