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 had a highly unusual system of government ... Rather like medieval knights, the Spartiates were a class of military professionals who lived most of their lives in communal barracks.

The Pentagon's move from the Trump administration is the latest volley in a controversy over the service of transgender ...

The order reinstates a policy from Trump's first term that prohibited trans people from enlisting and barred those already in the military from transitioning.

Sparta had a highly unusual system of government ... Rather like medieval knights, the Spartiates were a class of military professionals who lived most of their lives in communal barracks.