The city of Sparta lay at the southern end of the central Laconian plain, on the right bank of the Eurotas River. It was a strategic site, guarded on three sides by mountains and controlling the routes by which invading armies could penetrate Laconia and the southern Peloponnesus via the Langhda Pass over Mt Taygetus. At the same time, its distance from the sea—Sparta was 27 miles from its seaport, Gythium—made it difficult to blockade. History Antiquity The recorded history of Sparta began with the Dorian invasions, when the Peloponnesus was settled by Illyrian tribes coming from Epirus and Macedonia through the northeast region of Greece, submitting or displacing the older Achaean Greek inhabitants.Forrest, W. G. A History of Sparta: 950-192 BC New York: Norton 1968 p. 24-27 The Mycenaean Sparta of Menelaus described in Homer's Iliad was an older Greek civilization, whose link to

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