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 ...

In history, few replies have ever carried as much weight, defiance, and wit as a single word once uttered by the Spartans: ...

Asked why it was dishonorable to return without a shield and not without a helmet, the Spartan king, Demaratos (510 - 491) is said to have replied: "Because the latter they put on for their own ...

While this line is almost certainly apocryphal, losing one’s shield was nevertheless ... he won the central Greek city of Megara to Sparta’s cause, then marched north, cleverly outmaneuvering ...