Laconia

Laconia prefecture (El)
Administration
Country	Greece
Periphery	Peloponnese
Chief town	Sparta
Postcode	23x xx
Registration Code	AK
ISO 3166-2 code	GR-16
Statistics
Area	3636 km (10 th)
Population	100 871 (2005) (37 th)
Density	July 27 inhabitants / km (50 th)
Miscellaneous
Website	http://www.lakonia.gr/
change

Laconia (in ancient Greek / is the name of the region at the extreme southeast of the Peloponnese peninsula. She is also currently the name of a prefecture of Greece periphery of the Peloponnese , between Messenia and Arcadia , whose capital was Sparta.

It is a long valley surrounded by mountains ( Taygetus , Parnon ) on three sides and opening on the sea ( Gulf of Laconia ) by the latter. River Eurotas runs throughout the valley. Because of the terrain, Laconia is difficult to access. There are only two passes in the north, who can enter. In the antiquity , Herodotus reports that the Theban Epaminondas hesitated to invade Sparta precisely for this reason.

How to speak briefly of its inhabitants in antiquity spawned the word laconic.

Currently, Laconia is a prefecture Greek counting 94,916 inhabitants ( 2000 ). Its capital is Sparta , its main cities Gythion , Monemvasia and Mistra.

Names

Its ancient name is Sparta ( / Lakedaimn) name that Homer gives to either the region or its capital. The form continues to be used later, but the name "Laconia" is that employed most of the Greeks, and Romans after them. The living status of the region, whether citizen or Perioikoi is called Lacon ( / Lakon) or Spartan ( / Lakedaimonios).

These names come from Lacedaemon , the mythical hero founder of Sparta. They are sometimes closer , "the tank, the pantry, because the region is wedged between the mountains.

History

Bronze horse statue, Olympia, Spartan style, ca 740 Ave. AD

The human presence is attested to in Laconia Neolithic higher in the cave of Alepotrypa , on the eastern shore of the Gulf of Messinia , and on the mound Kouphovouno , near Sparta and Amyclae. It develops the Helladic and Late Helladic (HR) II, Laconia seems divided into small principalities.

The Mycenaean influence is felt from HRIIIA or the XIV ^centuryBC. AD In the following century, the population is large and dense Laconian, mainly concentrated on the valley Eurotas, but with forays into the mountains. In HRIIIC, the Mycenaean civilization of Laconia has declined characterized by a strong decrease of the settlement, but without knowing, it seems, disaster comparable to those of Tiryns , Pylos and Mycenae itself.

Nevertheless, the end of the Mycenaean era left the territory in a vacuum that facilitates the arrival of the Dorians in search of land conducive to agriculture. The few remaining residents in the valley of the Eurotas are enslaved by the newcomers and become Helots. At that time, Sparta began to soar, and the history of Laconia then merges with that of the city-state.

Administrative divisions modern

Former municipalities and communities (before 2011)

See also

Related articles

• Ancient Sparta ;
• Modern Sparta
• Brevity.
• Germany

Bibliography

• (En) Paul Cartledge , Sparta and Lakonia. A Regional History 1300 to 362 BC, Routledge, New York, 2002 ^(1st edition 1979) ( ISBN 0-415-26276-3 ) ;
• Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography, ed. William Smith, 1854.

External Links

• (In) Photographs from Laconia
• (En) (el) Prefecture of Laconia

The 54 prefectures (or prefecture) in Greece
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Autonomous Region	Monastic republic of Mount Athos
See also: Peripheries of Greece

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