Parnon, consisting for the most part of barren limestone uplands scantily watered. The Eurotas valley, however, is fertile, and produces at the present day maize, olives, oranges and mulberries in great abundance. Laconia has no rivers of importance except the Eurotas and its largest tributary the Oenus (mod. Kelefína). The coast, especially on the east, is rugged and dangerous. Laconia has few good harbours, nor are there any islands lying off its shores with the exception of Cythera (Cerigo), S. of Cape Malea. The most important towns, besides Sparta and Gythium, were Bryseae, Amyclae and Pharis in the Eurotas plain, Pellana and Belbina on the upper Eurotas, Sellasia on the Oenus, Caryae on the Arcadian frontier, Prasiae, Zarax and Epidaurus Limera on the east coast, Geronthrae on the slopes of Parnon, Boeae, Asopus, Helos, Las and Teuthrone on the Laconian Gulf, and Hippola, Messa and Oetylus on the Messenian Gulf.
The earliest inhabitants of Laconia, according to tradition, were the autochthonous Leleges (q.v.). Minyan immigrants then settled at various places on the coast and even appear to have penetrated into the interior and to have founded Amyclae. Phoenician traders, too, visited the shores of the Laconian Gulf, and there are indications of trade at a very early period between Laconia and Crete, e.g. a number of blocks of green Laconian porphyry from the quarries at Croceae have been found in the palace of Minos at Cnossus. In the Homeric poems Laconia appears as the realm of an Achaean prince, Menelaus, whose capital was perhaps Therapne on the left bank of the Eurotas, S.E. of Sparta; the Achaean conquerors, however, probably contented themselves with a suzerainty over Laconia and part of Messenia (q.v.) and were too few to occupy the whole land. The Achaean kingdom fell before the incoming Dorians, and throughout the classical period the history of Laconia is that of its capital Sparta (q.v.). In 195 B.C. the Laconian coast towns were freed from Spartan rule by the Roman general T. Quinctius Flamininus, and became members of the Achaean League. When this was dissolved in 146 B.C., they remained independent under the title of the “Confederation of the Lacedaemonians” or “of the Free-Laconians” (κοινὸν τῶν Λακεδαιμονίων or Ἐλευθερολακώνων), the supreme officer of which was a στρατηγός (general) assisted by a ταμίας (treasurer). Augustus seems to have reorganized the league in some way, for Pausanias (iii. 21, 6) speaks of him as its founder. Of the twenty-four cities which originally composed the league, only eighteen remained as members by the reign of Hadrian (see Achaean League). In A.D. 395 a Gothic horde under Alaric devastated Laconia, and subsequently it was overrun by large bands of Slavic immigrants. Throughout the middle ages it was the scene of vigorous struggles between Slavs, Byzantines, Franks, Turks and Venetians, the chief memorials of which are the ruined strongholds of Mistra near Sparta, Geráki (anc. Geronthrae) and Monemvasia, “the Gibraltar of Greece,” on the east coast, and Passava near Gythium. A prominent part in the War of Independence was played by the Maniates or Mainotes, the inhabitants of the rugged peninsula formed by the southern part of Taygetus. They had all along maintained a virtual independence of the Turks and until quite recently retained their medieval customs, living in fortified towers and practising the vendetta or blood-feud.
The district has been divided into two departments (nomes), Lacedaemon and Laconia, with their capitals at Sparta and Gythium respectively. Pop. of Laconia (1907) 61,522.
Archaeology.—Until 1904 archaeological research in Laconia was carried on only sporadically. Besides the excavations undertaken at Sparta, Gythium and Vaphio (q.v.), the most important were those at the Apollo sanctuary of Amyclae carried out by C. Tsountas in 1890 (Ἐφημ. ἀρχαιολ. 1892, 1 ff.) and in 1904 by A. Furtwängler. At Kampos, on the western side of Taygetus, a small domed tomb of the “Mycenean” age was excavated in 1890 and yielded two leaden statuettes of great interest, while at Arkina a similar tomb of poor construction was unearthed in the previous year. Important inscriptions were found at Geronthrae (Geráki), notably five long fragments of the Edictum Diocletiani, and elsewhere. In 1904 the British Archaeological school at Athens undertook a systematic investigation of the ancient and medieval remains in Laconia. The results, of which the most important are summarized in the article Sparta, are published in the British School Annual, x. ff. The acropolis of Geronthrae, a hero-shrine at Angelona in the south-eastern highlands, and the sanctuary of Ino-Pasiphae at Thalamae have also been investigated.
Bibliography.—Besides the Greek histories and many of the works cited under Sparta, see W. M. Leake, Travels in the Morea (London, 1830), cc. iv.-viii., xxii., xxiii.; E. Curtius, Peloponnesos (Gotha, 1852), ii. 203 ff.; C. Bursian, Geographie von Griechenland (Leipzig, 1868), ii. 102 ff.; Strabo viii. 5; Pausanias iii. and the commentary in J. G. Frazer, Pausanias’s Description of Greece (London, 1898), vol. iii.; W. G. Clark, Peloponnesus (London, 1858), 155 ff.; E. P. Boblaye, Recherches géographiques sur les ruines de la Morée (Paris, 1835), 65 ff.; L. Ross, Reisen im Peloponnes (Berlin, 1841), 158 ff.; W. Vischer, Erinnerungen u. Eindrücke aus Griechenland (Basel, 1857), 360 ff.; J. B. G. M. Bory de Saint-Vincent, Relation du voyage de l’expédition scientifique de Morée (Paris, 1836), cc. 9, 10; G. A. Blouet, Expédition scientifique de Morée (Paris, 1831–1838), ii. 58 ff.; A. Philippson, Der Peloponnes (Berlin, 1892), 155 ff.; Annual of British School at Athens, 1907–8.
Inscriptions: Le Bas-Foucart, Voyage archéologique: Inscriptions, Nos. 160-290; Inscriptiones Graecae, v.; Corpus Inscriptionum Graecarum (Berlin, 1828), Nos. 1237-1510; Collitz-Bechtel, Sammlung der griech. Dialektinschriften, iii. 2 (Göttingen, 1898), Nos. 4400-4613. Coins: Catalogue of Greek Coins in the British Museum: Peloponnesus (London, 1887), xlvi. ff., 121 ff.; B. V. Head, Historia Numorum (Oxford, 1887), 363 ff. Cults: S. Wide, Lakonische Kulte (Leipzig, 1893). Ancient roads: W. Loring, “Some Ancient Routes in the Peloponnese” in Journal of Hellenic Studies, xv. 25 ff. (M. N. T.)
LACONIA, a city and the county-seat of Belknap county, New Hampshire, U.S.A., on both sides of the Winnepesaukee river, 28 m. N.N.E. of Concord. Pop. (1900) 8042 (1770 foreign-born); (1910) 10,183. Laconia is served by two divisions of the Boston & Maine railway, which has a very handsome granite passenger station (1892) and repair shops here. It is pleasantly situated in the lake district of central New Hampshire, and in the summer season Lake Winnisquam on the S. and W. and Lake Winnepesaukee on the N.E. attract many visitors. The city covers an area of 24.65 sq. m. (5.47 sq. m. annexed since 1890). Within the city limits, and about 6 m. from its centre, are the grounds of the Winnepesaukee Camp-Meeting Association, and the camping place for the annual reunions of the New Hampshire Veterans of the Civil War, both at The Weirs, the northernmost point in the territory claimed by colonial Massachusetts; about 2 m. from the centre of Laconia is Lakeport (pop. 1900, 2137), which, like The Weirs, is a summer resort and a ward in the city of Laconia. Among the public institutions are the State School for Feeble-minded Children, a cottage hospital and the Laconia Public Library, lodged in the Gale Memorial Library building (1903). Another fine building is the Congregational Church (1906). The New Hampshire State Fish Hatchery is in Laconia. Water-power is furnished by the river. In 1905 Laconia ranked first among the cities of the state in the manufacture of hosiery and knit goods, and the value of these products for the year was 48.4% of the total value of the city’s factory product; among its other manufactures are yarn, knitting machines, needles, sashes and blinds, axles, paper boxes, boats, gas and gasolene engines, and freight, passenger and electric cars. The total value of the factory products increased from $2,152,379 in 1900 to $3,096,878 in 1905, or 43.9%. The portion of the city N. of the river, formerly known as Meredith Bridge, was set apart from the township of Meredith and incorporated as a township under the name of Laconia in 1855; a section S. of the river was taken from the township of Gilford in 1874; and Lakeport was added in 1893, when Laconia was chartered as a city. The name Laconia was first applied in New England to the region granted in 1629 to Mason and Gorges (see Mason, John).
LACONICUM (i.e. Spartan, sc. balneum, bath), the dry sweating
room of the Roman thermae, contiguous to the caldarium or hot
room. The name was given to it as being the only form of warm
bath that the Spartans admitted. The laconicum was usually
a circular room with niches in the axes of the diagonals and was
covered by a conical roof with a circular opening at the top,
