Listed 3 sub titles with search on: Information about the place for wider area of: "KROKEES Small town KROKEES" .
KROKEES (Ancient city) LACONIA
Krokeai: Eth. Krokeates. A village of Laconia on the road from Sparta
to Gythium, and near the latter place, celebrated for its marble quarries. Pausanias
describes the marble as difficult to work, but when wrought forming beautiful
decorations for temples, baths, and fountains. There was a marble statue of Zeus
Croceates before the village, and at the quarries bronze statues of the Dioscuri.
(Paus. iii. 21. § 4.) The most celebrated of the Corinthian baths was adorned
with marble from the quarries at Croceae. (Paus. ii. 3. § 5.) These quarries have
been discovered by the French Commission two miles SE. of Levetzova; and near
the village have been found some blocks of marble, probably the remains of the
statue of Zeus Croceates. A memorial of the worship of the Dioscuri at this place
still exists in a bas-relief, representing the two gods with their horses: beneath
is a Latin inscription. The marble in these quarries is green porphyry; and though
not suitable for Grecian temples, it would be greatly prized by the Romans, who
employed extensively variegated kinds of marble for the decoration of their buildings.
Hence it is probable that the marble celebrated by the Romans under the name of
Laconian was this green porphyry from Croceae; and that it was the quarries of
this place which, Strabo says were opened by the Romans at Taygetus.
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited June 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
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