“For the Spartans, it wasn’t walls or magnificent public
buildings that made a city; it was their own ideals. In essence,
Sparta was a city of the head and the heart. And it existed in
its purest form in the disciplined march of a hoplite phalanx on
their way to war!” – Bettany Hughes, writer/historian.  (For
Part Five, go here)   Signed in 421, the Peace of Nicias ended
the first half of the Peloponnesian War. It came none too soon
for the belligerents.  Both sides were exhausted, having seen
the tides of war shift back and forth. For the Spartans, the war
had seen the legend of her soldier’s invincibility in battle
shaken; with Spartans surrendering (!)  at Sphacteria Island,
and Athens putting the 292 prisoners on display. Brasidas had
partially retrieved Sparta’s reputation and fortunes with his
brilliantly-conceived northern campaign. But this hero’s death
at Amphipolis had taken the heart out of the city and deprived
it of its greatest commander.  Athens had suffered as well in
this decade of war agains