Persia, the old enemy, had even struck up a series of alliances with Sparta and in the years 413 and 412 the two powers signed three treaties. Having brought his native city to its knees ...

It was a suicide mission, designed to detain the Persians just long enough for the ... led by Athens and Sparta, determined to resist Xerxes. At most they possessed some thirty thousand men ...

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 ...

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 ...