Spartan warriors: Did you mean...?

The society of the Celts in Iron Age Europe was made up of several distinct hierarchical groups. At the top were rulers and elite warriors, then there were the religious leaders, the druids, and then specialised craftworkers, traders, farmers...

Thermopylae is a mountain pass near the sea in northern Greece which was the site of several battles in antiquity, the most famous being that between Persians and Greeks in August 480 BCE. Despite being greatly inferior in numbers, the Greeks...

Scythian warriors, drawn after figures on an electrum cup from the Kul'Oba kurgan burial near Kerch. The warrior on the right is stringing his bow, bracing it behind his knee; note the typical pointed hood, long jacket with fur or fleece...

The Battle of Isandlwana on 22 January 1879 was the opening encounter of the Anglo-Zulu War and a famous Zulu victory against the British Army. Over 25,000 Zulu warriors attacked and destroyed a British-led force of 1,700 men camped at the...

Leonidas was the Spartan king who famously led a small band of Greek allies at the Battle of Thermopylae in 480 BCE where the Greeks valiantly defended the pass through which the Persian king Xerxes sought to invade Greece with his massive...

Nicias, or Nikias (c. 470-413 BCE), was a wealthy Athenian politician and general during the Peloponnesian War (431-404 BCE). He became established as a prominent political leader of the aristocratic faction in Athenian politics and generally...

The Celts were a linguistic group which spanned across a wide geographic area and included numerous cultures and ethnicities. Because of this fact, the traditions, practices, and lifestyles of Celtic-speaking peoples varied considerably...

Mycenaean warriors depicted on a krater from Mycenae known as the 'House of the Warrior Vase', 12th century BCE. (National Archaeological Museum, Athens)

Aztec warriors in typical costume of elite ranks with back racks displaying group insignia. They each carry an obsidian-bladed spear. From the Codex Mendoza, folio 67. (Bodleian Library, Oxford)

A group of Maasai warriors. The Maasai people have occupied East Africa, particularly southern Kenya and northern Tanzania since the 16th-17th century CE. (Photograph taken in 1973, Wereld Museum Collection, Rotterdam)