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South-Western Laconia–Sites

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 October 2013

Extract

I propose in this paper to give some account of the topography and existing remains of the district lying between the range of Taygetus and the eastern coast of the Messenian Gulf. The ground covered extends from Pyrgos on the south, some eight kilometres south of Areopolis, to Kalamata.

The sea border of the eastern shore of the Messenian Gulf consists of a narrow shelf of land lying along the foot of Taygetus, which here approaches everywhere nearer to the sea than on the side of the Laconian Gulf. It is everywhere mountainous, and in many places the outlying spurs of Taygetus run abruptly into the sea. Harbours are not infrequent, those of Limeni and Kardamyle being the safest and most commodious. The rivers are mere mountain torrents; water is scarce; the land is everywhere infertile, except here and there, where either a small stretch of plain borders the shore, as at Levctro, or a high plateau overlooks the sea, as at Koutiphari and Platsa; the rich valley of Kampos in the north is the only instance of an inland plain.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Council, British School at Athens 1904

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References

page 159 note 1 See Frazer's note on Paus. iv. 1. 1.

page 160 note 1 Paus. iii. 25. 1. First identified by Boblaye (Recherches, p. 88).

page 160 note 2 See Coronelli, , Descr. de la Morée (Paris, 1687), p. 37Google Scholar, with a plan of the fortress.

page 160 note 3 Paus. iii. 25. 10. Strabo viii. 360. Ptol. iii. 14. 4. 3. Tozer, , J. H. S. 1882. p. 355.Google Scholar

page 161 note 1 Leake placed it at Platsa (Pelop. p. 178 f.); Boblaye (Recherches, p. 92 f.); Bursian, (Geog. ii. p. 153)Google Scholar and Curtius, (Pelop. ii. p. 284)Google Scholar in the valley of the Milia.

page 161 note 2 The whole passage runs, ‘atque etiam qui praeerant Lacedaemoniis, non contenti invigilantibus curis in Pasiphae fano, quod est in agro propter urbem, somniandi causa incubabant’ (Cic. loc. cit.).

page 162 note 1 Paus. iii. 26. 2. First identified by Mr. Morritt of Rokeby (the friend of Sir Walter Scott), see Walpole's, Memoirs relating to Turkey, i. p. 51.Google Scholar

page 164 note 1 Boblaye, Recherches, p. 93 ff.; Curtius, , Pelop. ii. p. 284.Google Scholar

page 165 note 1 Pernice, E. in Berl. phil. Wochenschrift, 1893, p. 1373 f.Google Scholar, and Mittheil. 1894, pp. 355–367; Weil, R., Mittheil. 1882, p. 216.Google Scholar

page 165 note 2 See Mr. Frazer's note on Paus. iv. 31. 3.

page 165 note 3 Pausanias (iv. 30) speaking of Abia says Ιρην καλεῖσθαι πάλαι . . .φασὶν implying that he does not feel sure of the identification, and Palaiochora, which lies on a plain and near the seai shore, is hardly a likely site for a ‘Mycenaean’ fortress.