From what has been said, the reader will, perhaps, have acquired a tolerably correct idea of the city of Athens, its splendour and extent. But the remaining fragments of Hellenic literature do not enable us to be equally clear or copious in our account of Sparta.^[281] In fact so imperfect and confused is the information that has come down to us respecting it, so vague, unsatisfactory, and in many respects contradictory are the opinions of modern scholars and travellers, that after diligently and patiently examining their accounts, and comparing them with the descriptions of Pausanias, the hints of Xenophon, Livy, Polybius, and Plutarch, with the casual references of the poets, I am enabled to offer the following picture only as a series of what appear to me probable conjectures based upon a few indisputable facts.

The reader who has endeavoured to discover anything like order in Pausanias’ topography of Sparta,^[282] will fully comprehend the difficulty of constructing from his information anything like an intelligible plan of the city. Nevertheless, by setting out from a fixed point, by laboriously studying the thread of his narration, by divining the secret order he seems to follow in enumerating and delineating the various public buildings of which he speaks, and by comparing his fragmentary disclosures with the present physiognomy of the site, I have formed a conception of the features of ancient Sparta which may, perhaps, be found to bear some resemblance to the original.

We will suppose ourselves to have passed the Eurotas, and to be standing on the summit of the loftiest building of the Acropolis, the Alpion for example, or the temple of Athena Chalciœcos,^[283] from which we can command a view of the whole site of Sparta from the Eurotas, where it flows between banks shaded with reeds and lofty rose laurels^[284] on the east, to the brisk sparkling stream of the Tiasa, and the roots of the Taygetos on the west. North and south the eye ranges up and down the valley,^[285] discovering in the latter direction the ancient cities of Therapne^[286] and Amyclæ,^[287] celebrated for their poetical and heroic associations. Beyond the Eurotas eastward, occupying the green and well-wooded acclivities upwards, from the banks of the stream towards the barren and red-tinted heights of the Menelaion,^[288] lay scattered the villas of the noble Spartans, filled with costly furniture and every other token of wealth,^[289] while here and there, on all sides, embosomed in groves or thickets, arose the temples and chapels of the gods surrounded by a halo of sanctity and communicating peculiar beauty to the landscape.

Contracting now our circle of vision, and contemplating the distinct villages or groups of buildings of which the capital of Laconia anciently consisted,^[290] we behold the encampments as it were of the five tribes, extending in a circle about the Acropolis.^[291] The quarter of the Pitanatæ,^[292] commencing about the Issorion and the bridge over the Tiasa on the west, extended eastward beyond the Hyacinthine road^[293] to the cliffs overhanging the valley of the Eurotas above the confluence of that river with the Tiasa. Immediately contiguous to the dwellings of this tribe in the north eastern division of the city, opposite that cloven island in the Eurotas, which contained the temple of Artemis, Orthia, and the Goddess of Birth, dwelt the Limnatæ,^[294] who possessed among them the temple erected by the Spartans to Lycurgus. North again of these, and clustering around that sharp eminence which constituted as it were a second Acropolis, were the habitations of the Cynosuræ,^[295] whose quarter appears to have extended from the old bridge over the Eurotas to the temple of Dictynna, and the tombs of the Euripontid kings on the west. From this point to the Dromos, lying directly opposite the southern extremity of the Isle of Plane Trees, formed by the diverging and confluent waters of the Tiasa, lay the village of the Messoatæ,^[296] where were situated the tomb of Alcman, the fountain Dorcea, and a very beautiful portico overlooking the Platanistas. The road extending from the Dromos to the Issorion formed the western limits of the tribe of the Ægidæ,^[297] whose quarter extending inward to the heart of the city, appears to have comprehended the Acropolis, the Lesche Pœcile, the theatre, with all the other buildings grouped about the foot of the ancient city.

The prospect presented by all these villages, nearly touching each other, and comprehended within a circle of six Roman miles, was once, no doubt, in the days of Spartan glory, singularly animated and picturesque. The face of the ground was broken and diversified, rising into six hills of unequal elevation, and constituting altogether a small table-land, in some places terminating in perpendicular cliffs;^[298] in others, shelving away in gentle slopes to meet the meadows on the banks of the surrounding streams. Over all was diffused the brilliant light^[299] which fills the atmosphere of the south, and paints, as travellers uniformly confess, even the barren crag and crumbling ruin with beauty.

The structures that occupied the summit of the Acropolis appear to have been neither numerous nor magnificent. The central pile, around which all the others were grouped, was the temple of Athena Chalciœcos,^[300] flanked on the north and south by the fanes of Zeus Cosmetas and the Muses. Behind it rose the temple of Aphrodite Areia, with that of Artemis Cnagia, and in front various other edifices and statues, dedicated to Euryleonis, Pausanias, Athena Ophthalmitis, and Ammon. Somewhere in the neighbourhood of the temenos of Athena stood two edifices, one called Skenoma and the other Alpion. The relative position of all these it is now extremely difficult, if not impossible, to determine. Let us therefore descend into the agora, and having briefly described the objects which there offered themselves to the eye of the stranger, endeavour to thread our way through the various streets of Sparta, pointing out as we go along the most remarkable monuments it contained.

In all Greek cities the point of greatest importance, next to the citadel, was the market-place, where the body of the citizens assembled not only to buy and sell, but to transact public business, and perform many ceremonies of their religion. Thus, in the agora of Sparta, in the centre of which probably stood an altar, surrounded by the statues of Apollo, Artemis, Leto, and the soothsayer Hagias who foretold the victory of Lysander at Ægospotamos, sacred chorusses and processions were exhibited during the Gymnopædia in honour of Phœbos Apollo, in consequence of which, a part at least of the place obtained the name of Choros: here, likewise, was a colossal statue, erected in honour of the Spartan Demos, with a group representing Hermes bearing the infant Dionysos in his arms, and a statue of King Polydoros, doubtless set up in the neighbourhood of his house, Boonetos, lying between the street Aphetæ and the steep road leading up to the citadel. The edifices by which the agora was encircled, though in most cases, perhaps, far from magnificent, when separately considered, presented a grand coup-d’œil. This will be made evident if, placing ourselves near the central altar, we enumerate and briefly describe them in the order in which they followed each other in the great circle of the agora. First, beginning on the right-hand corner of the street Aphetæ we behold the palace of the Bidiæi, the five magistrates who watched over the education of the youth; next succeeds that of the Nomophylaces, or guardians of the laws; then that of the Ephori; and, lastly, the senate-house, standing at the corner of the street leading to Therapne. Crossing over to the south-eastern side of the Agora we behold a spacious and stately portico called the Persian, because erected from the spoils of the Persians. Its columns of white marble were adorned with bassi relievi representing Persian warriors, among others Mardonios and Artemisia daughter of Lygdamis queen of Halicarnassos, who fought in person at the battle of Salamis. Beyond the road to Amyclæ, we meet with a range of temples to Gaia, Zeus Agoræos, Athena, Poseidon the Preserver, Apollo, and Hera; and traversing the western street opening into the Theomelida, and affording us a glimpse in passing of the tombs of the Agid kings we arrive at the ancient halls of the Ephori, containing the monuments of Epimenides and Aphareus. To this edifice succeed the statues of Zeus Xenios and Athena Xenia. Next follows the temple of the Fates, near which was the tomb of Orestes lying on the left hand of the road leading to the sanctuary of Athena Chalciœcos. On the other side stands the house of King Polydoros, which obtained in after ages the name of Boonetos because purchased of his widowed queen with a certain number of oxen. With this terminates the list of the buildings by which the Agora was encompassed.

Quitting, now, this central point, we proceed northward through the street called Aphetæ, and observe on the right hand at a short distance from each other three temples of Athena Keleuthia, together with the heroa of Iops, Lelex, and Amphiaraos. On the opposite side apparently, stood the temenos of Tænarian Poseidon, with a statue of Athena, erected by the Dorian colonists of Italy. We next arrive at a place called the Hellenion, probably nothing more than a large open space or square in which the deputies or ambassadors of foreign states assembled on extraordinary occasions. Close to this was erected the monument of Talthybios. A little further on were the altar of Apollo Acreitas, the Gasepton, a temple of earth, and another altar sacred to Apollo Maleates. At the end of the street, near the walls of the late city, was a temple of Dictynna, with the tombs of the kings called Eurypontidæ.

Returning to the Hellenion, and proceeding eastward up the great public road leading to the bridge Babyx, you saw the temple of Arsinoë, daughter of Leucippos, and sister to the wives of Castor and Polydeukes. Further on, near the Phrouria or Barriers, stood a temple of Artemis; and advancing a little you came to the monument of the Eleian soothsayers called Iamidæ, and the temple of Maron and Alpheios, who were among the bravest of those who fell with Leonidas at Thermopylæ. Beyond this stood the fane of Zeus Tropæos erected after the reduction of Amyclæ, when all the ancient inhabitants of Laconia had been brought under the yoke of the Dorians. Next followed the temple of the Great Mother and the heroic monuments of Hippolytos and Aulon. On a spot commanding the bridge stood the temple of Athena Alea.

Setting out once more from the Agora, and advancing up the street leading towards the east the first building on the left-hand was called Skias^[301] contiguous to the senate-house: it was of a circular form with a roof like an umbrella, and erected about seven hundred and sixty years before Christ, by Theodoros of Samos, inventor of the art of casting statues in iron. Here the Spartan people held their assemblies even so late as the age of Pausanias, who relates that the lyre of Timotheus^[302] the Milesian, confiscated as a punishment for his having added four strings to the seven already in use, was suspended in this building as a warning to all innovators. Near the Skias was another circular building erected by Epimenides, containing statues of Olympian Zeus and Aphrodite. On the other side apparently of the street, in front of the Skias, were the tombs of Idas and Lynceus, the temple of Kora Soteira, said to have been built by Orpheus, or Abaris the Hyperboræan, the tomb of Cynortas and the temple of Castor. Near these were the statues of Apollo Carneios, and Aphetæos, the latter of which marked the point whence the suitors of Penelope started in their race for a wife, running up the street Aphetæ, whence the name. Immediately beyond this was a square surrounded with porticoes, where all kinds of cheap wares were anciently sold. Further on stood altars of Zeus, Athena, and the Dioscuri, all surnamed Amboulioi; opposite which was the hill called Colona whereon was erected a temple of Dionysos, and close at hand a temenos sacred to the hero who conducted the god to Sparta. Not far from the Dionysion was a temple of Zeus Euanemos, giver of gentle breezes; and immediately to the right the heroon of Pleuron. On the summit of a hill at a little distance stood a temple of the Argive Hera, together with the fane erected in honour of Hera Hypercheiria, built by order of the oracle after the subsiding of an inundation of the Eurotas. In this edifice was a very ancient wooden statue of Aphrodite Hera. Close to the road which passed to the right of the hill was a statue of Etymocles many times victor in the Olympic games. In descending towards the Eurotas you beheld a wooden statue of Athena Alea, and a little above the banks a temple of Zeus Plousios. On the further side of the river were temples of Ares and Asclepios.

Once more retracing our steps to the Agora, and quitting it by a street leading towards the west, the first remarkable object that struck the eye was the cenotaph of Brasidas, and a little beyond it a spacious and beautiful theatre of white marble.^[303] Directly opposite were the tombs of Leonidas and Pausanias, and near these a cippus, on which were engraved the names of the heroes who fell at Thermopylæ, together with those of their fathers. At this spot games were annually celebrated, in which none but Spartans were allowed to contend for the prizes. Discourses were likewise here pronounced in honour of the dead. The multitudes at these games required a large clear space in which to congregate, and this I suppose to have been the place called Theomelida, opening on both sides of the road, and extending as far as the tombs of the Agid Kings, and the Lesche of the Crotoniatæ. Near this edifice stood the temple of Asclepios, the tomb of Tænaros, and temples of Poseidon Hippocourios, and Artemis Ægeinea. Turning back towards the Lesche, probably round the foot of the Hill of the Issorion,^[304] you observed on the slope of the eminence towards the Tiasa the temple of Artemis Limnæa the Britomartis of the Cretans, somewhere in the vicinity of which were temples of Thetis, Chthonian Demeter, and Olympian Zeus.

Starting from the crossroad at the north-west foot of the Issorion, on the way to the Dromos, the first edifice which presented itself on the left was the monument of Eumedes, one of the sons of Hippocoon. A little further on was a statue of Heracles, and close at hand, near the entrance to the Dromos, stood the ancient palace of Menelaos, inhabited in Pausanias’ time by a private individual. Within the Dromos itself were two gymnasia. This was the most remarkable building in the western part of the city, from whence branched off many streets, while numerous public structures clustered round it; to the north, for example, the temples of the Dioscuri, of the Graces, of Eileithyia, of Apollo Carneios, and Artemis Hegemona: on the east the temple of Asclepios Agnitas, and a trophy erected by Polydeukes after his victory over Lynceus. On the west towards the Platanistas were statues of the Dioscuri Apheterii, and a little further was the heroon of Alcon, near which stood the temple of Poseidon Domatites, near the bridge leading over to the island covered with plane trees. On the other hand apparently of the road a statue was erected to Cynisca, daughter of Archidamos, the first lady who ran horses at Olympia.

Along the banks of the Tiasa from the Dromos to a line extending westward from the temple of Dictynna to the upper bridge leading to the Platanistas, lay a road adorned with numerous public buildings, among others a portico, behind which were two remarkable monuments, the heroa of Alcimos and Enaræphoros. Immediately beyond were the heroa of Dorceus and Sebros, and the fountain Dorcea flowing between them. The whole of this little quarter obtained from the latter hero the name of Sebrion. To the right of the last mentioned heroon was the monument of the poet Alcman;^[305] beyond which lay the temple of Helen, and near it that of Heracles close to the modern wall.

Hard by a narrow pathway, striking into the fields from the road leading eastward from the Dromos, was the temple of Athena Axiopænos, said to have been erected by Heracles.

Leaving the Dromos by another road running in a south-easterly direction through the midst of the quarter of the Ægidæ, we behold, on one hand, the temples of Athena and Hipposthenes, and directly opposite the latter, a statue of Ares in chains. At a short distance beyond these was the Lesche Pœcile, and in front of it, the heroon of Cadmos son of Agenor, those of two of his descendants, Œolycos and his son Ægeus, and that of Amphilocos. Farther on lay the temples of Hera Ægophagos, so called because she-goats were sacrificed to her, and at the foot of the Acropolis, near the theatre, the temples of Poseidon Genethlios, on either side of which probably stood an heroon, the one sacred to Cleodæos son of Hyllos, and the other to Œbalos.

We must now return to the Lesche Pœcile, and following a road skirting round the hill of the Acropolis, towards the east-south-east, pass by the monument of Teleclos, and the most celebrated of all the temples of Asclepios at Sparta, situated close to the Boonetos. Traversing the street Aphetæ and proceeding along the road leading to the Limnæ, the first temple on the left was that of Aphrodite, on a hill, celebrated by Pausanias for having two stories. The statue of the goddess was here seated, veiled and fettered. A little beyond was the temple of Hilaeira and Phœbe wherein were statues of the two goddesses, the countenance of one of which was painted and adorned by one of the priestesses according to the later rules of art, but warned by a dream she suffered the other to remain in its archaic simplicity. Here was preserved an egg adorned with fillets and suspended from the roof, said to have been brought forth by Leda. In a building near at hand, certain women wove annually a tunic for the Apollo of Amyclæ, from which circumstance the edifice itself obtained the name of Chiton. Next followed the house of the Tyndaridæ, the heroa of Chilon and Athenæus, and the temple of Lycurgus, with the tomb of Eucosmos behind it. Near them was the altar of Lathria and Anaxandra, and directly opposite the monuments of Theopompos and Eurybiades and Astrabacos. In an island in the marshes were the temple and altar of Artemis Orthia, and the fane of Eileithyia.

On the road leading from the Agora to Amyclæ^[306] there were few remarkable monuments. One only, the temple of the Graces, is mentioned north of the Tiasa, and beyond it the Hippodrome; towards the west the temple of the Tyndaridæ near the road, and that of Poseidon Gaiouchos towards the river.^[307]

Let us now consider the proofs on which the above description is based. Pausanias informs us that the citadel was the highest of the hills of Sparta. Colonel Leake observes that the eminence found in the quarter which I have assigned to the Cynosuræ is equal in height to that immediately behind the theatre; but the former is pointed and appears to have retained its natural shape, while the summit of the latter has been levelled for building. Now if its height be still equal, it must have been considerably greater before the levelling process took place. Therefore the hill behind the theatre was the Acropolis. Admitting this, the spacious flat or hollow immediately at its foot on the south-east side must have been the Agora,^[308] for that the Agora was close to the citadel is clear from history, which represents Lycurgus and king Charilaos escaping thither from the market-place.^[309] Again we know from Pausanias that it lay a little to the east of the theatre, having nothing between them but the cenotaph of Brasidas. The position of the Agora being thus fixed beyond dispute, we arrive with certainty at the direction of the four great streets that diverge from it; for, first, we know that the road to the Issorion lay towards the west; the road to Amyclæ towards the south. The street called Skias terminated at the extremity of the city between two small hills. These two hills are still there on the brink of the high ground overlooking the valley of the Eurotas on the east. This therefore was the direction of the Skias. As an additional proof, it may be mentioned that the temple of Hera Hypercheiria was erected in commemoration of the subsiding of an inundation of the Eurotas, which shows it must have been somewhere nearly within reach of the waters of that stream. For the street Aphetæ no direction is left but that towards the north-west or the north-east; but the latter led to the temple of Artemis Orthia in the Limnæ, the former to the temple of Dictynna. The street Aphetæ led therefore to the north-west, no other road being mentioned but that leading from Mount Thornax over the bridge Babyx, which was not the street called Aphetæ. Thus we have the direction of every one of the great streets of Sparta incontrovertibly determined. Proceed we now to establish the position, with respect to the citadel, of each of the five tribes who occupied as many quarters of the city. First we learn from Pausanias that the Pitanatæ inhabited the quarter round the Issorion:^[310] from Pindar^[311] and his scholiast that they dwelt likewise near the banks of the Eurotas. They possessed therefore the whole southern quarter of the city.^[312] As the Limnatæ obtained their name from the marshes near which they lived, the position of the Limnæ determined by the chain of reasoning given above, proves them to have occupied the eastern quarter of the city directly opposite the temple of Artemis Orthia. That the tribe of the Ægidæ inhabited all that part extending in one direction from the Issorion to the Dromos, and in the other from the banks of the Tiasa to the Boonetos, may almost with certainty be inferred from the circumstance that the tomb of Ægeus, their founder, was situated in this quarter, close to the Lesche Pœcile. The quarter of the Mesoatæ lay in the north-west, between the Dromos and the temple of Dictynna; for here was found the tomb of Alcman who belonged to that tribe. All the rest of the site being thus occupied, there remains only for the tribe of the Cynosuræ that part lying between the road to Thornax and the temple of Dictynna, where accordingly we must suppose them to have lived.

With respect to the bridge Babyx, if bridge it really was, it appears very difficult^[313] to believe that it spanned the Tiasa, though we still find massive ruins of arches in the channel of that stream. There seems to be much stronger reason for supposing it to have been thrown over the Eurotas, where the road from the Isthmus traversed it.^[314] We should then understand by the oracle which commanded Lycurgus to assemble his people between Babyx and Cnacion,^[315] that he was to gather them together anywhere within the precincts of the city. Accordingly we find in the time of Lycurgus, that the Agora in the centre of Sparta was the place were the Apellæ^[316] were held. This, too, is evident, by the sense in which the matter was understood by Plutarch, who, speaking of the victory of the Bœotians over the Spartans at Tegyra, observes, that by this event it was made manifest that not the Eurotas, or the space between Babyx and Cnacion alone produced brave and warlike men.^[317] Now it appears to me, that a few meadows without the city on which assemblies of the people were occasionally convened could never be said to produce these people. I have therefore supposed that Babyx was the bridge by which travellers coming from the Isthmus entered Sparta.