Laconia

Related Category: Ancient History, Greece

(ləkō´nēə) or Lacedaemon(lăs´´ədē´mən), ancient region, S Peloponnesus, Greece, bounded on the W by Messenia and on the N by Arcadia and Argolis. On the Eurotas (now Evrotás), the principal river, stood Sparta, the capital. Sparta dominated the region, despite the existence of many other towns, until the rise of the second Achaean League in the 3d and 2d cent. B.C. Laconia (now Lakonías) is today a name of Greece.