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Excavations at Sparta: the Roman stoa, 1988–91. Part 2

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 September 2013

G. B. Way Well
Affiliation:
King's College London
J. J. Wllkes
Affiliation:
University College London

Abstract

Survey and excavation between 1988 and 1991 have revealed new evidence for the form, date, and history of the Roman stoa at Sparta. Nearly 200 m long, it was double-fronted and colonnaded, finished in marble, with two storeys on the S side and perhaps a single portico to the N, set either side of a central row of brick-faced concrete compartments that helped consolidate the acropolis plateau. Its order may have been archaizing Doric; it may have represented a reconstructed version of the Persian stoa. At the W end it buttressed the Round Building and its square podium. Evidence of the stratigraphy and architecture suggests it was built c. AD 130 and that the colonnades collapsed in the late 4th cent., after which it was partly incorporated into the late Roman wall circuit. The nearly central, cross-vaulted nymphaeum (bays XI–XII) was reused in the Middle Byzantine period for religious purposes, when a church was built nearby; possibly this was the church and monastery founded by St Nikon Metanoeites c.975. Occupation continued until c.1350. Interpretation of the topography of Sparta in the light of the new evidence from the stoa suggests that the still elusive agora may have been on the upper plateau N of the stoa, rather than beneath the stadium to the S.

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Articles
Copyright
Copyright © The Council, British School at Athens 1994

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References

1 We wish to record our thanks to the Greek Archaeological Service for permission to carry out these excavations, and acknowledge with gratitude the support and assistance of Dr Th. Spyropoulos, Ephor of Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities for Arkadia and Lakonia; Mrs Bakourou, Ephor of the 5th Department of Byzantine Antiquities in Sparta; Mrs Diamanti of the Byzantine Ephoreia; and Miss Stella Raftopoulou of the Prehistoric and Classical Ephoreia. We are most grateful for the assistance of the successive directors of the British School under whose auspices the excavations took place, Dr H. W. Catling and Dr E. B. French. Funds and grants to meet the cost of the fieldwork were generously contributed by the following societies and institutions: British Academy, British School at Athens, King's College London, University College London (Gordon Childe Fund), Society of Antiquaries of London, Royal Archaeological Institute, and Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies. Among the specialist members of the team, we should like to pay particular tribute to Mr Nigel Fradgley (Royal Commission on Historical Monuments for England), who, with his assistant Robyn Burgess, took on the responsibility for surveying and architectural recording, and who has produced the final versions of all the plans, sections, and drawings published here. Thanks are also due to the Royal Commission on Historical Monuments for England for the loan of equipment as well as personnel. Site recording was under the general supervision of Dr Hafed Walda and Adrian Powell, and the following students participated in the excavation work: (1989) C. Eccleston, M. Kamalakou, S. Loudoun, K. Lynch, J. Sidell, C. Smith, C. Stevens, K. Wilkinson; (1990) p. Baker, P. Ditchfield, C. Eccleston, P. Higgs, E. Ivison, S. Loudoun, A. McNulty, J. Sidell, C. Smith; (1991) K. Alexander, J. Babb, G. Carleton, A. Cussons, T. Erskine Crum, S. Gentleman, K. House, S. Mace, A. Matthew, K. Meheux, S. Mellalieu, M. Overbeek, K. Papayiannakis, J. Sidell, and K. Wilkinson. Environmental sampling was undertaken in 1989–91 by J. Sidell and K. Wilkinson, and conservation of finds in 1991 by M. Barlow and M. Halliwell. We are grateful to Mr Richard Anderson, architect of the Agora Excavations of the American School of Classical Studies in Athens, for taking kite photographs of the site for us, and for allowing us to reproduce examples here. Our understanding of the site and its finds has further profited from discussions with Pamela Armstrong, Don Bailey, John Hayes, Guy Sanders, Tony Spawforth, Susan Walker, and Elisabeth Waywell.

The following abbreviations of frequently cited works have been used:

Cartledge and Spawforth = Cartledge, P. and Spawforth, A., Hellenistic and Roman Sparta: A Tale of Two Cities (London, 1989)Google Scholar

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2 BSA 88 (1993), 219–86.

3 Bosanquet, R. C., BSA 12 (19051906), 277–83Google Scholar; R. Traquair, ibid. 415–18.

4 Thuc. i. 10. 2.

5 Paus. iii. II. 1–18. 6; Frazer, J. G., Pausanias's Description of Greece, i–vi (London, 1898)Google Scholar; Papachatzis, N., Πανσανίου Ελλάδος περιήγησις, ii: Κορινθιαϰά–Δαϰωνιϰά (Athens, 1976), 334–81Google Scholar;. Habicht, C., Pausanios' Guide to Ancient Greece (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1985)Google Scholar; Musti, D. and Torelli, M., Pausania, guida della Grecia, libro III: la Laconia (Fondazione Lorenzo Valla, Milan, 1991)Google Scholar; Elsner, J., ‘Pausanias: a Greek pilgrim in the Roman world’, Past and Present, 135 (1992), 329CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Arafat, K. W., ‘Pausanias’ attitude to antiquities’, BSA 87 (1992), 387409.Google Scholar

6 Spawforth, A. J. S. and Walker, S., ‘The world of the Panhellenion, i: Athens and Eleusis’, JRS 75 (1985), 78104Google Scholar; and esp. iid., ‘The world of the Panhellenion, ii: three Dorian cities’, JRS 76 (1986), 88–105, esp. 88–96 for Sparta; Cartledge and Spawforth, 105–19.

7 A recent notable attempt to follow the route of Paus, is by Stibbe (n. 1). See also below, §9.

8 Stein, H. K., Topographie des alten Sparta nebst Bemerkungen über einige lakedaimonische Gottheiten (Gratz, 1890).Google Scholar

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11 Meader, C. L. and Waldstein, C., ‘Reports on excavations at Sparta in 1893’, AJA 8 (1893), 410–28Google Scholar; cf. Crosby, N. E., AJA 9 (1894), 212–13Google Scholar, answered by C. Waldstein, ibid. 545–6.

12 See below, §6.

13 For the 1906–10 excavations see Bosanquet, R. C. et al. , BSA 12 (19051906), 277479Google Scholar; Dawkins, R. M.et al., BSA 13 (19061907), 1218Google Scholar; id., BSA 14 (1907–8), 1–158; 15 (1908–9), 1–157; 16 (1909–10), 1–61. For the 1924–8 excavations see Woodward, A. M.et al., BSA 26 (19231925), 116310Google Scholar; id., BSA 27 (1925–6), 173–254; 28 (1926–7), 1–106; 29 (1927–8), 1–107; 30 (1928–30), 241–54.

14 Dawkins, R. M., Artemis Orthia (JHS suppl. 5; London, 1929).Google Scholar

15 Dickins, G., BSA 13 (19061907), 137–54Google Scholar; 14 (1907–8), 142–6. For the later excavations, see Woodward, A. M. and Hobling, M. B., BSA 26 (19231925), 240–76Google Scholar; Woodward, A. M., Droop, J., and Lamb, W., BSA 28 (19261927), 3795Google Scholar; Woodward, A. M., BSA 30 (19281930), 241–54.Google Scholar

16 Bosanquet, R. C., Letters and Light Verse, ed. Bosanquet, E. S. (Gloucester, 1938), 162–3.Google Scholar

17 Traquair, R., BSA 12 (19051906), 258–76.Google Scholar

18 Dawkins (n. 14).

19 Wace, A. J. B., BSA 12 (19051906), 283–8Google Scholar; 13 (1906–7), 5–16.

20 Athena Chalkioikos: see n. 8. Theatre: Dickins, G., BSA 12 (19051906), 394406.Google Scholar

21 Wace, A. J. B., BSA 12 (19051906), 407–14Google Scholar; Palagia, O., ‘Seven pilasters of Herakles from Sparta’, in Walker, S. and Cameron, A. (eds), The Greek Renaissance in the Roman Empire: Papers from the 10th British Museum Classical Colloquium (BICS supp. 55; London, 1989), 122–9Google Scholar; Cartledge and Spawforth, 129–30; 218 no. 19.

22 Traquair, R., BSA 12 (19051906), 417–29Google Scholar; Gregory, T. E., ‘The fortified cities of Byzantine Greece’, Archaeology, 35. 1 (Jan.–Feb. 1982), 20–1Google Scholar; Cartledge and Spawforth, 122; 126; 218 no. 10.

23 Traquair, R., BSA 12 (19051906), 415–18Google Scholar; Bosanquet, R. C., Diary of Excavations at Sparta in 1906 (unpublished MS in BSA archive, Athens), 37, 52, 55, 61–2, 66–8Google Scholar; Dickins, G., BSA 12 (19051906), 432–4Google Scholar; Knoblauch, P., AA 1942, 156–7Google Scholar; Cartledge and Spawforth, 218 no. 18.

24 BSA 13 (1906–7), 2, pl. 1. The original, drawn out on three giant-sized sheets of cartridge paper, is preserved in the BSA archive in Athens.

25 See n. 13.

26 For work in the theatre since the time of Woodward's excavations, see Bulle, H., Das Theater zu Sparta (Munich, 1937)Google Scholar; Kolb, F., Agora und Theater: Volks- und Festversammlung (Archäologische Forschung, 9; Berlin, 1981)Google Scholar; Buckler, C., ‘The myth of the moveable skenai’, AJA 90 (1986), 431–6CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Cartledge and Spawforth, 128–9, 156–7, 217 no. 14; Waywell, G. B. and Wilkes, J. J., in AR 39 (19921993), 22Google Scholar, for report on 1992 excavations.

27 Sparta Museum, no. 3365. Woodward, A. M. and Hobling, M. B., BSA 26 (19231925), 253–66Google Scholar; Br.-Br. 776–8; Dörig, J., The Olympia Master and his Collaborators (Leiden, 1987), 20Google Scholar; Palagia, O., ‘An Athena Promachos from the acropolis of Sparta’, in Palagia, O. and Coulson, W. (eds), Sculpture from Arcadia and Laconia: Proceedings of an international conference held at the American School of Classical Studies at Athens (April 10–14, 1992) (Oxbow monographs, 30; Oxford, 1993), 167–75.Google Scholar

28 Woodward, A. M., Diary of Excavations at Sparta, 1924–8 (unpublished MS in BSA archive, Athens), 135–7Google Scholar, 145 169–89 for 1925 excavations; 239–67 for 1926 excavations; Adamantiou, A., PAE 1934, 126–8.Google Scholar

29 Cartledge and Spawforth (n. 1); cf. Stibbe (n. 1), 65.

30 Bosanquet, R. C., BSA 12 (19051906), 277–83Google Scholar; R. Traquair, ibid. 415–18; G. Dickins, ibid. 432–4.

31 Traquair (n. 30), 415, following the plan of Sejk (ibid. pl. 8), erroneously supposed that there were three of these apsed chambers (nos. 11–13).

32 Dickins (n. 30), 432; Bosanquet, Diary (n. 23), 37, 52, 55, 61–2, 66–8.

33 Traquair (n. 30), 415–17.

34 Ibid. 417, fig. 2.

35 In general see Dodge, H., ‘Brick construction in Roman Greece and Asia Minor’, in Macready, S. and Thompson, F. H., Roman Architecture in the Greek World (Society of Antiquaries, London, 1987), 106–16Google Scholar, although she incorrectly dates the Roman stoa at Sparta to the Augustan period (p. 107); cf. Cartledge and Spawforth, 218 no. 18.

36 The work was expertly carried out in difficult circumstances by Michael Halliwell and Jane Sidell.

37 Murray, H. J. R., A History of Board Games other than Chess (Oxford, 1952), 43–5Google Scholar, fig. 18 ƒ Roueché, C. M., Aphrodisias in Late Antiquity (Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies, Monographs, 5; London, 1989), 244–5Google Scholar, no. 217, pl. 44.

38 BSA 12 (1905–6), pl. 8. 3.

39 Traquair, ibid. 420–9.

40 Bosanquet (nn. 23, 30); Dickins (n. 30).

41 Dickins, ibid. 432.

42 Bosanquet, who discovered part of the podium in his trial trench along the S front of the Stoa platform, described it in fact in his Diary (above, n. 23), p. 55, as a ‘platform on which Round Building stands. This platform C is Roman and it has a thick coating of plaster’. For some reason he did not draw attention to this feature in his BSA article (n. 30).

43 Bailey, D. M., BSA 88 (1993), 221–49Google Scholar; G. D. R. Sanders, ibid. 251–86.

44 Bailey (n. 43), 222–5, nos. 1–23.

45 Ibid. 225–30, nos. 24–69.

46 Ibid. 231–42, nos. 70–157.

47 Ibid. 242, nos. 158–60.

48 Ibid. 243–5, nos. 161–73.

49 Ibid. 245, nos. 174–9.

50 Ibid. 246.

51 Sanders (n. 43), 284.

52 Ibid. 284.

54 Bailey (n. 43), 247–9, nos. 188–202.

55 Ibid. 246–7, nos. 183–7.

56 Sanders (n. 43), 285.

57 Ibid. 286.

58 Ibid. 285.

59 Ibid. 284.

60 Ibid. 283.

62 Ibid. 285: date of context put too early.

63 Ibid. 286: context dated too early.

64 Braced quadrilateral: Milne, P. H., Basic Programs for Land Surveying (1984), 371–91.Google Scholar The method was selected for its ability to identify and compensate for unreliable angle readings resulting from strong heat shimmer during daytime observations.

65 The resection equation attributed to Tienstra was used. See Bannister, A. and Raymond, S., Surveying (1984), 227–9.Google Scholar

66 System devised in conjunction with Richard C. Anderson, architect of the Agora excavations, American School of Classical Studies.

67 Corrections to measurements were based on standard equations, distances not reduced to sea level. See Wilson, R. J. P., Land Surveying (1983), 134–40.Google Scholar

68 It should, however, be noted that the likely presence of a colonnaded portico at the E end would have increased the overall length of the stoa to c.195 m and would have negated the overall symmetry in design.

69 The reasonable presumption of the existence of a colonnaded portico along the S façade would have increased the overall width to c. 22 m.

70 Bosanquet, R. C., BSA 12 (19051906), 277–83Google Scholar; G. Dickins, ibid. 432.

71 This was the interpretation drawn also from observation of the visible remains by Knoblauch, P., AA 1942, 156–7.Google Scholar

72 Traquair, R., BSA 12 (19051906), 416–19.Google Scholar

73 Paus. iii. 18. 9–19; Fiechter, E., JdI 33 (1918), 107245Google Scholar; Buschor, E. and von Massow, W., AM 52 (1927), 185Google Scholar; Delivorrias, A., AAA 1 (1968), 41–5Google Scholar; Martin, R., RA 1976, 205–18Google Scholar; Pipili, M., Laconian Iconography of the Sixth Century BC (Oxford, 1987), 81–2Google Scholar; Tomlinson, R. A., ‘The Menelaion and Spartan architecture’, in Sanders, J. M. (ed.), Φιλολάχων: Lakonian Studies in Honour of Hector Catling (London, 1992), 247–55Google Scholar; A. Faustoferri, ‘The throne of Apollo at Amyklai: its significance and chronology’, in Palagia and Coulson (n. 27), 159–66.

74 Note the remark by G. Dickins (n. 70), 432: ‘We found in the trenches to the east of the round building a Corinthian capital, column and base, which perhaps belong to the decoration of the round building itself’. An ascription of these architectural members to the upper inner order of the Roman stoa might be more plausible, but it has not been possible to test the hypothesis, as their present whereabouts is not known.

75 Christou, C., PAE 1964 [1966], 112–20, pls 113–18Google Scholar; id., Ergon, 1964 [1965], 106–12; BCH 89 (1965), 717–23; Stibbe, 77 n. 67.

76 This suggestion was first made by G. Dickins (n. 70), 432: ‘It is possible that in it we have a late restoration or renewal of the great Stoa Persike mentioned by Pausanias’. The implication, however, that the stoa as we have it is later than the time of Paus. is clearly wrong, from the evidence of the pottery sequences discussed in §3.

77 Plommer, H. D., JHS 99 (1979), 100.Google Scholar

78 Meader and Waldstein (n. 11); Crosby (n. 11); Waldstein (n. 11). Supplementary excavations were undertaken by C. Christou in 1964: PAE 1964 (1966), 102–12, and other refs. in n. 75 above.

79 Paus. iii. 12. 10–11. For the most recent discussion of varied interpretations of this monument prior to the present excavations, see Stibbe, 71–7, esp. 76–7.

80 Meader and Waldstein (n. 11), 424.

81 Crosby (n. 10), 342; (n. 11), 212, argues that the base placed here was that of the large statue of the demos of Sparta recorded by Paus. (iii. 11. 9) in the agora. See n. 88.

82 This has led to the interpretation of the building as a theatron for choral or other cult performances: Martin, R., Recherches sur l'agora grecque (Paris, 1951), 233–5.Google Scholar See also n. 89.

83 Meader and Waldstein (n. 11), 421; Stibbe, 76.

84 Meader and Waldstein (n. 11).

85 Tomlinson (n. 73) favours a date for the enlargement and encasement of the Menelaion ‘about the end of the sixth century’ (p. 249). A similar date is proposed by Stibbe, 77, for the architecture of the Round Building, in contrast to the earlier date of c. 600 BC suggested by Waldstein (n. 11). Christou, however (n. 78), is opposed to a date earlier than the 5th cent.

86 Paus. iii. 12. 11. Nestoridis (n. 9), 52; Meader and Waldstein (n. 11); Stibbe (n. 79).

87 Stein (n. 8), 14; 21; Robert, F., Recherches sur la signification et la destination des monuments circulaires dans l'architecture religieuse de la Grèce (BEFAR 147; 1939), 113 ff.Google Scholar; McDonald, W., The Political Meeting Places of the Creeks (Baltimore, 1943), 64Google Scholar; Seiler, F., Die griechische Tholos (Mainz, 1986), 29 n. 98Google Scholar; 35 n. 123; cf. the discussion and rejection of this identification by Stibbe, 71.

88 Paus. iii. 11. 9. Crosby (n. 81 bis) argues strongly for the Round Building as the location of the statue of the demos of Sparta. His view has found some recent support from Cartledge and Spawforth, 109, 221 no. 39, who note that C. Iulius Theophrastos set up statues of Hadrian and Demos during his term as priest of Zeus Olympios, early in the reign of Antoninus Pius (SEG xi. 492. 4–5). Granted the link between Demos and the worship of Zeus Olympios, however, there is nothing to indicate that the statue of Demos was set up on the site of the Round Building.

89 Martin (n. 82); Christou (n. 78); Kolb (n. 26), 79–81, 110; Mertens, D., Architectura, 12 (1982), 108–10.Google Scholar Cf. Stibbe, 77.

90 See above, §2.

91 The combination is first encountered on the Lysikrates monument at Athens of 334/3 BC: Bauer, H., AM 92 (1977), 204–27Google Scholar; Ridgway, B. S., Hellenistic Sculpture i (Bristol, 1990), 1517.Google Scholar In the 3rd cent. BC it is found on the heroön at Limyra in Lycia: Borchhardt, J., Symposium, 7 (1985), 439–99Google Scholar; id., Akten des XIII. internationalen Kongresses fur klassische Archäologie (Berlin 1988) (Mainz, 1990), 498; Ridgway, op. cit. 196 n. 48. Much later still it occurs on the mausoleum of Hadrian at Rome: Boatwright, M. T., Hadrian and the City of Rome (Princeton, 1987), 161–81.Google Scholar In general cf. Fedak, J., Monumental Tombs of the Hellenistic Age (Toronto, 1990).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

92 Paus. iii. 14. 1. This interpretation finds the support of Torelli (n. 5), 210–11.

93 Kleomenes III (regn. 235–221 BC): Cartledge and Spawforth, 49–58; Nabis (regn. c.207–192 BC): ibid. 59–79. No such memorial is attested, however, by Paus.

94 Above, n. 86.

95 Cartledge and Spawforth, 108–14.

96 See below, §10, no. 11 (RSW 3, 2002.40).

97 Traquair, R., BSA 12 (19051906), 417–29Google Scholar; Gregory (n. 22), 14–21, esp. 20–1; Cartledge and Spawforth, 122; 126; 218 no. 10.

98 J. J. Wilkes, ‘Civil defence in third-century Achaia’, in Walker and Cameron (n. 21), 187–92.

99 Traquair (n. 97), 420–1, figs. 5–6.

100 See above, §2, RSC 1, 2, 3.

101 For this interpretation see Traquair (n. 97), 428. He was unaware, however, of the existence of the w gateway beside the stage building of the theatre, not revealed until Woodward's excavations of 1927: BSA 28 (1926–7), 35 [check].

102 See above, §3, trenches RSC 1, 2, 3, phases IV–V.

103 Cartledge and Spawforth, 122–6.

104 Traquair (n. 97), 428–9.

105 Wilkes (n. 98). For the post-Herulian wall at Athens, see now Frantz, A., The Athenian Agora, xxiv: Late Antiquity: AD 267–700 (Princeton, 1988), 511Google Scholar, with appendix by J. Travlos, pp. 125–41. For Olympia see Mallwitz, A., Olympia und seine Bauten (Munich, 1972), 110–12Google Scholar; Olympia Bericht, vi, 1953–4, 1954–5 (1958). 5–6.

106 Huxley, G., Monemvasia and the Slavs: A Lecture on Some Works of Historical Geography in the Gennadius Library of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens (Athens, 1988), 521.Google Scholar

107 Wace, A. J. B., BSA 12 (19051906), 283–8Google Scholar; 13 (1906–7), 5–16; Cartledge and Spawforth, 126; 217 no. 9.

108 We are particularly grateful to Pamela Armstrong for making this suggestion, and for her subsequent help in providing many of the references contained in this section. She has kindly read through the discussion, but she is not responsible for any errors that may have been made.

109 The suggestion was first made by Heurtley, W. A., BSA 27 (19251926), 265Google Scholar, in the publication report of the excavations carried out at that time by the British School. His view found the support of Adamantiou, A., following fresh excavations reported in ‘La ville de Lakedaimonia et la basilique de Saint-Nicon’, Deuxième congrès international des études byzantines (Belgrade, 1929), 169Google Scholar; cf. id., PAE 1934, 126–8. Galanopoulos, M. E. also favoured the identification with St Nikon in Βίος, πολιτεία, εἰϰονογραφία, θαύματα ϰαι ἀσματιϰὴ ἀϰολονθία τοῦ ὁςίου ϰαὶ θεοφόρον πατρὸς ἡμῶν Νίϰωνος τοῡ Μετανοεῖτε (Athens, 1933)Google Scholar, but was criticized by Koukoulis, P., Epet. 11 (1935), 466–8Google Scholar, who decided against the acropolis location after weighing the evidence contained in the Life. Koukoulis' view was in turn challenged by Sotiriou, G. A., who resumed the excavations and reported on them in ‘Ἀνασϰαφαὶ ἐν ἀρχαίᾳ Σπάρτῃ’, PAE 1939, 107–18Google Scholar (with plan of the buildings on p. 118). The authoritative view of P. Vokotopoulos, based on a study of the architecture, is that the church is not that of St Nikon but an earlier basilica of the second half of the 6th or the early 7th cent., reused in the middle Byzantine period: see ‘Η ἐϰϰλησιαστιϰὴ ἀρχιτεϰτονιϰὴ εἰς τὴν δυτιϰὴν στερεὰν Ἑλλάδα ϰαὶ τὴν’ ′Ηπειρον ἀπὸ τοῦ τέλονς τοὸ 7ον μέχρι τοὸ τέλους τοὸ 10ου αἰῶνος (Thessaloniki, 1975), 204 n. 2; and Πελοποννησιαϰά, supp. 6.2 (1975), 270–85; cf. also Cartledge and Spawforth, 213; 221 no. 44.

110 We are indebted to Michael Angold, George Huxley, and Michael Martin for discussing different aspects of the problem, and for supplying some helpful bibliography. The background to the history of Sparta between the late Roman and middle Byzantine periods is treated by Huxley (n. 106). Documentary evidence for Venetian trade with Sparta in the 12th cent. (mostly in olive oil), with refs. to churches (including the Venetian church of St Nicholas dedicated at Sparta by 1168), is to be found in Morozzo della Rocca, R. and Lombardo, A., Documenti del commercio veneziano dei secoli xi–xiii (Turin, 1940)Google Scholar; Lombardo, A. and Morozzo della Rocca, R., Nuovi documenti del commercio veneziano dei secoli xi–xiii (Venice, 1953)Google Scholar; Borsari, S., Venezia e Bisanzio nel xii secolo: i rapporti economici (Miscellanea di studi e memorie, 26; Venice, 1988).Google Scholar A report of a pilgrimage to St Nikon's at Sparta early in the 14th cent, is to be found in Longnon, J. (ed.), Livre de conquête, paras. 921–2.Google Scholar

111 Sullivan, D. F., The Life of St Nikon (Hellenic College Press, Brookline, Mass., 1987)Google Scholar; Lampsidis, O., ‘Ο ἐϰ Πόντον ὅσιας Νίϰων ὁ Μετανοεῖτε (Athens, 1982).Google Scholar

112 Sullivan (n. 111), 18–19.

113 Ibid. 2–3. This is the reading of the Barberini MS. The other extant version, the Koutloumousi, gives the year as 6,500th, which, as Sullivan notes, is highly improbable since it would fall within Nikon's lifetime at AD 992.

114 Lampsidis (n. 111), 317–20.

115 Sullivan (n. 111), 3–7. A similar emendation had been proposed by Mango, C. and Jenkins, R., ‘A synodicon of Antioch and Lacedaimonia,’ DOP 15 (1961), 240.Google Scholar

116 The only surviving portrait of St Nikon is the representation in mosaic of his head and upper body in the narthex of the church of Osios Loukas: Diez, E. and Demus, O., Byzantine Mosaics in Greece (Harvard, 1931)Google Scholar, ill. 25, p. 93 (no. 80).

117 Cartledge and Spawforth, 127. These authors provide a useful account of what is known of the Roman city and its territory (pp. 127–42) and supply a catalogue of sites and monuments (app. 1, pp. 216–25).

118 For Paus.'s date see Habicht (n. 5), 8–13. The monuments at Sparta mentioned by Paus. whose whereabouts have been ascertained are the sanctuary and temple of Athena Chalkioikos on the summit of the acropolis (iii. 17. 2–3), the theatre on the S slope of the acropolis (14. 1), and the sanctuary of Artemis Orthia in Limnai (16. 7–11). The remains of the sanctuary of Lycurgus (16. 6) may also have been located on the w bank of the Eurotas, just downstream from the modern bridge: BSA 12 (1905–6), 295–302.

119 Paus. iii. 11. 2–11, for his account of the agora. He then sets out on four separate journeys, apparently visiting each quarter of Sparta in turn: (i) 12. 1–9, along Aphetaïs St. to the quarter Mesoa somewhere in the S of the city; (ii) 12. 10–13. 9, probably to the quarter known as Kynosoura, also likely to have been in the s part (whether SE or SW is not known); (iii) 14. 1–15. 9, past the theatre towards the quarter of Pitane in the NW; (iv) 15. 10–17. 1, taking in the NE quarter of Limnai. (v) A final journey is then made to the acropolis and the area of Alpeion to the N (17. 1–18. 5). Stibbe makes a valiant attempt to follow P.'s route (see esp. his fig. 3 on p. 67), but his somewhat eccentric location of the agora causes him to introduce a rather confusing ‘intermezzo’ between (iii) and (iv). If Mesoa were situated in the SE of the city and Kynosoura in the SW (and not the other way round, as Stibbe places them), P.'s visit would be in an orderly clockwise sequence, revolving around the agora and culminating in the acropolis.

120 Stibbe, 61–99.

121 Musti and Torelli (n. 5) esp. introduction, x–xvi; commentary, 191–233. See also Torelli, M. in Gnade, M. (ed.), Stips Votiva: Papers Presented to C. M. Stibbe (Amsterdam, 1991), 225–32.Google Scholar

122 The Roman stoa as a row of shops or tabernae: Stibbe, 77. As substructure for a terrace: Musti and Torelli (n. 5), xi; 192–3, developed further by Torelli in Gnade (n. 121), 225–6.

123 Paus. iii. 14. 1. This interpretation, a key factor in attempting to understand the topography of ancient Sparta, has been accepted by most previous commentators, e.g. Dickins (below, n. 125), 433–4; Musti and Torelli (n. 5), 192.

124 Evidence of a street line running N–S on a house plot on the N side of Odos Irakleidou, exposed to view on 27 Apr. 1992.

125 Dickins, , BSA 12 (19051906), 431–9.Google Scholar

126 Ibid. 433.

127 Stibbe, 65–7, marked no. 1 on his fig. 3 (p. 67).

128 Nicholls, R. V., BSA 45 (1950), 282–98, esp. 289Google Scholar; Cartledge and Spawforth, 223 no. 56.

129 BSA 12 (1905–6), 405–6; 26 (1923–5), 118; Cartledge and Spawforth, 130, 219 no. 23.

130 Leake, W. M., Travels in the Morea (London, 1830), i. 170Google Scholar; Curtius, E., Peloponnesos, ii (Gotha, 1852), 230Google Scholar; Musti and Torelli (n. 5); Torelli, in Gnade (n. 121), 225–6. For L.'s travels see now J. M. Wagstaff, ‘Colonel Leake in Laconia’, in J. M. Sanders (n. 73), 277–83.

131 Paus. iii. 17. 1–2.

132 Dickins (n. 125), 433. The refs. in Plut. are Ages. 29; Lyc. 25; Agis, 12.

133 Christou (n. 75 ter).

134 Xen. Hell. iii. 3. 5. Cf. Stibbe, 66.

135 Paus. iii. 11. 3. See above, §5 for discussion.