Listed 5 sub titles with search on: Information about the place for destination: "SELLASIA Ancient city INOUDAS".
Settlement a few km to the N of Sparta overlooking the valley of the
Oinous (modern Kelephina), a tributary of the Eurotas. Situated at the issue of
the road from Arkadia by way of Tegea and Kynouria by way of Karyai, it occupies
a strategic position. It was burned and pillaged in 370 B.C. by the Thebans of
Epaminondas (Xen. Hell. 6.5.27). Retaken in 365 by the Spartans, who were aided
by the Syracusans (ibid., 7.4.12), it was destroyed and its population reduced
to slavery after the defeat in 222 B.C. of King Kleomenes III of Sparta (Polyb.
2.65-69; Plut. Cleom. 27 & Phil. 6; Paus. 2.9.2; 3.10.7).
The site itself has not been identified with certainty. The hill of
Haghios Konstantinos (9 km to the N of Sparta and 830 m high) is surmounted by
an important fortress of apparently triangular shape (ca. 480 x 260 m). The walls,
which are 2 to 3 m thick, are constructed without mortar of undressed stone. Two
faces of large blocks hold together rubble-work. A cross wall isolated the summit
of the hill to the NE. Inside the walls there are few signs of occupation, but
the site has never been excavated.
The lower hill of Palaiogoulas (1.5 km to the N, 108 m in height)
is surmounted by a wall with a perimeter of some 300 m. There also a cross wall
isolates a part of the fortress. The walls, which are ca. 1.75 m thick, are constructed
in the same fashion as those of Haghios Konstantinos. Inside the walls are to
be found numerous signs of dense habitation: walls of small houses and sherds
dating from the 5th to the 2d c. B.C. These finds, and the situation itself of
Palaiogoulas, correspond most closely to Polybios' account and Pausanias' description
of the final destruction in the Roman period. But Diodoros (15.64) describes Sellasia
as a polis. The small dimensions of Palaiogoulas suggest only a small settlement
of perioikoi, while the greater dimensions of Haghios Konstantinos do not correspond
to those of a nameless fort. The question cannot, therefore, be considered as
resolved.
C. Le Roy, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Nov 2002 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
Sellasia (Selasia). The latter is perhaps the correct form, and may come from
selas; the name is connected by Hesychius with Artemis Selasia: Eth. Sellasieus,
Selasieus.
A town of Laconia, situated in the valley of the Oenus, on the road
leading from Tegea and Argos, and one of the bulwarks of Sparta against an invading
army. Its distance from Sparta is nowhere mentioned; but from the description
which Polybius gives of the celebrated battle fought in its neighbourhood between
Antigonus and Cleomenes, it is probable that the plain of Krevata was the site
of the battle. We learn from Polybius that this battle took place in a narrow
opening of the vale of the Oenus, between two hills named Evas and Olympus, and
that the river Gorgylus flowed across the plain into the Evenus. South of the
Khan of Krevata is a small plain, the only one in the valley of the Oenus, about
ten minutes in width and a quarter of an hour in length, at the end of which the
rocks again approach so close as barely to leave room for the passage of the river.
The mountain, which bounds this plain on the east, is Olympus, a continuation
of the mountain of Vresthena: it rises very steep on the left bank of the Oenus.
The mountain on the western side is Evas, now Turlaes, which, though not so steep,
is still inaccessible to cavalry. Towards the north the plain is shut in by a
mountain, over which the road leads to Tegea, and towards the south by a still
higher mountain. The Oenus, which flows near the eastern edge of the plain, can
be crossed at any point without difficulty. It receives on its right side a small
brook, the Gorgylus, which descends from a ravine on the northern side of Mt.
Evas. On the summit of the hill, more than 2800 feet above the sea, which shuts
in the plain on the south, and over which the road leads to Sparta, are the ruins
of Sellasia, described below.
The French Commission had previously supposed the plain of Krevata
to be the site of the battle of Sellasia (Boblaye, Recherches, &c. p. 73); and
the same opinion has been adopted by Curtius. (Peloponnesos, vol. ii. p, 260.)
Leake, however, places Sellasia to the SE., near the monastery of the Forty Saints
(Hagioi Saranta), and supposes the battle to have been fought in the pass to the
eastward of the monastery. The ruins near the Khan of Krevata he maintains to
be those of Caryae. (Leake, Morea, vol. ii. p. 529, Peloponnesiaca, p. 341, seq.)
But Ross informs us that in the narrow pass NE. of the monastery of the Forty
Saints there is barely room for a loaded mule to pass; and we know moreover that
Sellasia was situated on the high road from Sparta to Tegea and Argos, which must
have led through the plain of Krevata. (kata ten leophoron, Paus. iii. 10. § 7;
Plut. Cleom. 23; Xen. Hell. vi. 5. 27; Diod. xv. 64; Liv. xxxiv. 28.) On leaving
the plain of Krevata, the road southwards ascends the mountain, and at the distance
of a quarter of an hour leaves a small ruin on the left, called by the peasants
Palaeogula (he Palaiogoula). The remains of the walls are Hellenic, but they are
of very small extent, and the place was probably either a dependency of Sellasia
or one to which the inhabitants of the latter fled for refuge at one of the periods
when their city was destroyed.
The ruins of Sellasia lie 1 1/2 miles beyond Palaeogula upon the summit
of the mountain. The city was about 1 1/2 miles in circumference, as appears from
the foundation of the walls. The latter were from 10 to 11 feet thick, and consist
of irregular but very small stones. The northern and smaller half of the city
was separated by a wall from the southern half, which was on lower ground.
From its position Sellasia was always exposed to the attacks of an
invading army. On the first invasion of Laconia by the Thebans in B.C. 369, Sellasia
was plundered and burnt (Xen. Hell. vi. 5. 27); and because the inhabitants at
that time, together with several others of the Perioeci, went over to the enemy,
the town was again taken and destroyed four years later by the Lacedaemonians
themselves, assisted by some auxiliaries sent by the younger Dionysius. (Xen.
Hell. vii. 4. 12) It suffered the same fate a third time after the defeat of Cleomenes,
as has been already related. It appears to have been never rebuilt, and was in
ruins in the time of Pausanias (iii. 10. § 7).
This extract 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
A town in Laconia, north of Sparta, near the river Oenus. Here was fought a great battle between Cleomenes III. and Antigonus Doson in B.C. 221, resulting in the defeat of the former.
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