Sparta Archives

An artist of a much later age attempted to depict classical artillery in the painting below. Greeks devised weaponry that launched bolts and stones, often with great accuracy.

Sparta

Types of Weapons Used by Ancient Greece

By Mike Markowitz

When we think “catapult,” we imagine the types of weapons used for hurling rocks, dead plague victims, or unlucky cows against a castle. Read more

Sparta

Defending the Pass at the Battle of Thermopylae

by Ludwig Heinrich Dyck

What nation of Asia, did not Xerxes lead against Hellas? —Herodotus

On the Doricus, the vast Thracian plain and beach on the Aegean coast, rose a stronghold. Read more

Brutal mercenary armies such as the one depicted in this seventeenth century painting criss-crossed Germany during the Thirty Years War, leaving death and destruction in their wake.

Sparta

King Gustavus Adolphus, Breitenfeld, and the Birthplace of Modern War

By Louis Ciotola

On a hot, dusty September morning in 1631, the Imperial Army of the Holy Roman Emperor rested easily on the plains outside the village of Breitenfield, six miles north of Leipzig, Saxony. Read more

Sparta

Famous Military Generals: Chabrias the Athenian

By Charles Hilbert

On a warm summer day in the year 378 BC, a large Spartan army stood baffled on the plain of Boeotia in central Greece. Read more

Sparta

Misplaced Aggression: The Athenian Defeat at Syracuse

By Barry Porter

By the spring of 415 bc, a peace treaty between the warring city-states of Athens and Sparta had held firm for six years. Read more

Sparta

The Athenian Soldier Versus the Spartan Hoplite

By Fred Eugene Ray

The wars fought by Sparta and Athens in the fifth century bc pitted one city-state with ancient Greece’s greatest army against one boasting her most powerful fleet. Read more

Athenian general Iphicrates modified the battle gear of his peltasts, shown in this Johnny Shumate illustration wearing lightweight linen instead of bronze armor and carrying half-moon shields, swords, and javelins.

Sparta

General Iphracates: Innovative Commander of Ancient Greece

By Charles Hilbert

The 3rd century BC in Greece was an age of military innovation. The lessons learned in the Peloponnesian War (431-404) led to the increased use of lightly armed troops and cavalry. Read more