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Sparta (LACED MON a celebrated city)

or LACEDÆMON, a celebrated city of ancient Greece; capital of Laconia and of the Spartan state, and the chief city in the Peloponnesus; on the W. bank of the Eurotas river, and embraced a circuit of 6 miles. Sparta was a scattered city consisting of five separate quarters. Unlike Athens it was plainly built, and and had few notable public buildings; consequently there are no imposing ruins to be seen here as in Athens, and the modern Sparta is only a village of some 4,000 inhabitants. Laconia, the district in which Sparta was situated, was the S. E. division of the Peloponnesus, bounded on the W. by Messenia, from which it was separated by the chain of Taygetus, on the N. by Arcadia and Argolis, and on the E. and S. by the sea. The Eurotas (Vasilopotamo, "king of rivers") here flows through a picturesque valley and empties into the Gulf of Laconia.

The Spartan state was founded, according to tradition, by Lacedæmon, son of Zeus. The most celebrated of its legendary kings was Menelaus. It is said to have been conquered by the Heraclidæ from N. Greece about 1080, who established a dyarchy or double