ABSTRACT
Ancient Sparta might be said to resemble ancient Alexandria in that, although literary descriptions of both cities have survived, their urban topography remains difficult to reconstruct. In Sparta’s case, the value of the detailed, if partial, account by Pausanias of the early Antonine city is offset by the slow progress of archaeological research, which has yet to locate firmly such cardinal points as the agora, the lines of most of the chief thoroughfares and the citygates. It is not this chapter’s purpose to offer a rehearsal of the evidence and an anthology of modern opinion regarding Spartan topography, present understanding of which remains based on the findings of the campaigns conducted by the British School at Athens before and after the Great War. Instead, it attempts to show what is significant for an archaeological understanding of the Roman city, beginning with a survey, in the light of recent research and personal observation, of the chief monuments of the Roman period, basing itself on the catalogue of sites presented as Appendix I.1
