All Spartan Warriors carried a shield that bore the Greek symbol Λ. It stood for Laconia, the area in Southern Greece where in the 10th Century BC the Spartans defeated the local populace and founded Sparta, the most powerful of all Greek city-states. Spartan Warriors forming up in phalanx would place their shield to their left or to their right, protecting not themselves but their fellow warrior. In the 4th Century BC, Phillip II of Macedon, father of Alexander the Great, sent a message to Sparta saying, " If I enter Laconia, I will level Sparta to the ground." The Spartans responded with a single, terse reply: "If……"