SOURCE: Whitby, Michael. Introduction to Sparta, edited by Michael Whitby, pp. 1-17. Edinburgh, Scotland: Edinburgh University Press, 2002.

In the following excerpt, Whitby encapsulates the geographical and historical contexts of ancient Sparta and surveys the primary sources of ancient and contemporary scholarship on the subject.

Background, Mountains, Sea and Land

‘Mountains and sea’ is a traditional opening to discussions of Greek history and its geographical background,¹ and can provide an introduction to the distinctiveness of Sparta. The four villages of Pitana, Mesoa, Limnae and Cynosoura, which, together with nearby Amyclae, constituted the unwalled political centre for the polis² of the Lacedaemonians, known for convenience as Sparta, were located about 40 kilometres from the sea in the fertile valley of the Eurotas which formed the core of Laconia, the territory of Sparta. On the coast Gytheion offered a reasonable anchorage and facilities, but, though access was not difficult, a low ridge...