Greek military tactics shifted away from a somewhat ritualised form and toward full-scale war, leaving entire cities devastated. It pretty much marked the end of the golden age of Greece, seeing an increasingly greedy imperial Athens entering into full-scale war with Sparta and the other remaining independent Greek city-states.
This time around The Creative Assembly are focusing on the Peloponnesian War, which - gags aside - is a really fascinating historical period. Then again, it would have wildly inaccurate to do so because Wrath of Sparta is set about sixty years after some well-oiled Greeks with CGI torsos fought off thirty million Persians, and as we all know video games rarely play fast and loose with historical facts. It's a shame that the promotional machinery of video games moves so rapidly these days, because it would have been Just Plain Charming had Sega been able to announce this Total War: Rome II campaign expansion two hundred and eighty-nine days ago.