In Sparta

Leonidas, King of the Spartans, died at Thermopylea

The Peloponnesian War – “We are the most powerful nation the world has ever seen. We have the strongest democratic principles the world has ever known. We cannot be defeated from outside. We can only be defeated from within.” So said the leaders of the great city-state of Athens and within a generation so they were. It wasn’t the strength or tactics of the Spartans that brought the Athenians down; it was the political intrigues, the betrayals and treachery, and most of all the venal self-interest of the powerful oligarchs that opened the gate to a small but determined band of fanatical, professional soldiers. A war that started with a small rebellion in a distant land brought to a close, through a failure of broad legislative leadership, the world’s first great democracy.