tania quae subjecta Pyrenaeis montibus est, Liv.). Their "pathless forests" (devia et silvestris gens, Liv.) lay S. of the CERRETANI, W. of the INDIGETES, and N. of the LALETANI. (It is impossible to avoid the suspicion that these names are identical, especially as we have the intermediate form LAEAETANI, and that Lacetania is only the N. part of Laletania. Moreover, the name is confounded with the JACETANI in the MSS. of Caes. B. C. i. 60.) Only one town is mentioned as belonging to them, and that without a name, but simply as having been taken by M. Cato. (Plut. Cat. Maj. 11; Liv. xxi. 23, 26, 60, et seq., xxviii. 24, 26, et seq., xxxiii. 34, xxxiv. 20; Dion Cass. xlv. 10; Martial, i. 49. 22.)

or

66

[P.S.]

LACHISH (Aaxis, LXX.; Aáxeis, Aaxeloa, Joseph.), a city to the south of the tribe of Judah (Josh. xv. 39), the capital of one of the petty kings or sheikhs of the Canaanites (x. 3). It was taken and destroyed by Joshua (iv. 31-33), and is joined with Adoraim and Azekah (2 Chron. xi. 9) as one of the cities built, or rather fortified, by Rehoboam. It was besieged by Sennacherib on his invasion of Judaea, B. c. 713. (2 Kings, xviii. 14, 17, xix. 8.) It is placed by Eusebius and St. Jerome (Onomast. s. v.) seven miles south of Eleutheropolis, in Daroma "the valley." (Josh. xv. 39.) But for this it might have been identified with Um Lâkis, on the left of the road between Gaza and Hebron, about five hours from the former, where is an ancient site now covered confusedly with heaps of small round stones, among which are seen two or three fragments of marble columns." (Robinson, Bibl. Res. vol. ii. p. 388.) The objections to the identification are not, perhaps, so great as is represented: the title Um, equivalent to metropolis, would seem to mark it as a place of importance; and there is no other vestige of a town in those parts that can be referred to Lachish. It is considerably south of west from Beit Jebrin (Eleutheropolis), which is near enough to satisfy the description of Eusebius, who is not remarkable for precise accuracy in his bearings, nor, indeed, in his distances, except in the parts with which he was familiar, and on the more frequented thoroughfares. No argument can be drawn from its juxtaposition with Adoraim and Azekah, in 2 Chron. xi. 9, as it might be near enough to group with them in a list of names which, it is evident, does not pretend to geographical precision. [G.W.]

LACIACA or LACIACUM (in the Peut. Table it is called Laciacis), a town in the north-west of Noricum (It. Ant. pp. 235, 258). The name seems to be connected with " lacus," and thus to point to the lake district in upper Austria; hence some have identified the place with Seewalchen, or St. Georgen on the Attersee. But Muchar (Noricum, p. 267) is probably right in identifying it with Frankenmarkt. LA'CIBI (Plin. iii. 1. s. 3; Aaki6is, Ptol. ii. 4. [L. S.] §11), a tributary town of Hispania Baetica, which Pliny assigns to the conventus of Gades, while Ptolemy places it among the cities of the Turduli, in in the neighbourhood of Hispalis. [P.S.]

LACIPPO.

LACIDAE. [ATTICA, p. 326, a.]
LACI'NIA. IAPYDIA.]

107

Colonne), a promontory on the E. coast of the LACINIUM (τὸ Λακίνιον ἄκρυν: Capo delle Bruttian peninsula, about 6 miles S. of Crotona. It formed the southern limit of the gulf of Tarentum, as the Iapygian promontory did the northern Strabo, on the authority of Polybius, at 700 stadia, one: the distance between the two is stated by while Pliny apparently (for the passage in its present state is obviously corrupt) reckons it at 75 Roman miles, or 600 stadia; both of which estimates are a fair approximation to the truth, the real interval being 65 geog. miles, or 650 stadia. § 8.) The Lacinian promontory is a bold and (Strab. vi. p. 261; Plin. iii. 11. s. 15; Mel. ii. 4. rocky headland, forming the termination of one of the offshoots or branches of the great range of the Apennines (Lucan. ii. 434; Plin. iii. 5. s. 6): it was crowned in ancient times by the celebrated temple of the Lacinian Juno, the ruins of which, surviving through the middle ages, have given to the promontory its modern appellation of Capo delle Colonne. It is also known by that of Capo Nau, a name evidently derived from the Greek Naós, a temple; and which seems to date from an early period, as the promontory is already designated in the Maritime Itinerary (p. 490) by the name of Naus. That Itinerary reckons it 100 stadia from thence to Crotona: Strabo gives the same distance Livy correctly says that the temple (which stood at as 150 stadia; but both are greatly overrated. the extreme point of the promontory) was only about 6 miles from the city. (Liv. xxiv. 3.) For the history and description of this famous temple, see CROTONA.

Lacinian promontory, at a distance of 10 miles Pliny tells us (iii. 10. s. 15) that opposite to the from the land, was an island called Dioscoron (the island of the Dioscuri), and another called the island of Calypso, supposed to be the Ogygia of Homer. Scylax also mentions the island of Calypso immediately after the Lacinian promontory (§ 13, p. 5). But there is at the present day no island at all that will answer to either of those mentioned by Pliny: there is, in fact, no islet, however sinall, off the Lacinian cape, and hence modern writers have been reduced to seek for the abode of Calypso in a Rizzuto, about 12 miles S. of Lacinium. Swinburne, small and barren rock, close to the shore, near Capo who visited it, remarks how little it corresponded difficult to believe that so trifling a rock (which is with the idea of the Homeric Ogygia: but it is not even marked on Zannoni's elaborate map) could have been that meant by Scylax and Pliny.' statement of the latter concerning the island which he calls Dioscoron is still more precise, and still he adds the names of three others, Tiris, Eranusa, more difficult to account for. On the other hand, and Meloessa, which he introduces somewhat vaguely, Their names were probably taken from some poet as if he were himself not clear of their position. [E. H. B.]

now lost to us.

The

LACIPEA. [LUSITANIA.]
coin ap. Sestini, Med. Isp. p. 57; Mionnet, Suppl.
LACIPPO (Aaкíяяш, Рtol. ii. 4. 11; LACIPO,

LACIBURGIUM (AakıŠоúpyιov), a German town on the south coast of the Baltic, between the rivers Chalusus, and Suevus or Suebus. It is mentioned only by Ptolemy (ii. 11. § 27). and it is certain that its site must be looked for to the west of Warnemünde, but the precise spot cannot be ascertained, whence Some have identified it with Wismar, others with Ratzeburg, and others again with Lauenburg. [L.S.] | article OGYGIA.

to the island of Calypso, and the degree of pro-
* The different positions that have been assigned
bability of their claims, will be discussed under the

was called the Laconian gulf. Laconia is well described by Euripides as a country “hollow, surrounded by mountains, rugged, and difficult of access to an enemy" (ap. Strab. viii. p. 366); and the difficulty of invading it made even Epaminondas hesitate to enter it with his army. (Xen. Hell. v. 5. § 10.) On the northern side there are only two natural passes by which the plain of Sparta can be invaded. (See below.) On the western side the lofty masses of Taygetus form an almost insurmountable barrier; and the pass across them, which leads into the plain of Sparta, is so difficult as scarcely to be practicable for an army. On the eastern side the rocky character of the coast protects it from invasion by sea.

vol. i. p. 34), a tributary town of the Turduli in Hispania Baetica, near the shore of the Mediterranean, where its ruins are still seen at Alecippe, near Casares. Ptolemy places it too far inland. (Mela, ii. 6. §7; Plin. iii. 1. s. 3; Carter, Travels, p. 128; Ukert, vol. ii. pt. 1. p. 348.) [P.S.] LACMON (Aάkμv, Hecat. Fr. 70; Herod. ix. 92; Steph. B. s. v.) or LACMUS (Aáκuos, Strab. vi. p. 271, vii. p. 316), the highest summit of Mount Pindus, the Zygós or ridge of Métzovo. This is geographically the most remarkable mountain in Greece; situated in the heart of Pindus as to its breadth, and centrally also in the longitudinal chain which pervades the continent from N. to S.: it gives rise to five principal rivers, in fact to all the great streams of Northern Greece except the Spercheius; north-eastward to the Haliacmon, south-eastward to the Peneius, southward to the MOUNT TAΫGETUS (Ταΰγετον, τὸ Τηΰγετον Achelous, south-westward to the Arachthus, and opos, the common forms; Tatyeros, Lucian, Icarom. north-westward to the Aous. (Leake, Northern 19; Tà Taûyera, Polyaen. vii. 49; Taygeta, Virg. Greece, vol. i. pp. 294, 411-415, vol. iv. pp. 240, Georg. ii. 487: the first half of this word is said 261, 276.) [E. B. J.] by Hesychius to signify great). This mountain LACOBRIGA. [1. LUSITANIA; 2. VACCAEI.] is the loftiest in Peloponnesus, and extends in an LACO'NIA, LACO'NICA, or LACEDAEMON, | almost unbroken line for the space of 70 miles from the south-easterly district of Peloponnesus.

I. NAME.

III. MOUNTAINS, RIVERS, AND PLAINS.

Leondari in Arcadia to C. Matapan. Its vast height, unbroken length, and majestic form, have been celebrated by both ancient and modern writers.

103), and a modern traveller remarks that, "whether from its real height, from the grandeur of its outline, or the abruptness of its rise from the plain, it created in his mind a stronger impression of stupendous bulk and loftiness than any mountain he had seen in Greece, or perhaps in any other part of Europe." (Mure, Tour in Greece, vol. ii. p. 221.) Taygetus rises to its greatest height immediately above Sparta. Its principal summit was called TALETUM (Taλetóv) in antiquity: it was sacred to the Sun, and horses and other victims were here sacrificed to this god. (Paus. iii. 20. § 4.) It is now called S. Elias, to whose chapel on the summit an annual pilgrimage is made in the middle of the summer. Its height has been ascertained by the French Commission to be 2409 metres, or 7902 English feet. Another summit near Taletum was called EVORAS (Evopas, Belvedere, Paus. l. c.), which Leake identifies with Mt. Parimadhi, the highest summit next to St. Elias, from which it is distant 5 geographical miles. The ancient names of none of the other heights are mentioned.

Its most ancient name was Lacedaemon (Aake-Homer gives it the epithet of epiμýketov (Od. vi, daíuwv), which is the only form found in Homer, who applies this name as well to the country, as to its capital. (I. ii. 581, iii. 239, 244, &c.) The usual name in the Greek writers was Laconica († AakwvikŃ, Sc. y), though the form Lacedaemon still continued to be used. (Herod. vi. 58.) The Romans called the country LACONICA (Plin. xxv. 8. s. 53; Laconice, Mela, ii. 3) or LACONIA (Plin. vi. 34. s. 39, xvii. 18. s. 30), the latter of which is the form usually employed by modern writers. Mela (l. c.) also uses LACONIS, which is borrowed from the Greek ( Aakwvis yaia, Hom. Hymn. in Apoll. 410.) The Ethnic names are Aάкwv, -wvos, Aаkedaiμóvios, Lat. Laco or Lacon, -nis, Lacedaemonius; fem. Aákaiva, Aakwvis, Laconis. These names are applied to the whole free population of Laconia, both to the Spartan citizens and to the Perioeci, spoken of below (for authorities, see Clinton, F. H. vol. ii. pp. 405, 406). They are usually derived from a mythical hero, Lacon or Lacedaemon; but some modern writers think that the root LAC is connected with Xákos, λákkos, lacus, lacuna, and was given originally to the central district from its being deeply sunk between mountains. (Curtius, Peloponnesos, vol. ii. p. 309.)

66

By the Byzantine writers Taygetus was called PENTEDACTYLUM (тò ПEvтedáктuλov), or the "Five Fingers," on account of its various summits above the Spartan plain. (Constant. Porphyr. II. GENERAL DESCRIPTION of the COUNTRY. de Adm. Imp. c. 50.) In the 13th century it The natural features of Laconia are strongly bore the name of Melingus (¿ vyds TOû Memarked, and exercised a powerful influence upon the Ayyoû, see Leake, Peloponnesiaca, p. 138). At history of the people. It is a long valley, surrounded the base of Taygetus, immediately above the Sparon three sides by mountains, and open only on the tan plain, there is a lower ridge running parallel fourth to the sea. On the north it is bounded by to the higher summits. This lower ridge consists the southern barrier of the Arcadian mountains, of huge projecting masses of precipitous rocks, some from which run in a parallel direction towards the south, the two lofty mountain ranges of Taygetus and Parnon, the former dividing Laconia and Messenia, and terminating in the promontory of Taenarum, now C. Matapan, the southernmost extremity of Greece and of Europe, the latter stretching along the eastern coast, and terminating in the promontory of Malea. The river Eurotas flows through the entire length of the valley lying between these mountain masses, and falls into the sea, which

of which are more than 2000 feet high, though they appear insignificant when compared with the lofty barrier of Taygetus behind them. After attaining its greatest elevation, Mt. Taygetus sinks gradually down towards the south, and sends forth a long and lofty counterfork towards the Eurotas, now called Lykobúni (Avkośʊûv, Wolfs-mountain), which bounds the Spartan plain on the south. It there contracts again, and runs down, as the backbone of a small peninsula, to the southernmost ex

tremity of Greece. This mountainous district between | p. 728.] On its western side Mt. Parnon sinks the Laconian and Messenian gulfs is now called down more rapidly, and divides itself into separate Mani, and is inhabited by the Maniátes, who always hills, which bear the names of BARBOSTHENES maintained their independence, while the rest of OLYMPUS, OSSA, THORNAX, and MENELAIUM; the Greece was subject to the Turks: the southern part two last are opposite Sparta, and a modern observer of the peninsula, as well as the promontory, bore the describes Menelaium as not remarkable either for name of Taenarum in antiquity. [TAENARUM.] height or variety of outline, but rising gradually in Although there is no trace of any volcanic action in a succession of gentle ridges. (Mure, vol. ii. p. 223.) Mt. Taygetus, many of its chasms and the rent In its southern continuation, Mt. Parnon still conforms of its rocks have been produced by the nume- tinues of moderate height till near the commencerous and violent earthquakes to which the district ment of the peninsula between the Myrtoan and has been subjected. Hence Laconia is called by Laconian gulfs, where it rises under the name of Homer "full of hollows" (Tweσσa, Il. ii. 581, Mount ZARAX (Zápaέ) to a height of 3500 feet, Od. iv. 1), and Strabo describes it as a country and runs along the eastern coast at a considerable easily shaken by earthquakes (Strab. viii. p. 367). elevation, till it reaches the promontory of Malea. In the fearful earthquake, which laid Sparta in ruins in B. C. 464, and killed more than 20,000 Lacedaemonians, huge masses of rocks were rolled down from the highest peaks of Taygetus. (Plut. Cim. 16.)

On the sides of Mt. Taygetus are forests of deep green pine, which abounded in ancient times with game and wild animals, among which Pausanias mentions wild goats, wild boars, stags, and bears. The district between the summits of Taletum and Evoras was called THERAS (Onpas), or the hunting ground. (Paus. iii. 20. §§ 4, 5.) Hence Taygetus was one of the favourite haunts of the huntress Artemis (Od. vi. 103), and the excellence of the Laconian dogs was proverbial in antiquity. (Aristot. Hist. An. vi. 20; Xen. de Ven. 10. § 1; Virg. Georg. iii. 405; Hor. Epod. vi. 5.) Modern travellers tell us that the dogs of the country still support their ancient character for ferocity and courage. (Mure, vol. ii. p. 231.)

The southern part of Mount Taygetus is rich in marble and iron. Near Croceae there were quarries of green porphyry, which was extensively employed by the Romans. [CROCEAE.] There was also another kind of marble obtained from quarries more to the south, called by the Romans Taenarian marble. The whetstones of Mount Taygetus were likewise in much request. (Strab. viii. p. 367; "Taenarius lapis," Plin. xxxvi. 22. s. 43; "cotes Laconicae ex Taygeto monte," Plin. xxxvi. 22. s. 47.) The iron found in the mountain was considered very good, and was much used in the manufacture of warlike weapons and agricultural instruments. (Steph. B. 8. v. Aakedaiμwv; Xen. Hell. iii. 3. § 7; Plin. vii. 57; Eustath. ad I. p. 298, ed. Rom.)

The EUROTAS (Evpúras) flows, as already observed, throughout the entire length of the valley between the ranges of Taygetus and Parnon. Its more ancient names were ВомYCAS (Вwμúkas, Etym. M. s. v.) and HIMERUS ("Iμepos, Plut. de Fluv. 17): it is now called Iris and Niris in its upper and middle course, and Basili-potamó from the time it leaves the Spartan plain till it reaches the sea. In its course three districts may be distinguished; - the vale of the upper Eurotas; the vale of the middle Eurotas, or the plain of Sparta; and the vale of the lower Eurotas, or the maritime plain. 1. The Vale of the Upper Eurotas. The river Eurotas rises in the mountains which form the southern boundary of the Arcadian plains of Asea and Megalopolis. It was believed by both Pausanias and Strabo that the Alpheius and the Eurotas had a common origin, and that, after flowing together for a short distance, they sank under ground; the Alpheius reappearing at Pegae, in the territory of Megalopolis in Arcadia, and the Eurotas in the Bleminatis in Laconia; but for a fuller account of their statements upon this subject the reader is referred to the article ALPHEIUS. All that we know for certain is that the Eurotas is formed by the union of several copious springs rising on the southern side of the mountain above mentioned, and that it flows from a narrow glen, which gradually opens towards the SSW. On the eastern side it' keeps close to the mountains, while on the western side there is a little level ground and some mountain slopes between the river and the heights of Taygetus. At the distance of little more than a mile from Sparta, the Eurotas receives the OENUS (Oivous, Polyb. ii. 65, 66; Athen. i. p. 31; Liv. xxxiv. 28), now called Kelefina, which rises in the watershed of Mt. Parnon, and flows in a general south-westerly direction: the principal tributary of the Oenus was the GORGYLUS (Tópyuλos, Polyb. ii. 66), probably the river of Vrestená. (Leake, Peloponnesiaca, p. 347.) Nearly opposite the union of the Oenus and the Eurotas, the mountains of Taygetus press close upon the river, but again almost immediately withdraw to a greater distance than before, and the river emerges into the Spartan plain.

MOUNT PARNON (8 Пáрvæv, Рaus. ii. 38. § 7) is of an entirely different character from the opposite range of Taygetus. It does not form one unínterrupted line of mountains, but is broken up into various detached masses of less elevation, which form a striking contrast to the unbroken and majestic barrier of Taygetus. The mass to which the name of Parnon was more especially applied was the range of mountains, now called Malevó, forming the natural boundary between Arcadia, Laconia, and Argolis. It is 6355 feet high, and its summit is nearly equidistant from the Eurotas and the 2. The Vale of the Middle Eurotas. Sparta eastern coast. This mountain is continued in a is situated at the commencement of this vale on the general south-easterly direction, but how far south-right bank of the Eurotas. Between the river and wards it continued to bear the name of Parnon is unknown. Its eastern declivities, which extend as far as the coast at a considerable elevation, contain the district now called Tzakonia, a corruption of the word Laconia, the inhabitants of which speak a dialect closely resembling the ancient Greek: of this an account has been given elsewhere. [Vol. I.

Mt. Taygetus the plain is of considerable extent. Its soil is particularly adapted for the growth of olives, which are in the present day preferred to those of Athens; and the silk of the Spartan plain is superior to the silk of every other district of Greece. (Mure, vol. ii. p. 224.) The soil, however, cannot be compared with that of the rich Messenian

The political history of the country forms a prominent part of Grecian history, and cannot be narrated in this place at sufficient length to be of value to the student. But as the boundaries of Laconia differed considerably at various periods, it is necessary to mention briefly those facts in the history of the country which produced those changes.

It will be seen from the preceding description of the physical features of Laconia, that the plain of Sparta forms the very kernel and heart of the country. Accordingly, it was at all times the seat of the ruling class; and from it the whole country received its appellation. This place is said to have been originally inhabited by the Leleges, the most ancient inhabitants of the country. According to tradition, Lelex, the first king, was succeeded by his son Myles, and the latter by his son Eurotas, who collected into a channel the waters which were spread over the plain, and gave his own name to the river which he had thus formed. He died without male offspring, and was succeeded by Lacedaemon, the son of Zeus and Taygeta, who married Sparta,

the daughter of his predecessor. Lacedaemon gave to the people and the country his own name, and to the city which he founded the name of his wife. Amyclas, the son of Lacedaemon, founded the city called after him Amyclae. (Paus. iii. 1.) Subsequently Lacedaemon was ruled by Achaean princes, and Sparta was the residence of Menelaus, the brother of Agamemnon. Menelaus was succeeded by Orestes, who married his daughter Hermione, and Orestes by his son Tisamenus, who was reigning when the Dorians invaded the country under the guidance of the Heracleidae. In the threefold division of Peloponnesus among the descendants of Hercules, Lacedaemon fell to the share of Eurysthenes and Procles, the twin sons of Aristodemus. According to the common legend, the Dorians conquered the Peloponnesus at once; but there is sufficient evidence that they only slowly became masters of the countries in which we afterwards find them settled; and in Laconia it was some time before they obtained possession even of all the places in the plain of Sparta. According to a statement in Ephorus, the Dorian conquerors divided Laconia into six districts; Sparta they kept for themselves; Amyclae was given to the Achaean Philonomus, who betrayed the country to them; while Las, Pharis, Aegys, and a sixth town the name of which is lost, were governed by viceroys, and were allowed to receive new citizens. (Ephor. ap. Strab. viii. p. 364; on this corrupt passage, which has been happily restored, see Müller, Dorians, vol. i. p. 110, transl.; Niebuhr, Ethnograph. vol. i. p. 56, transl.; Kramer, ad Strab. l. c.) It is probable that this division of Laconia into six provinces was not actually made till a much later period; but we have sufficient evidence to show that, for a long time after the Dorian conquest, the Dorians possessed only a small portion of Laconia. Of this the most striking proof is that the Achaean city of Amyclae, distant only 2 miles from Sparta, maintained its independence for nearly three centuries after the Dorian conquest, for it was only subdued shortly before the First Messenian War by the Spartan king Teleclus. The same king took Pharis and Geronthrae, both Achaean cities; and his son and successor, Alcamenes, conquered the town of Helos, upon the coast near the mouth of the Eurotas. (Paus. iii. 2. §§ 6, 7.) Of the subjugation of the other Achaean towns we have no accounts; but there can be little doubt that they were mainly owing to the military organisation and martial spirit which the Spartans had acquired by the institutions of Lycurgus.

LACONIA.

724, and the second from B. c. 685 to 668), the Spartans conquered the whole of Messenia, expelled 111 ants, and annexed their country to Laconia. The or reduced to the condition of Helots the inhabitand, for a period of three centuries, from the close of name of Messenia now disappears from history; the Second Messenian War to the restoration of the independence of Messenia by Epaminondas, the whole of the southern part of Peloponnesus, from the western to the eastern sea, bore the appellation of Laconia.

and the Oenus, the districts of Sciritis, Beleminatis, The upper parts of the valleys of the Eurotas Maleatis, and Caryatis, originally belonged to the Arcadians, but they were all conquered by the Spartans and annexed to their territory before B. C. 600. (Grote, Hist. of Greece, vol. ii. p. 588.) They thus extended their territories on the north to what may be regarded as the natural boundaries of Laconia, the mountains forming the watershed between the Eurotas and the Alpheius; but when they crossed these limits, and attempted to obtain possession of the plain of Tegea, they met with the most determined opposition, and were at last obliged to be content with the recognition of their supremacy by the Tegeatans, and to leave the latter in the independent enjoyment of their territory.

Spartans and Argives is unknown. The history of the early struggles between the the coast between the territories of the two states, and of which the plain of Thyreatis was the most The district on important part, inhabited by the Cynurians, a Pelasgic people, was a frequent object of contention between them, and was in possession, sometimes of the one, and sometimes of the other power. At length, in B. c. 547, the Spartans obtained permaby the 300 champions from either nation. [CYnent possession of it by the celebrated battle fought NURIA.]

extended on the other side of Mount Parnon, as far The dominions of the Spartans now as the pass of Anigraea.

three classes of Spartans, Perioeci, and Helots. Of The population of Sparta was divided into the the condition of these classes a more particular account is given in the Dictionary of Antiquities; and it is only necessary to remark here that the Spartans lived in Sparta itself, and were the ruling Dorian class; that the Perioeci lived in the different townships in Laconia, and, though freemen, had no share in the government, but received all their orders from the ruling class at Sparta; and cultivated it for the benefit of the Spartan propriethat the Helots were serfs bound to the soil, who tors, and perhaps of the Perioeci also. After the extension of the Spartan dominions by the conquest of Messenia and Cynuria, Laconia was said to possess 100 townships (Strab. viii. p. 362), among Thyreatis, and Aulon in Messenia, near the frontiers which we find mentioned Anthana in the Cynurian of Elis. (Steph. B. s. vv. 'Av@áva, Avλáv.)

By the middle of the eighth century the Dorians of Sparta had become undisputed masters of the whole of Laconia. They now began to extend their dominions at the expense of their neighbours. Originally Argos was the chief Dorian power in the Peloponnesus, and Sparta only the second. ancient times the Argives possessed the whole eastern In coast of Laconia down to Cape Malea, and also the island of Cythera (Herod. i. 82); and although we have no record of the time at which this part of the territory of Laconia into a number of equal lots, According to the common story, Lycurgus divided Laconia was conquered by the Spartans, we may of which 9000 were assigned to the Spartans, and safely conclude that it was before the Messenian 30,000 to the Perioeci. (Plut. Lyc. 8.) Some wars. The Dorians in Messenia possessed a much ancient critics, however, while believing that Lycurmore fertile territory than the Spartans in Laconia, gus made an equal division of the Laconian lands, and the latter now began to cast longing eyes upon supposed that the above numbers referred to the the richer fields of their neighbours. A pretext for distribution of the Lacedaemonian territory after the war soon arose; and, by two long protracted and incorporation of Messenia. And even with respect obstinate contests, usually called the First and to the latter opinion, there were two different stateSecond Messenian wars (the first from B. C. 743 toments; some maintained that 6000 lots had been