Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/980

 960 SELLASIA. of the Macedonians opposed to liim, led liis men out of the intrenchments and charged the Macedonian phalanx. The Lacedaemonians fought with great bravery; but after many vain attempts to break through the impenetrable mass of the phalanx, they ■were entirely defeated, and of 6000 men only 200 are said to have escaped from the field of battle. Cleomenes, perceiving all was lost, escaped with a SELLASIA, few horsemen to Sparta, and from thence proceeded to Gythium, where he embarked for Aegypt. An- tigonus, thus master of the passes, marched directly to Sellasia, which be plundered and destroyed, and then to Sparta, which submitted to him after a slight resistance. (Polyb. ii. 65 — 70; Plut. Ckom. 27, 28. rhilop. 6; Paus. ii. 9. § 2, iii. 10. § 7, iv. 29. § 9, vii. 7. § 4, viii. 49. § 5.) PLAN OF THE BATTLE OF SELIASIA. nan. Troops of Cleomenes. b b b. Troops of Antigonus. A A. Koad to Tegea. In the preceding account of the battle we have followed the excellent description of Ross. {Reisen tin Peloponnes, ^. 181.) The French Commission liad previously supposed the plain of Krevata to be the site of the battle of Sellasia (Boblaye, Recher- ches, (.fc. p. 73); and the same opinion has been adopted by Curtius. (^Peloponnesos, vol. ii. p, 260.) Leake, however, places Sellasia to the SE., near the monastery of the Forty Saints ("A7101 'Zapavra), and supposes the battle to Lave been fought in the pass to the eastward of the monastery. The ruins near the Khan of Krevata he maintains to be those ofCaryae. (Leake, Morea, vol. ii. p. 529, Pelo- poimesiaca, p. 341, seq.) But Ross informs us that in the narrow pass NE. of the monastery of the Forty Saints there is barely room for a loaded mule to pass ; and we know moreover that Sellasia was B B. Road to Argos. C C. Road to Megalopolis. D D. Road to Sparta. situated on the high road from Sparta to Tegea and Argos, which must have led through the plain of Krevata. (wara tV K^uxpdpov, Paus. iii. 10. § 7; Plut. Cleom. 23; Xen. Hell. vi. 5. § 27; Diod. xv. 64; Liv. xxxiv. 28.) On leaving the plain of Krevatd, the ro.ad south- wards ascends the mountain, and at the distance of a quarter of an hour leaves a small ruin on the left, called by the peasants Palaeoffi'tla (^ UaAaioyovXa). The remains of the walls are Hellenic, but they are of very small extent, and the place was probably either a dependency of Sellasia or one to which the inhabitants of the latter fled for refuge at one of the periods when their city was destroyed. The ruins of Sellasia lie 1^ miles beyond PalaeO' guln upon the summit of the mountain. The city was about IJ miles in circumference, as appears