Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/1045

 SPARTA. space enclosed by this wall there are two terraces, upon one of which, amidst the ruins of a church, the French Commission discovered traces of an ancient temple. In this space there are also some ancient doors, formed of tliree stones, two upright with the architrave, buried in the ground ; but no conjecture can be formed of the building to which they belonged without excavations. The hill we have been describing is the largest of all the Spartan heights, and is distinguished by the ■wall which surrounds it, and by containing traces of foundations of some ancient buildings. From it two smaller hills project towards the Eurotas, parallel to one another, and which may be regarded as por- tions of the larger hill. Upon the more southerly of the two there are considerable remains of a circular brick building, which Leake calls a circus, but Curtius an amphitheatre or odeum (Map, 3). Its walls are 16 feet tbick, and its diameter only about 100 feet; but as it belongs to the Roman period, it was probably suf- ficient for the diminished population of the city at that time. Its entrance was on the side towards the river. West of this building is a valley in the form of a horse-shoe, enclosed by walls of earth, and ap- parently a stadium, to which its length nearly cor- responds. To the north of the hollow way leading from the bridge of the Eurotas to Mugula there is a small insulated hill, with a flat summit, but higher and more precipitous than the larger hill to the south of this way. It contains but few traces of ancient buildings (Map, B.). At its southern edge there are the remains of an aqueduct of later times. The two hills above mentioned, north and south of this hollow way, formed the northern half of Sparta. The other portion of the city occupied the plain be- tween the southern hill and the rivulet falling into the Eurotas, sometimes called Xhe. River of Mar/ula, becauie it flows past that village, but more usually Trypi'iliko, from Trypi, a village in the mountains (Map, cc). Two canals, beginning at Manilla, run across this plain : upon the southern one (Map, bb), just above its junction with the Tryp'wtiko, stands the small village of Psi/cliiko (Map, 6). Between this canal and the Tri/ptotiko are some heights upon which the town of Xew Sparta is now built (Map, D.). Here are several ancient rains, among which are some remains of walls at the southern extremity, which look like city-walls. The plain between the heights of New Sparta and the hill of the theatre is covered with corn-fields and gardens, among which are seen fragments of wrought stones, and other ancient remains, cropping out of the ground. The only remains which make any appear- ance above the ground are those of a quadrangular building, called by the present inhabitants the tomb of Leonidas. It is 22 feet broad and 44 feet long, and is built of pondei'ous square blocks of stone. It was probably an heroum, but cannot have been the tomb of Leonidas, which we know, from Pausa- nias (iii. 14. § 1), was near the theatre, whereas this building is close to the new town. Tills plain is .separated from the Eurotas bya range of hills which extend from tiie Roman amphitheatre or circus to the village of Psi/chiko. Between the hills and tlie river is a level tract, which is not much more than 50 yards wide below the Roman amphi- theatre, but above and below the latter it swells into a plain of a quarter of a mile in breadth. Beyond the river Trypiotiko there are a few traces of the foundations of ancient buildings near the little VOL. II. SPARTA. 1025 village of Knlagonid (Map, 7). Leake mentions an ancient bridge over the Trypiotiko, about a quarter of a mile NE. of the village of Kala- ffonid. This bridge, which was still in use when Leake visited the district, is described by him as having a rise of about one-third of the span, and constructed of large single blocks of stone, reach- ing from side to side. The same traveller noticed a part of the ancient causeway remaining at either end of the bridge, of the same solid construction. But as this bridge is not noticed by the French Commission, it probably no longer exists, having been destroyed for its materials. (Leake, 3forea, vol. i. p. 157, Peloponnesiaca, p. 115.) Such is the site of Sparta, and such is all that now remains of this famous city. There cannot be any doubt, however, that many interesting dis- coveries might be made by excavations ; and that at any rate the foundations of several ancient buildings might be found, especially since the city was never destroyed in ancient times. Its present appearance corresponds wonderfully to the anticipation of Thu- cydides, who remarks (i. 10) that " if the city of the Lacedaemonians were deserted, and nothing remained but its temples and the foundations of its buildings, men of a distant age would tind a difficulty in be- lieving in the existence of its former power, or that it possessed two of the five divisions of Pelopon- nesus, or that it commanded the whole country, as well as many allies beyond the peninsula, — so in- ferior was the appearance of the city to its fame, being neither adorned with splendid temples and edifices, nor built in contiguity, but in separate quarters, in the ancient method. Whereas, if Athens were reduced to a similar state, it would be supposed, from the appearance of the city, that the power had been twice as great as the reality." Compared with the Acropolis of Athens, which rises proudly from the plain, still crowned with the columns of its glorious temples, the low hills on the Eurotas, and the shapeless heap of ruins, appear perfectly insig- nificant, and present nothing to remind the spectator of the city that once ruled the Peloponnesus and the greater part of Greece. The site of Sparta differs from that of almost all Grecian cities. Protected by the lofty ramparts of mountains, with which nature had suiTounded their fertile valley, the Spar- tans were not obliged, like the other Greeks, to live within the walls of a city pent up in narrow streets, but continued to dwell in the midst of their planta- tions and gardens, in their original village trim. It was this rural freedom and comfort which formed the chief charm and beauty of Sparta. It must not, however, be supposed that Sparta was destitute of handsome public buildings. Notwith- standing the simplicity of the Spartan habits, their city became, after the Messenian wars, one (jf the chief seats of poetry and art. The private houses of the Spartans always continued ruile and unadorned, in accordance with a law of Lycurgus, that the doors of every house were to be fashioned only with the .saw, and the ceiling with the axe (I'lut. Lye. 1.'}); but this regulation was not intended to discourage architecture, but to prevent it from ministering lo private luxury, and to restrain it to its proper ub- jccts, the buildings for the gods and the state. The palace of the kings remained so simple, that its doors in the time of Agcsilaus were said to be those of the orii^inal building erected by Aristodemus, the founder of the Spartan monarciiy (Xen. Affes. 8. & 7); but the temples of the gods were built with 3 u