#Knighthood the ancient one free#

During the flourishing times of Greek independence Sparta was never protected by a wall, since the bravery of its citizens, and the difficulty of access, were supposed to render such defenses unnecessary. The nearest modern town in the neighborhood is Mystra. The city of Sparta was located on the right bank of the Eurotas (Iri), about twenty miles from the sea.

The plain of Sparta is the very heart of the country, and accordingly, it was at all times the seat of the ruling class and from it the whole country received its name. The Lacedaemonians are said to have derived their name from a mythical hero, Lacon, or Lacedaemon, their progenitor. The Helots were also a portion of the old Achaean population but they had been reduced to a state of slavery.

#Knighthood the ancient one free#

These names are applied to the whole free population of Laconia, both to the Spartan citizens and the Perioeci, old Achaean inhabitants who had become tributary to the Spartans and possessed no political rights. The Romans called the country Laconica, Laconice, and Laconis. The usual name as found among the Greek writers, was Laconica, though the form Lacedaemon also continued to be used. He applies it to the city as well as to its capital. Laconia, Laconica, or Lacedaemon, in the southeastern part of the Peloponnese, is referred to by Homer only under the latter name, which is its most ancient one. Concerning him, Plutarch, Valerius, Justinus and Aristotle have written much. Among the learned he was looked upon as a man of high esteem. Lycurgus was a prince and lawgiver of the Lacedaemonians, and a highly enlightened man. He descended from Hercules and conquered the land in his youth.

Agesilaus was their 6th king, and he, by reason of his exemplary conduct is worthy of immortality. The first king of the Lacedaemonians was Eurystheus, a Greek, in the 98th year of Abraham. Therefore (as Virgil states), they were also to be distinguished from others by the manner of their dress. And Cicero writes of the Spartan virgins, who were more assiduous in the development of their bodies for the action of knighthood, than in the acquisition and birth of children. Justinus states why it was called Sparta and he says the people called Spartans had their beginning in the 50th year of King Ozie, after the death of Althumenis, the king of the Lacedaemonians, and after the destruction of their kingdom. But Herodotus states that Lacedemonia was a country, and Sparta was a city in it yet the names have been used interchangeably. Lacedemonia (Lacedaemon) was a city in the land of Litaonie (Laconia, Laconica, or Loconice), in Achaea, and it was built by Lacedaemon, the son of Jove, of which Greece has its name.