If there was any Greek state that could stand toe-to-toe with Sparta on the battlefield, it was Thebes, mythical home of Oedipus and bad-boy of Greece for taking the side of the Persians in 480.

SPARTA, Greece, Aug. 25 (UPI) --On Tuesday, Greece's culture ministry announced the discovery of an ancient Mycenaean palace near Sparta. The palatial remnants were unearthed at the archaeological ...

King Agesilaus II—who led the Spartan Army at the peak of its power in the fourth century B.C.—proclaimed that one of Sparta’s greatest strengths was its citizens’ “contempt of pleasure ...