Listed 3 sub titles with search on: Information about the place for destination: "GERONTHRES Ancient city LACONIA".
A town of Laconia, to the north of Helos, founded by the Achaeans long before the invasion of the Dorians and the Heraclidae, and subsequently colonized by the latter. When Pausanias visited Laconia, he found Geronthrae in possession of the Eleuthero-Lacones. It contained a temple and grove of Ares, and another temple of Apollo.
Geranthrae (Geronthrai, Paus. iii. 21. § 7, 22. § 6; Geranthrai, Paus.
iii. 2. § 6; Steph. B. s. v.; Gerenthrai, Hierocl. 392, 14: Eth. Geronthretes).
An ancient town of Laconia, situated in a commanding position upon the south-westrern
face of the mountain above the plain of the Eurotas. It is represented by Gheraki,
a ruined town of the middle ages, the name of which is a corruption of Geronthrae,
while its distance from the site of Acriae upon the coast corresponds to the 120
stadia mentioned by Pausanias. We learn from the same writer that Geronthrae possessed
a temple and grove of Ares, to whom a yearly festival was celebrated, from which
women were excluded. Around the agora there were fountains of potable water. On
the acropolis stood a temple of Apollo. (Paus. iii. 22. § § 6, 7; stala petrina
en to hiero to tou Atollonos, Bockh, Inscr. no. 1334.) On the northern side of
the summit of the citadel are the remains of a very ancient wall: the position
of the agora is indicated by the fountains of water lower down the hill.
Geronthrae was one of the ancient Achaean cities which resisted for
a long time the Dorian conquerors. It was at length taken and colonised by the
Spartans, along with Amyclae and Pharis. In the time of the Roman empire it belonged
to the Eleuthero-Lacones. (Paus. iii. 2. § 6, 21. § 7, 22. § 6.) At the beginning
of the fourth century of the Christian era it must have been a market-town of
some importance, since a Greek translation of the edict of Diocletian, De Pretiis
Rerum Venalium, has been discovered at Gheraki. In the middle ages it was the
seat of a bishopric, and one of the most important places in the valley of the
Eurotas.
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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