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 ...

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 ...

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 ...