Listed 85 sub titles with search on: Ancient literary sources for wider area of: "LACONIA Prefecture PELOPONNISOS" .
TAINARON (Cape) ANATOLIKI MANI
When Alexander did come back from India and put to death many of the satraps who had been charged with neglect of duty, Harpalus became alarmed at the punishment which might befall him. He packed up five thousand talents of silver, enrolled six thousand mercenaries, departed from Asia and sailed across to Attica. When no one there accepted him, he shipped his troops off to Taenarum in Laconia, and keeping some of the money with him threw himself on the mercy of the Athenians. Antipater and Olympias demanded his surrender, and although he had distributed large sums of money to those persons who spoke in his favour, he was compelled to slip away and repaired to Taenarum and his mercenaries.(Diod.,17.108.7)
During this period (324/3 B.C.) Greece was the scene of disturbances and revolutionary movements from which arose the war called Lamian. The reason was this. The king (Alexander the Great) had ordered all his satraps to dissolve their armies of mercenaries, and as they obeyed his instructions, all Asia was overrun with soldiers released from service and supporting themselves by plunder. Presently they began assembling from all directions at Taenarum in Laconia, whither came also such of the Persian satraps and generals as had survived, bringing their funds and their soldiers, so that they constituted a joint force. Ultimately they chose as supreme commander the Athenian Leosthenes, who was a man of unusually brilliant mind, and thoroughtly opposed to the cause of Alexander. He conferred secretly with the council at Athens and was granted fifty talents to pay the troops and a stock of weapons sufficient to meet pressing needs. He sent off an embassy to the Aetolians, who were unfriendly to the king, looking to the establishment of an alliance with them, and otherwise made every preparation for war. (Diod., 17.111.1)
This extract is from: Diodorus Siculus, Library (ed. C. H. Oldfather, 1989). Cited Apr 2003 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains comments & interesting hyperlinks.
THORNAX (Ancient city) SPARTI
For the Lacedaemonians had sent to Sardis to buy gold, intending to use it for the statue of Apollo which now stands on Thornax in Laconia; and Croesus, when they offered to buy it, made them a free gift of it.
TAINARON (Cape) ANATOLIKI MANI
First they passed by Malea, and then along the Laconian coast they came to Taenarum, sea-garlanded town and country of Helios who gladdens men, where the thick-fleeced sheep of the lord Helios feed continually and occupy a gladsome country. There they wished to put their ship to shore, and land and comprehend the great marvel and see with their eyes whether the monster would remain upon the deck of the hollow ship, or spring back into the briny deep where fishes shoal. But the well-built ship would not obey the helm, but went on its way all along Peloponnesus: and the lord, far-working Apollo, guided it easily with the breath of the breeze.
AKRIES (Ancient city) ELOS
About eighty stades beyond Trinasus I came to the ruins of Helos, and some thirty stades farther is Acriae, a city on the coast. Well worth seeing here are a temple and marble image of the Mother of the Gods. The people of Acriae say that this is the oldest sanctuary of this goddess in the Peloponnesus, although the Magnesians, who live to the north of Mount Sipylus, have on the rock Coddinus the most ancient of all the images of the Mother of the gods. The Magnesians say that it was made by Broteas the son of Tantalus. The people of Acriae once produced an Olympian victor, Nicocles, who at two Olympian festivals carried off five prizes for running. There has been raised to him a monument between the gymnasium and the wall by the harbor.
This extract is from: Pausanias. Description of Greece (ed. W.H.S. Jones, Litt.D., & H.A. Ormerod, 1918). Cited Apr 2003 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains comments & interesting hyperlinks.
ASSOPOS (Ancient city) LACONIA
By the sea is a city Asopus, sixty stades distant from Acriae. In it is a temple of the Roman emperors, and about twelve stades inland from the city is a sanctuary of Asclepius. They call the god Philolaus, and the bones in the gymnasium, which they worship, are human, although of superhuman size. On the citadel is also a sanctuary of Athena, surnamed Cyparissia (Cypress Goddess ). At the foot of the citadel are the ruins of a city called the City of the Paracyparissian Achaeans. There is also in this district a sanctuary of Asclepius, about fifty stades from Asopus the place where the sanctuary is they name Hyperteleatum.
This extract is from: Pausanias. Description of Greece (ed. W.H.S. Jones, Litt.D., & H.A. Ormerod, 1918). Cited Apr 2003 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains comments & interesting hyperlinks.
EGILA (Ancient city) ANATOLIKI MANI
There is a place Aegila in Laconia, where is a sanctuary sacred to Demeter. Aristomenes and his men knowing that the women were keeping festival there . . . the women were inspired by the goddess to defend themselves, and most of the Messenians were wounded with the knives with which the women sacrificed the victims and the spits on which they pierced and roasted the meat. Aristomenes was struck with the torches and taken alive. Nevertheless he escaped to Messenia during the same night. Archidameia, the priestess of Demeter, was charged with having released him, not for a bribe but because she had been in love with him before; but she maintained that Aristomenes had escaped by burning through his bonds.
This extract is from: Pausanias. Description of Greece (ed. W.H.S. Jones, Litt.D., & H.A. Ormerod, 1918). Cited Apr 2003 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains comments & interesting hyperlinks.
GERONTHRES (Ancient city) LACONIA
A hundred and twenty stades inland from Acriae is Geronthrae. It was inhabited before the Heracleidae came to Peloponnesus, but the Dorians of Lacedaemon expelled the Achaean inhabitants and afterwards sent to it settlers of their own; but in my time it belonged to the Free Laconians. On the road from Acriae to Geronthrae is a village called Palaea (Old ), and in Geronthrae itself are a temple and grove of Ares. Every year they hold a festival in honor of the God, at which women are forbidden to enter the grove. Around the market-place are their springs of drinking-water. On the citadel is a temple of Apollo with the head of an ivory image. The rest of the image was destroyed by fire along with the former temple.
This extract is from: Pausanias. Description of Greece (ed. W.H.S. Jones, Litt.D., & H.A. Ormerod, 1918). Cited Apr 2003 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains comments & interesting hyperlinks.
KROKEES (Ancient city) LACONIA
As you go down to the sea towards Gythium you come to a village called Croceae and a quarry. It is not a continuous stretch of rock, but the stones they dig out are shaped like river pebbles; they are hard to work, but when worked sanctuaries of the gods might be adorned with them, while they are especially adapted for beautifying swimming-baths and fountains. Here before the village stands an image of Zeus of Croceae in marble, and the Dioscuri in bronze are at the quarry.
NYMFEON (Ancient port) VOION
On the voyage from Boeae towards the point of Malea is a harbor called Nymphaeum, with a statue of Poseidon standing, and a cave close to the sea; in it is a spring of sweet water. There is a large population in the district.
TAINARON (Cape) ANATOLIKI MANI
On the promontory is a temple like a cave, with a statue of Poseidon
in front of it. Some of the Greek poets state that Heracles brought up the hound
of Hades here, though there is no road that leads underground through the cave,
and it is not easy to believe that the gods possess any underground dwelling where
the souls collect. But Hecataeus of Miletus gave a plausible explanation, stating
that a terrible serpent lived on Taenarum, and was called the hound of Hades,
because any one bitten was bound to die of the poison at once, and it was this
snake, he said, that was brought by Heracles to Eurystheus. But Homer, who was
the first to call the creature brought by Heracles the hound of Hades, did not
give it a name or describe it as of manifold form, as he did in the case of the
Chimaera. Later poets gave the name Cerberus, and though in other respects they
made him resemble a dog, they say that he had three heads. Homer, however, does
not imply that he was a dog, the friend of man, any more than if he had called
a real serpent the hound of Hades. Among other offerings on Taenarum is a bronze
statue of Arion the harper on a dolphin. Herodotus has told the story of Arion
and the dolphin, as he heard it, in his history of Lydia. I have seen the dolphin
at Poroselene that rewards the boy for saving his life. It had been damaged by
fishermen and he cured it.I saw this dolphin obeying his call and carrying him
whenever he wanted to ride on it. There is a spring also on Taenarum but now it
possesses nothing marvellous. Formerly, as they say, it showed harbors and ships
to those who looked into the water. These sights in the water were brought to
an end for good and all by a woman washing dirty clothes in it.
This extract is from: Pausanias. Description of Greece (ed. W.H.S. Jones, Litt.D., & H.A. Ormerod, 1918). Cited Apr 2003 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains comments & interesting hyperlinks.
Certain Lacedaemonians who had been condemned to death on some charge fled as suppliants to Taenarum but the board of ephors dragged them from the altar there and put them to death. As the Spartans paid no heed to their being suppliants, the wrath of Poseidon came upon them, and the god razed all their city to the ground. (Paus. 4,24,5)
The Lacedaemonians put to death men who had taken refuge in the sanctuary of Poseidon at Taenarum. Presently their city was shaken by an earthquake so continuous and violent that no house in Lacedaemon could resist it. (Paus. 7,25,3)
VIES (Ancient city) VOION
. . there runs into the land the Gulf of Boeae, and the city of Boeae is at the head of the gulf. This was founded by Boeus, one of the Heracleidae, and he is said to have collected inhabitants for it from three cities, Etis, Aphrodisias and Side. Of the ancient cities two are said to have been founded by Aeneas when he was fleeing to Italy and had been driven into this gulf by storms. Etias, they allege, was a daughter of Aeneas. The third city they say was named after Side, daughter of Danaus. When the inhabitants of these cities were expelled, they were anxious to know where they ought to settle, and an oracle was given them that Artemis would show them where they were to dwell. When therefore they had gone on shore, and a hare appeared to them, they looked upon the hare as their guide on the way. When it dived into a myrtle tree, they built a city on the site of the myrtle, and down to this day they worship that myrtle tree, and name Artemis Saviour. In the market-place of Boeae is a temple of Apollo, and in another part of the town are temples of Asclepius, of Serapis, and of Isis. The ruins of Etis are not more than seven stades distant from Boeae. On the way to them there stands on the left a stone image of Hermes. Among the ruins is a not insignificant sanctuary of Asclepius and Health.
This extract is from: Pausanias. Description of Greece (ed. W.H.S. Jones, Litt.D., & H.A. Ormerod, 1918). Cited Apr 2003 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains comments & interesting hyperlinks.
AFRODISSIAS (Ancient city) VOION
City of Laconia.
AKRIES (Ancient city) ELOS
City of Free Laconians.
ALESSIA (Ancient city) LACONIA
Place in Laconia.
ASSINI (Ancient city) GYTHIO
The Dorians have many famous cities, the Aetolians only Elis, the Dryopians Hermione and Asine near Laconian Cardamyle
ASSOPOS (Ancient city) LACONIA
City of Free Laconians.
EGIES (Ancient city) GYTHIO
Town of Free Laconians built by the sea, called Augeae by Homer.
EGYS (Ancient city) PELANA
Vassal city of Lacedaemon, enslaved.
ELAFONISSOS (Island) PELOPONNISOS
Cape in Laconia.
ELOS (Ancient city) LACONIA
Achaean city in Laconia, destroyed by Lacedaemonians.
EPIDAVROS LIMIRA (Ancient city) MONEMVASSIA
Limera, city of Free Laconians (Paus. 3,217 & 3,236 ff).
EPIDILION (Ancient city) MONEMVASSIA
Place in Laconia, sacred to Apollo.
ERMES (Ancient location) LACONIA
Place in Laconia.
EVROTAS (River) PELOPONNISOS
River of Laconia, its sources, unites with Alpheus.
FARAS (Ancient city) THERAPNES
Or Pharae, city of Laconia, captured from Achaeans by Lacedaemonians, attacked by Messenians under Aristomenes.
GYTHION (Ancient city) LACONIA
Sea-port of Lacedaemon founded by Herakles and Apollo, belongs to Free Laconians. Lacedaemonian docks at Gythium burnt by Tolmides, Lacedaemonian camp at Gythium bur6nt by Philopoemen.
IPPOLA (Ancient city) ITYLO
City of Laconia.
ITI (Ancient city) VOION
City of Laconia.
ITYLOS (Ancient city) LACONIA
City of Free Laconians.
KARYES (Ancient city) LAKEDEMONA
Place in Laconia, sacred to Artemis, maidens dance at C. in honour of Artemis.
KENI POLIS (Ancient city) ITYLO
Town of Free Laconians.
KRANAI (Island) GYTHIO
Island of Gythium.
KROKEES (Ancient city) LACONIA
Village of Laconia, its quarries.
KYFAS (Ancient city) ZARAKAS
Town of Laconia.
LAKEDEMON (Ancient country) PELOPONNISOS
LARYSSIO (Mountain) PELOPONNISOS
Mountain of Laconia, sacred to Dionysus.
LAS (Ancient city) GYTHIO
City of Free Laconians.
MESSI (Ancient city) ITYLO
Town of Laconia.
NYMFEON (Ancient port) VOION
Harbour in Laconia.
PALEA (Ancient city) NIATA
Village of Laconia.
PARNONAS (Mountain) PELOPONNISOS
Mount Parnon, on which the Lacedaemonian border meets the borders of the Argives and Tegeatae
PELLANA (Mycenean settlement) PELANA
City of Laconia, Tyndareus flees to, infant Dioscuri taken by Hermes to, Pellanian spring.
PSAMATHOUS (Ancient city) ANATOLIKI MANI
Harbour of Taenarus.(Paus. 3,25,4)
PYRRICHOS (Ancient city) ANATOLIKI MANI
City of Free Laconians.
SELINOUS (Ancient small town) GERONTHRI
There was a road from Geronthres to Selinounta (Paus. 3,22,8).
SELLASIA (Ancient city) INOUDAS
City of Laconia, enslaved by Achaeans, its ruins, Lacedagemonians under Cleomenes defeated by Antigonus and Achaeans at.
SIDI (Ancient city) VOION
City of Laconia.
TAINARON (Cape) ANATOLIKI MANI
Cape in Laconia, southern promontory of Laconia, Arion's arrival there on a dolphin, named after Taenarus, the mouth of Hades at, Corcyraean ships' delay there, sanctuary of Poseidon at.
TAYGETOS (Mountain) PELOPONNISOS
TEFTHRONI (Ancient city) ANATOLIKI MANI
City of Free Laconians, founded by Teuthras.
THERAPNI (Ancient city) SPARTI
Νear Sparta, near Sparta, a temple of Helen there, Menelaus and Helen buried at.
THORNAX (Ancient city) SPARTI
A mountain in Laconia, Apollo's temple there, place in Laconia.
TRINASSOS (Ancient city) GYTHIO
Some thirty stades beyond Gythium on the left there are on the mainland walls of a place called Trinasus (Three Islands), which was in my opinion a fort and not a city.(Paus. 3,22,3)
VIES (Ancient city) VOION
City of Laconia, captured by Athenians, Bay of.
VRYSSES (Ancient city) SPARTI
City of Laconia.
YPERTELEATON (Ancient sanctuary) ASSOPOS
Place in Laconia.
YPSI (Ancient location) LAKEDEMON
Place in Laconia.
ZARAX (Ancient city) ZARAKAS
Maritime city of Laconia, belongs to Free Laconians.
ASSINI (Ancient city) GYTHIO
Next day Philip (the Macedon), continuing to pillage the country on his way, marched down to what is called Pyrrhus' camp. After spending the next two days in overrunning and plundering the immediate neighbourhood he encamped at Carnium, and starting thence advanced on Asine, which he assaulted, but making no progress, took his departure and subsequently continued to lay waste all the country bordering on the Cretan Sea as far as Taenarum. (Polyvius 5,19)
AMYKLES (Ancient sanctuary) SPARTI
According to Ephorus: Eurysthenes and Procles, the Heracleidae,
took possession of Laconia, divided the country into six parts, and founded cities;
now one of the divisions, Amyclae, they selected and gave to the man who had betrayed
Laconia to them and who had persuaded the ruler who was in possession of it to
accept their terms and emigrate with the Achaeans to Ionia; Sparta they designated
as a royal residence for themselves; to the other divisions they sent kings, and
because of the sparsity of the population gave them permission to receive as fellow
inhabitants any strangers who wished the privilege; and they used Las as a naval
station because of its good harbor, and Aegys as a base of operations against
their enemies (for its territory bordered on those of the surrounding peoples)
and Pharis as a treasury, because it afforded security against outsiders;
This extract is from: The Geography of Strabo (ed. H. L. Jones, 1924), Cambridge. Harvard University Press. Cited May 2003 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains comments & interesting hyperlinks.
ASSINI (Ancient city) GYTHIO
After Taenarum, on the voyage to Onugnathus and Maleae, one comes to the city Psamathus; then to Asine, and to Gythium.
EGIES (Ancient city) GYTHIO
As for the rest of the places listed by the poet, some have been destroyed; of others traces are still left; and of others the names have been changed, for example, Augeiae to Aegaeae.
EGYS (Ancient city) PELANA
There is also a Carystus in the Laconian country, a place belonging to Aegys, towards Arcadia;
According to Ephorus: Eurysthenes and Procles, the Heracleidae, took possession of Laconia, divided the country into six parts, and founded cities; now one of the divisions, Amyclae, they selected and gave to the man who had betrayed Laconia to them and who had persuaded the ruler who was in possession of it to accept their terms and emigrate with the Achaeans to Ionia; Sparta they designated as a royal residence for themselves; to the other divisions they sent kings, and because of the sparsity of the population gave them permission to receive as fellow inhabitants any strangers who wished the privilege; and they used Las as a naval station because of its good harbor, and Aegys as a base of operations against their enemies (for its territory bordered on those of the surrounding peoples) and Pharis as a treasury, because it afforded security against outsiders;
ELOS (Ancient city) LACONIA
Then comes a marshy district situated above the gulf, and also a village called Helus. In earlier times Helus was a city, just as Homer says.
. . but though the neighboring peoples, one and all, were subject to the Spartiatae, still they had equal rights, sharing both in the rights of citizenship and in the offices of state, and they were called Helots; but Agis, the son of Eurysthenes, deprived them of the equality of rights and ordered them to pay tribute to Sparta; now all obeyed except the Heleians, the occupants of Helus, who, because they revolted, were forcibly reduced in a war, and were condemned to slavery, with the express reservation that no slaveholder should be permitted either to set them free or to sell them outside the borders of the country; and this war was called the War against the Helots.
This extract is from: The Geography of Strabo (ed. H. L. Jones, 1924), Cambridge. Harvard University Press. Cited Apr 2003 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains comments & interesting hyperlinks.
The stream of the Eurotas reappears where the district called Bleminatis begins, and then flows past Sparta itself, traverses a long glen near Helus (a place mentioned by the poet), and empties between Gythium, the naval station of Sparta, and Acraea.
This extract is from: The Geography of Strabo (ed. H. L. Jones, 1924), Cambridge. Harvard University Press. Cited Apr 2003 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains comments & interesting hyperlinks.
EPIDAVROS LIMIRA (Ancient city) MONEMVASSIA
But Apollodorus observes that this Epidaurus Limera is near Cythera, and that, because it has a good harbor, it was called "Limenera," which was abbreviated and contracted to "Limera," so that its name has been changed.
EVROTAS (River) PELOPONNISOS
Then comes the mouth of the Alpheius, which is distant two hundred and eighty stadia from Chelonatas, and five hundred and forty five from Araxus. It flows from the same regions as the Eurotas, that is, from a place called Asea, a village in the territory of Megalopolis, where there are two springs near one another from which the rivers in question flow.
GYTHION (Ancient city) LACONIA
After Taenarum, on the voyage to Onugnathus and Maleae, one comes to the city Psamathus; then to Asine, and to Gythium, the seaport of Sparta, situated at a distance of two hundred and forty stadia from Sparta. The roadstead of the seaport was dug by the hand of man, so it is said. Then one comes to the Eurotas, which empties between Gythium and Acraea.
KARYSTOS (Ancient city) PELANA
There is also a Carystus in the Laconian country, a place belonging to Aegys, towards Arcadia; whence the Carystian wine of which Alcman speaks.
KYPARISSIA (Ancient city) ASSOPOS
And one comes also to a plain called Leuce; then to a city Cyparissia, which is situated on a peninsula and has a harbor; then to Onugnathus, which has a harbor.
LACONIAN GULF (Gulf) PELOPONNISOS
. . after the Messenian Gulf comes the Laconian Gulf, lying between Taenarum and Maleae, which bends slightly from the south towards the east; and Thyrides, a precipitous rock exposed to the currents of the sea, is in the Messenian Gulf at a distance of one hundred and thirty stadia from Taenarum. Above Thyrides lies Taygetus;
PALEA (Ancient city) NIATA
On the road from Acriae to Geronthrae is a village called Palaea
(Old), and in Geronthrae itself are a temple and grove of Ares. Every year they
hold a festival in honor of the God, at which women are forbidden to enter the
grove. Around the market-place are their springs of drinking-water. On the citadel
is a temple of Apollo with the head of an ivory image. The rest of the image was
destroyed by fire along with the former temple.
This extract is from: The Geography of Strabo (ed. H. L. Jones, 1924), Cambridge. Harvard University Press. Cited Apr 2003 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains comments & interesting hyperlinks.
PSAMATHOUS (Ancient city) ANATOLIKI MANI
After Taenarum, on the voyage to Onugnathus and Maleae, one comes to the city Psamathus
TAINARON (Cape) ANATOLIKI MANI
In the bend of the seaboard one comes, first, to a headland that projects into the sea, Taenarum, with its temple of Poseidon situated in a grove; and secondly, near by, to the cavern through which, according to the myth writers, Cerberus was brought up from Hades by Heracles. From here the passage towards the south across the sea to Phycus, a cape in Cyrenaea, is three thousand stadia; and the passage towards the west to Pachynus, the promontory of Sicily, is four thousand six hundred, though some say four thousand; and towards the east to Maleae, following the sinuosities of the gulfs, six hundred and seventy; and to Onugnathus, a low-lying peninsula somewhat this side of Maleae, five hundred and twenty; off Onugnathus and opposite it, at a distance of forty stadia, lies Cythera, an island with a good harbor, containing a city of the same name, which Eurycles, the ruler of the Lacedaemonians in our times, seized as his private property; and round it lie several small islands, some near it and others slightly farther away; and to Corycus, a cape in Crete, the shortest voyage is seven hundred stadia.(Strabo 8,5,1)
Laconia is subject to earthquakes, and in fact some writers record that certain peaks of Taygetus have been broken away. And there are quarries of very costly marble--the old quarries of Taenarian marble on Taenarum; and recently some men have opened a large quarry in Taygetus, being supported in their undertaking by the extravagance of the Romans. (Strabo 8,5,7)
This extract is from: The Geography of Strabo (ed. H. L. Jones, 1924), Cambridge. Harvard University Press. Cited Apr 2003 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains comments & interesting hyperlinks.
AFRODISSIAS (Ancient city) VOION
Accordingly they now allowed the Athenians to ravage their seaboard,
without making any movement, the garrisons in whose neighbourhood the descents
were made always thinking their numbers insufficient, and sharing the general
feeling. A single garrison which ventured to resist, near Cotyrta and Aphrodisia,
struck terror by its charge into the scattered mob of light troops, but retreated,
upon being received by the heavy infantry, with the loss of a few men and some
arms, for which the Athenians set up a trophy.
ASSINI (Ancient city) GYTHIO
After the capitulation, the Athenians occupied the town of Scandea near the harbour, and appointing a garrison for Cythera, sailed to Asine, Helus, and most of the places on the sea.
KOTYRTA (Ancient city) ASSOPOS
Accordingly they now allowed the Athenians to ravage their seaboard,
without making any movement, the garrisons in whose neighbourhood the descents
were made always thinking their numbers insufficient, and sharing the general
feeling. A single garrison which ventured to resist, near Cotyrta and Aphrodisia,
struck terror by its charge into the scattered mob of light troops, but retreated,
upon being received by the heavy infantry, with the loss of a few men and some
arms, for which the Athenians set up a trophy.
LAKEDEMON (Ancient country) PELOPONNISOS
431 - 404
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