Sparta, on the other hand, must have been of very slight importance before the Doric migration; by which event alone it was enabled to become the ruler of all the surrounding states. For, in the first place, Sparta was not built in the same manner as Mycenæ, Tiryns, and other ruling cities founded before the Doric invasion; the Acropolis is a hill of inconsiderable height, and easy of ascent, without any trace of ancient fortifications or walls. Secondly, it is remarkably deficient in monuments and local memorials of the times of the Pelopidæ and other mythical princes; much as the Spartans in other instances clung to traditions and records of this kind: while Amyclæ and Therapne had these in great abundance. Amyclæ, in a beautiful and well-wooded country,(352) was the abode of Tyndareus and his family; here were the tombs of Cassandra and Agamemnon, who, according to a native tradition (preserved by Stesichorus and Simonides),(353) ruled in this city. At no great distance was situated the town of Therapne. Alcman calls it the “well-fortified Therapne;”(354) Pindar mentions its high situation;(355) by which they clearly imply a position and fortification similar to that of Tiryns. The latter also calls it the ancient metropolis of the Achæans, amongst whom the Dioscuri lived; here were the subterraneous cemeteries of Castor and Pollux,(356) vaulted, perhaps, in the ancient manner; here also the temples of the Brothers and of Helen in the Phœbæum, and many remains of the ancient symbolical religion.(357) It is also very remarkable, that on the banks of the Eurotas, in the district between Therapne and Amyclæ, there should have been discovered a building(358) which resembles the well-known treasury at Mycenæ, and which affords a certain proof that the dominion of the Pelopidæ extended to this district.
But although the local traditions make it probable that the ante-Doric rulers of the country dwelt in Amyclæ and Therapne, yet Homer describes Sparta as the residence of the Pelopidæ, transferring, apparently, the circumstances of his own time to an earlier period. Homer sometimes calls Lacedæmon the abode of Menelaus; by Lacedæmon meaning the entire country, and especially the valley round Sparta, which agrees far better with the epithet of “_hollow_ Lacedæmon,” than the district of Amyclæ, which opens down to the sea.(359) Sometimes he expressly mentions Sparta as the city in which Menelaus has fixed his abode.(360)