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 ...

The Peloponnesian War is the name given to the long series of conflicts between Athens and Sparta that lasted from 431 until 404 BC. The reasons for this war are sometimes traced back as far as ...

The political historian Thucydides anticipated the Trump-Zelenskyy conversation in detail in his "History of the Peloponnesian War." The Melians had shown no aggression, but the Athenians needed to ...

Sparta had a highly unusual system of government ... leaving them free to pursue to the arts of war. Beneath this highest class was a middle class, called the Perioeci. Made up of a farmers ...

It was made up of lots of smaller states. These states were always squabbling and often went to war. Sparta and Athens fought a long war, called the Peloponnesian War, from 431 to 404BC.

It was made up of lots of smaller states. These states were always squabbling and often went to war. Sparta and Athens fought a long war, called the Peloponnesian War, from 431 to 404BC.