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 map below shows the location of Athens and Sparta. The blue line represents the straight line joining these two place. The distance shown is the straight line or the air travel distance between ...

In the year 431 BC Pericles stood before the popular assembly and urged them to make a momentous decision: 'If we go to war, as I think we must, be determined that we are not going to climb down.