Lacedaemon

Lacedaemon, or Lakedaimon, Grk. ￎﾛￎﾱￎﾺￎﾵￎﾴￎﾱￎﾹￎﾼￏﾉￎﾽ or ￎﾛￎﾱￎﾺￎﾵￎﾴￎﾱￎﾹￎﾼￏﾉￎﾽￎﾯￎﾱ Lacedaemonia, in historical times, was the proper name of the Spartan state as used by Thucydides in his histories. Homer and Herodotus use only the former, and in some passages seems to denote by it the Achaean citadel, the Therapnae of later times, in contrast to the lower town Sparta. Lacedaemon is now the name of a province in the prefecture of Laconia. The Lacedaimonians were the only people in ancient Greece to employ a core army of full-time soldiers. Their state institutions and system of education were designed for the purpose of creating these superbly-trained soldiers. The whole army consisted of these heavy armed elite soldiers and several...