Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/1046

 1026 SPARTA. great magnificence, and the spoils of the Persian wars were empIo_ved in the erection of a beautiful stoa in the Agora, with figures of Persians in white marble upon the columns, among which Pausanias admired the statues of Mardonius and Artemisia (iii. 11. § 3). After the Persian wars Athens be- came more and more the centre of Greek art; but Sparta continued to possess, even in the time of Pausanias, a larger number of monuments than most Other Grecian cities. Sparta continued unfortified during the whole period of autonomous Grecian history; and it was first surrounded with walls in the Macedonian pe- riod. We learn from Polybius (ix. 21) that its walls were 48 stadia in circumference, and that it was much larger than Megalopolis, which was 50 stadia in circuit. Its superiority to Megalopolis in size must have been owing to its form, which was cir- cular. (Polyb. V. 22.) Leake remarks that, " as the side towards the Eurotas measured about two miles with the windings of the outline, the computation of Polybius sufticiently agrees with actual appearances, though the form of the city seems rather to have been semici)-cular than circular." {Morea, vol i. p. 180.) Its limits to the eastward, at the time of the invasion of Philip (b. c. 218), are defined by Polvbius, who says (v. 22) that there was a distance of a stadium and a half between the foot of the cliffs of Mt. Menelaium and the nearest part of the city. Livy also describes the Euiolas as flowing close to the walls (xxxiv. 28, xxxv. 29). When Demetrius Poliorcetes made an attempt upon Sparta in b. c. 296, some temporary fortifications vpere thrown up; and the same was done when Pyrrhus attacked the city in B. c. 272. (Paus. i. 13. § 6, vii. 8. § 5.) But Sparta was first regularly fortified by a wall and ditch by the tyrant Nabis in b. c. 19.5 (Liv. xxxiv. 27; Pans. vii. 8. § 5); though even this wall did not surround the whole city, but only the level parts, which were more exposed to an enemy's attack. (Liv. xxxiv. 38.) Livy, in his account of tiie attack of Sparta by Philopoemen in b. c. 192, alludes to two of the gates, one leading to Pharae, and the other to Mount Barbosthenes. (Liv. xxxv. 30.) After the capture of the city by Philopoemen, the walls were destroyed by the Achaean League (Paus. vii. 8. § 5); but they were shortly after- wards restored by order of the Romans, when the latter took the Spartans under their protection in opposition to the Achaeans. (Paus. vii. 9. § 5.) Its walls and gates were still standing when Pau- Kanias visited Sparta in the second century of the Christian era, but not a trace of them now remains. When Alaric took Sparta in a. d. 396, it was no longer fortified, nor protected by arms or men (Zobim. V. 6); but it continued to be inhabited in the thirteenth century, as we learn from the " Chronicle of the Morea." It was then always called Lace- daemon, and was confined to the heights around the theatre. The walls which surrounded it at that time may still be traced, and have been mentioned above. It is to the medieval Lacedaemon that the ruins of the churches belong, of which no less than six are noticed by the French Commission. Alter the conquest of Peloponnesus by the Franks in the thirteenth century, William de Villehardouin built a strong fortress upon the hill of Mklthrii usually pronounced Mistrd, a little more than two miles west of Sparta, at the foot of Mt. Taygetus. The inha'oitants of the medieval Lacedaemon soon aban- doned their town and took refuge within the fortress SPAIiTA. of Mistrd, which long continued to be the chief place in the valley of the Eurotas. The site of Sparta was occupied only by the small villages of Muyulu and Psychlko, till the present Greek government re- solved to remove the capital of the district to its ancient seat. The position of New Sparta upon the southern part of the ancient site has been already described. It has been observed that Sparta resembled Rome in its site, comprehending a number of contiguous hills of little height or boldness of character. (Mure, Tot/r in Greece, vol. ii. p. 236.) It also resembled Rome in being formed out of several earlier settle- ments, which existed before the Dorian conquest, and gradually coalesced with the later city, which was founded in their midst. These earlier places, which are the hamlets or icH/xai mentioned by Thucydides (i. 10), were four in number, Pitane, Limnae or Lini- naeum, Mesoa, and Cynosura, which were united by a common sacrifice to Artemis. (Paus. iii. 1 6. § 9.) They are frequently called (pvXai, or tribes, by the grammarians (Mliller, Dorian?,, iii. 3. § 7), and were regarded as divisions of the Spartans; but it is clear from ancient writers that they are names of places.* We are best informed about Pitane, which is called a 7r<5iy by Euripides {Troad. 1112), and which is also mentioned as a place by Pindar (jrpus Ylnavav 5e Trap' Evpcira ir6pov, 01. vi. 46). Hero- dotus, who had been there, calls it a Sjj^ao? (iii. 53). He also mentions a xos Xl{.ravaTT)s (ix. 53); and though Thucydides (i. 20) denies its exiMtence, Caracalla, in imitation of antiquity, composed a Ad^os YLTo.va.Tt)s of Spartans. (Herodian. iv. 8.) It appears from the passage of Pindar quoted above, that Pitane was at the ford of the Eurotas, and con- sequently in the northern part of the city. It was the favourite and fashionable place of residence at Sparta, like Collytus at Athens and Craneion at Corinth. (Pint, de Exsil. 6. p. 601.) We are also told that Pitane was near the temple and stronghold of Issorium, of which we shall speak presently. (Polyaen. ii. 1. § 14; Plut. Ages. 32.) Limnae was situated upon the Eurotas, having derived its name from the marshy ground which once exi.sted there (Strab. viii. p. 363); and as the Dromus occu- pied a great part of the lower level towards the southern extremity, it is probable that Limnae occu- pied the northern. (Leake, Morea, vol. i. p. 177.) It is probable that Mesoa was in the SE. part of the city [see below, p. 1028, b.], and Cynosura in the SW. In the midst of these separate quarters stood the Acropohs and the Agora, where the Dorian invaders first planted themselves. Pausanias remarks that the Lacedaemonians had no acropolis, towering above other parts of the city, like the Cadmeia at Thebes and Larissa at Argos, but that they gave this name to the loftiest eminence of the group (iii. 17. § 2). This is rather a doubtful description, as the great hill, upon which the theatre stands, and the bill at the northern extremity of the site, present nearly the same elevation to the eye. Leake places the Acro- polis upon the northern hill, which, he observes, was Aegeidae, because Herodotus (iv. 149) speaks of the Aegeidae as a great tribe {(pvXi))'m Sparta; but the word (pvr seems to be liere used in the more general sense of family, and there is no evidence that the word Aegeidae was the name of a place, like the other four mentioned above.
 * Some modern writers mention a fifth tribe, the