Disputes over the interpretation of the treaty led the Spartans to dispatch ambassadors to Athens with full powers to arrange all unsettled matters.

Disputes over the interpretation of the treaty led the Spartans to dispatch ambassadors to Athens with full powers to arrange all unsettled matters.

Themistocles urged the citizens to build the fortifications as quickly as possible, then went to Sparta as an ambassador to answer the charges levelled by the Spartans.

In this situation, Theramenes, in a speech to the assembly, requested that he be sent as an ambassador to Lysander ( who was at this time besieging Samos ) to determine the Spartans ' intentions towards Athens ; he also stated that he had discovered something that might improve the Athenians ' situation, although he declined to share it with the citizenry.

In 392 BC, the Spartans dispatched an ambassador, Antalcidas, to the satrap Tiribazus, hoping to turn the Persians against the allies by informing them of Conon's use of the Persian fleet to begin rebuilding the Athenian empire.

Herodotus records that when heralds of the Persian king Darius the Great demanded " earth and water " ( i. e., symbols of submission ) of various Greek cities, the Athenians threw them into a pit and the Spartans threw them down a well for the purpose of suggesting they would find both earth and water at the bottom, these often being mentioned by the messenger as a threat of siege.

During the second Persian invasion of Greece ( 480-479 BC ) Megara fought alongside the Spartans and Athenians at crucial battles such as Salamis and Plataea.

In 480 BC a small force of Spartans, Thespians, and Thebans led by King Leonidas ( approximately 300 were full Spartiates, 700 were Thespians, and 400 were Thebans although these numbers do not reflect casualties incurred prior to the final battle ), made a legendary last stand at the Battle of Thermopylae against the massive Persian army, inflicting very high casualties on the Persian forces before finally being encircled.

Thus, upon the conquest of Persia, Alexander the Great sent to Athens 300 suits of Persian armour with the following inscription Alexander, son of Philip, and all the Greeks except the Spartans, give these offerings taken from the foreigners who live in Asia added.

The Spartans had been called on by the Ionians to assist them against the Persian King Artaxerxes II.

The aim of this policy was to win away Persian support from the Spartans, as it was believed that Alcibiades had great influence with Tissaphernes.

The Spartans, however, with the assistance of a Persian army, began to drive this Athenian force into the sea ; seeing this, Thrasybulus landed his own force to temporarily relieve pressure on Alcibiades, and meanwhile ordered Theramenes to join up with Athenian land forces nearby and bring them to reinforce the sailors and marines on the beach.

* The Spartans sign a treaty of mutual help with the Persian satrap of Lower Asia, Tissaphernes.

* The Athenian general Conon, the Persian satrap Pharnabazus and Evagoras, King of Salamis, win an overwhelming naval victory over the Spartans under Peisander in the Battle of Cnidus ( near Rhodes ).

* The Persian satrap, Struthas, pursues an anti-Spartan policy, prompting the Spartans to order their governor to the Greek cities of Ionia, Thibron, to attack him.

His ability to compose tastefully and poignantly on military themes put him in great demand among Greek states after their defeat of the second Persian invasion, when he is known to have composed epitaphs for Athenians, Spartans and Corinthians, a commemorative song for Leonidas and his men, a dedicatory epigram for Pausanias, and poems on the battles of Artemisium, Salamis, and Plataea.

* The Egyptians under their King Teos and the Spartans under King Agesilaus II, with some Athenian mercenaries under their general Chabrias, set out to attack the Persian King's Phoenician cities.

Those same Spartans, however, had been at the center of resistance to the Persian invasions of the 5th century BC, and their absence was sorely felt at Chaeronea ; the endless warfare in which Epaminondas played a central role weakened the cities of Greece until they could no longer hold their own against their neighbors to the north.

Thermopylae is primarily known for the battle that took place there between the Greek forces including the 300 Spartans and the Persian forces, spawning the famous epitaph beginning with " Go tell the Spartans ".

Herodotus describes how, on the eve of battle and faced with the formidable Persian expeditionary force, the Athenians had despaired of the Spartans, or indeed anyone else, coming to their aid in what seemed to be impossible odds.

Nevertheless, the Athenians and Spartans attacked and burned the laid-up Persian fleet at Mycale, and freed many of the Ionian towns.

When the Spartans arrived the Persian camp was looted and their beached ships destroyed.

The plot revolves around King Leonidas ( Gerard Butler ), who leads 300 Spartans into battle against Persian " god-King " Xerxes ( Rodrigo Santoro ) and his army of more than one million soldiers.

However, the Persian infantry proved no match for the heavily armoured Greek hoplites, and the Spartans broke through to Mardonius's bodyguard and killed him.

He sent some of the spoils back to Greece, including three hundred panoplies ( complete Persian suits of armor ) back to Athens to be dedicated in the Parthenon with the inscription “ Alexander, son of Philip and the Greeks, Lacedaemonians ( Spartans ) excepted, these spoils from the barbarians who dwell in Asia ”.

Thinking the Greeks in full retreat, Mardonius ordered his forces to pursue them, but the Greeks ( particularly the Spartans, Tegeans and Athenians ) halted and gave battle, routing the lightly armed Persian infantry and killing Mardonius.

He passed part of his life at the court of Dionysius I of Syracuse or Dionysius the Younger, and is also said to have been taken prisoner by Artaphernes, the satrap who drove the Spartans from Rhodes, 396 BCE.

The satrap Tissaphernes was executed for his failure to contain Agesilaus, and his replacement, Tithraustes, bribed the Spartans to move north, into the satrapy of Pharnabazus.

The Athenian part of the joint fleet was led by Conon, and the Persian satrap Pharnabazus led a Phoenician fleet from the Chersonese to oppose the Spartans.

The Spartans had complained to the Persian king about the tepid support they had received from Tissaphernes, and the satrap, needing to demonstrate his commitment to opposing actions, arrested Alcibiades and imprisoned him at Sardis.

Alarmed by Conon's actions, Tiribazus arrests him, and secretly provides the Spartans with money to equip a fleet.

The conference thus failed, but Tiribazus, alarmed by Conon's actions, arrested him, and secretly provided the Spartans with money to equip a fleet.

It was too late that day to attack, so the Athenians spent the night on a nearby island, hoping to draw the Spartans out into the open sea to battle.

Those like the Spartans who concentrate on the one and ignore the other in their education turn men into machines and in devoting themselves to one single aspect of city's life, end up making them inferior even in that.

His verses mark a critical point in Spartan history, when Spartans began to turn from their flourishing arts and crafts and from the lighter verses of poets like Alcman ( roughly his contemporary ), to embrace a regime of military austerity: " life in Sparta became spartan ".

A year after the events of the Symposium, his political enemies would drive him to flee Athens under fear of being sentenced to death for sacrilege and turn traitor to the Spartans.

Although some Spartans were in favor of resuming the battle in order to recover the bodies of their dead, the allied perioeci of the Spartan left wing were less than willing to continue fighting ( indeed some of them were quite pleased at the turn of events ).

The Locrians appealed to Thebes for assistance, and the Thebans invaded Phocian territory ; the Phocians, in turn, appealed to their ally, Sparta, and the Spartans, pleased to have a pretext to discipline the Thebans, ordered general mobilization.

The Covenant's superior technology and numbers prove decisive advantages ; though effective, the Spartans are too few in number to turn the tide of battle in humanity's favor.

Athens's empire was not very stable, and only 27 years of war with the Spartans, aided by the Persians and internal strife, were able to defeat it.

In Herodotus's account, Miltiades is keen to attack the Persians ( despite knowing that the Spartans are coming to aid the Athenians ), but strangely, chooses to wait until his actual day of command to attack.

Herodotus explicitly tells us that the Greeks attacked the Persians ( and the other sources confirm this ), but it is not clear why they did this before the arrival of the Spartans.

The Syracusans sent their fleet to the Peloponnesians, and the Persians decided to support the Spartans with money and ships.

The Spartans and Athenians were foremost in this alliance, being sworn enemies of the Persians.

They wished to restore the fortifications of Athens, but the Spartans objected, on the grounds that no place north of the Isthmus should be left which the Persians might be able to use as a fortress.

* Aristagoras seeks help with the revolt against the Persians from Cleomenes I, the King of Sparta, but the Spartans are unwilling to respond.

The Spartans march north to support Athens against the Persians.

* 480 Leonidas, Spartan, makes sacrifice of 300 Spartans at the Battle of Thermopylae so main force can escape ; Xerxes son of Darius is leading the Persians

The Spartans and Persians, overwhelmed by the arrival of multiple forces from several directions, were defeated and driven off, and the Athenians captured all the Spartan ships which were not destroyed.

The next year the Spartans had opened negotiations with the Persians, and in order to secure their position in Greece offered to abandon all the cities in Asia to them.

The Spartans, with strategic advice from Alcibiades and limited assistance from the Persians under Pharnabazus, advance almost to the gates of Athens.

The Spartans, hearing that Pausanias is intriguing with the Persians, recall him and he is " disciplined ".

The Spartans were joined by about 700 Thespians, who fought to the death beside the Spartans, and the Theban detachment, whom Leonidas held as hostages and who deserted to the Persians at their first opportunity.

He betrays the Spartans to the Persians out of greed for riches ( and, it is implied, unrequited lust for a Spartan girl named Ellas ).

There, the Spartans and Persians worked out the form of an agreement to end the war.

The King would have thought it wise to preserve those Greek troops for future battles against the Persians, but he knew that the Spartans could never abandon their post on the battlefield.

") which the Spartans said when the Persians asked them to put down their weapons at the start of the Battle of Thermopylae.

Thermopylae is primarily known for the battle that took place there in 480 BC, in which an outnumbered Greek force probably of seven thousand ( including the famous 300 Spartans, 500 warriors from Tegea, 500 from Mantinea, 120 from Arcadian Orchomenos, 1000 from the rest of Arcadia, 200 from Phlius, 80 from Mycenae, 700 Corinthians, 400 Thebans, 1000 Phocians and the Opuntian Locrians ) held off a substantially larger force of Persians estimated in the range 70, 000-300, 000 under Xerxes.

The Spartans sought the aid of the Persians, asking them to cut off their support of the Thebans, Corinthians and Athenians.

When the Athenian emissaries delivered an ultimatum to the Spartans the next day, they were amazed to hear that a task force was in fact already en route ; the Spartan army was marching to meet the Persians.

Herodotus reports that the Persians fought well at first, but that the Athenians and the contingents with them wished to win the victory before the Spartans arrived, and thus attacked ever more zealously.

It was initated by either the Athenians or the Persians ( perhaps at the prompting of the Spartans ).