Nine Ancient Cities and the Wars That Touched Them, from Thespiae to Alesia

Thespiae sent 700 hoplites to stay and fight beside the Spartans at Thermopylae during the Persian invasion of 480 BC, one of the few Boeotian cities to remain loyal to the Greek cause. It later lost heavily at the Battle of Delium in 424 BC.

Plataea gave its name to the Battle of Plataea in 479 BC, where an alliance of Greek city-states defeated the invading Persians. The city sat at the foot of Mount Cithaeron, across the Asopus River from Thebes, and the modern village of Plataies stands beside its ruins.

Potidaea, a Corinthian colony founded around 600 BC, revolted against Athens in 432 BC, an event that helped trigger the Peloponnesian War. It then endured an Athenian siege, and Philip II of Macedon later captured it in 356 BC.

Mantinea saw the First Battle of Mantineia in 418 BC, the largest land battle of the Peloponnesian War, in which Sparta and its allies defeated Athens and its coalition. A second battle in 362 BC ended with the death of the Theban general Epaminondas.

Cyzicus, on the Sea of Marmara, defeated a Spartan fleet at the Battle of Cyzicus in 410 BC. It also withstood a massive siege by Mithridates VI in 74 BC and minted gold staters used as a standard currency across the ancient world.

Ancient Messene was refounded in 369 BC by the Theban general Epaminondas after Sparta lost the Battle of Leuctra. He fortified it with walls stretching nine kilometers, so a battle far away produced this city.

Alba Fucens was founded as a Latin colony by Rome in 303 BC, after the defeat of the Aequi in the Second Samnite War. About 6,000 colonists settled it to secure the Apennine corridor, and it stayed loyal to Rome during the Second Punic War.

Sellasia was one of the defensive bulwarks of Sparta, in the valley of the Oenus. Polybius places the 222 BC battle between Antigonus III Doson and Cleomenes III on the plain now called Krevata, between the hills of Evas and Olympus.

Alesia was the hillfort of the Mandubii on Mont-Auxois in Burgundy, covering roughly 97 hectares. The Battle of Alesia in 52 BC, where Julius Caesar defeated Vercingetorix, effectively ended the Gallic Wars.