Listed 9 sub titles with search on: Associative equation for wider area of: "LACONIA Prefecture PELOPONNISOS" .
MALEAS (Cape) LACONIA
Corinth is called "wealthy" because of its commerce, since it is situated on the Isthmus and is master of two harbors, of which the one leads straight to Asia, and the other to Italy; and it makes easy the exchange of merchandise from both countries that are so far distant from each other. And just as in early times the Strait of Sicily was not easy to navigate, so also the high seas, and particularly the sea beyond Maleae, were not, on account of the contrary winds; and hence the proverb, "But when you double Maleae, forget your home" (Points to the dangers of the sea off the cape). At any rate, it was a welcome alternative, for the merchants both from Italy and from Asia, to avoid the voyage to Maleae and to land their cargoes here. And also the duties on what by land was exported from the Peloponnesus and what was imported to it fell to those who held the keys.
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 following story is also told: it is said that Jason, when the Argo had been built at the foot of Pelion, put aboard besides a hecatomb a bronze tripod, and set out to sail around the Peloponnese, to go to Delphi. But when he was off Malea, a north wind caught and carried him away to Libya;
The Corcyraeans straightaway promised to send help and protection, declaring that they would not allow Hellas to perish, for if she should fall, the very next day would certainly see them also enslaved. They would accordingly have to help to the best of their ability. Now this answer seemed fair enough, but when the time came for sending help, their minds changed. They manned sixty ships and put out to sea, making for the coast of the Peloponnese. There, however, they anchored off Pylos and Taenarus in the Lacedaemonian territory, waiting like the others to see which way the war should incline. They had no hope that the Greeks would prevail, but thought that the Persian would win a great victory and be lord of all Hellas. Their course of action, therefore, had been planned with a view to being able to say to the Persian, "O king, we whose power is as great as any and who could have furnished as many ships as any state save Athens,--we, when the Greeks attempted to gain our aid in this war, would not resist you nor do anything displeasing to you." This plea, they hoped, would win them some advantage more than ordinary; and so, I believe, it would have been. They were, however, also ready with an excuse which they could make to the Greeks, and in the end they made it; when the Greeks blamed them for sending no help, they said that they had manned sixty triremes, but that they could not round Malea because of the Etesian winds. It was for this reason, they said, that they could not arrive at Salamis; it was not cowardliness which made them late for the sea-fight. With such a plea they put the Greeks off.
This extract is from: Herodotus. The Histories (ed. A. D. Godley, 1920), Cambridge. Harvard University Press. Cited Apr 2003 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains comments & interesting hyperlinks.
SPARTI (Ancient city) LACONIA
The Megarians, sending to Delphi to inquire which was the most noble city in Greece, received the answer, Argos was the best soil, Thrace was supreme for its horses, Sparta for her women, Syracuse for men
She was the mother of Pausanias, who had commanded the Greeks during the victorious battle at Plataea. But he was soon to betray his home-town, Sparta, so he had to be punished. To avoid punishment, Pausanias went to the Temple of Athena Lady of the Bronze, where no-one could enter and harm him, for it was an asylum. The ephori of Sparta thought of something else, then: they decided to wall in the exit of the temple so that he would die of starvation. They actually did that and his mother, Anchithea, was the one who put the first stone. By doing that she proved that the welfare of her country was more important to her than the well-being of her own son.
Cheilonis, daughter of Leonidas II., king of Sparta, and wife to Cleombrotus II. When Leonidas, alarmed at the prosecution instituted against him by Lysander, took refuge in the temple of Athena Chalcioecus, Cheilonis left her husband, who was made king on the deposition of Leonidas, and, preferring to comfort her father in his adversity, accompanied him in his flight to Tegea. Afterwards, when Leonidas was restored, and Cleombrotus in his turn was driven to take refuge in the temple of Poseidon, Cheilonis joined him in his altered fortunes, saved his life by her entreaties from her father's vengeance, and, again refusing to share the splendour of a throne, went with him into banishment; "so that, had not Cleombrotus", says Plutarch, "been spoilt by vain ambition, his wife's love would have made him deem his exile a more blessed lot than the kingdom which he lost" (Plut. Agis, 11, 12, 16-18).
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Nov 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Chelidonis, a Spartan woman of great beauty and royal blood, daughter of Leotychides. She married Cleonymus, who was much older than herself, and to whom she proved unfaithful in consequence of a passion for Acrotatus, son of Areus I. It was partly on account of this injury that Cleonymus, offended also by his exclusion from the throne, invited Pyrrhus to attempt the conquest of Sparta in B. C. 272. Chelidonis, alarmed for the result, was prepared to put an end to her own life rather than fall into her husband's hands; but Pyrrhus was beaten off from the city, chiefly through the valour of Acrotatus. If we may trust the account of Plutarch, the Spartans generally of both sexes exhibited more sympathy with the lovers than indignation at their guilt,--a proof of the corruption of manners, which Phylarchus (ap. Athen. iv. p. 142, b.) ascribes principally to Acrotatus and his father. (Plut. Pyrrh. 26-28.)
Cynisca (Kuniska), daughter of Archidamus II. king of Sparta, so named after her grandfather
Zeuxidamus, who was also called Cyniscus (Herod. vi. 71). She was the first woman
who kept horses for the games, and the first who gained an Olympian victory (Paus.
iii. 8.1). Pausanias mentions an epigram by an unknown author in her honour, which
is perhaps the same as the inscription he speaks of (vi. 1.2) in his account of
her monument at Olympia. This was a group of sculpture representing Cynisca with
a chariot, charioteer, and horses -the work of Apellas. There were also figures
of her horses in brass in the temple of Olympian Zeus (Paus. v. 12.3), and at
Sparta she had near the gymnasium, called the Platanistas, an heroum (iii. 15.1).
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