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 ...

In reality Isagoras ruled as the head of an oligarchy of three hundred noblemen, who in turn relied upon the military backing of Sparta. Under instructions from the Spartan king, Cleomenes ...

The events of the Trojan War are written about in a number of works of Ancient Greek ... from the Spartan court with Paris, a Trojan prince. Helen is the wife of Menelaus - King of Sparta ...

Inward-looking and self-sufficient, the Spartans were the most feared hoplites (infantrymen) in all Greece. They lived ... and not without a helmet, the Spartan king, Demaratos (510 - 491) is ...

Many self-professed champions of freedom throughout the centuries have looked to ancient Sparta as an inspiration. The doomed ...