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 Peloponnesian War is the name given to the long series of conflicts between Athens and Sparta that lasted from 431 until 404 BC. The reasons for this war are sometimes traced back as far as ...

They show the loading of military equipment onto the cargo ships Sparta and Sparta II, operated by the logistical arm of Russia’s Defense Ministry. Comparisons of photos from Jan. 18 and Jan. 27 ...

The political historian Thucydides anticipated the Trump-Zelenskyy conversation in detail in his "History of the Peloponnesian War." The Melians had shown no aggression, but the Athenians needed to ...

It was made up of lots of smaller states. These states were always squabbling and often went to war. Sparta and Athens fought a long war, called the Peloponnesian War, from 431 to 404BC.

The Sparta II, a Russian cargo ship under U.S. sanctions, had been drifting near Tartus since Jan. 5 after leaving Baltiysk in Kaliningrad Oblast on Dec. 11. Following the December overthrow of ...