Sparta was a prominent city-state in Laconia in ancient Greece. In antiquity, the state was known as Lacedaemon (Λακεδαίμων, Lakedaímōn), while "Sparta" referred to its capital, a group of villages in the valley of the Evrotas River in Laconia, in southeastern Peloponnese. Around 650 BC, it rose to become one of the major military powers in Greece, a status it retained until 371 BC.
Sparta was recognized as the leading force of the unified Greek military during the Greco-Persian Wars, in rivalry with the rising naval power of Athens. Sparta was the principal enemy of Athens during the Peloponnesian War (431–404 BC), from which it emerged victorious after the Battle of Aegospotami. Thebes' victory over Sparta at the Battle of Leuctra in 371 BC ended Spartan hegemony and freed Messenia from Spartan rule; the loss of the slave labor this region provided sent the city into terminal decline as a military power, though it retained its independence until its forcible integration into the Achaean League in 192 BC. The city recovered some autonomy after the Roman conquest of Greece in 146 BC and became a tourist destination during the Roman era, restoring some measure of prosperity. However, Sparta was sacked in 396 AD by the Visigothic king Alaric, and underwent a long period of decline into the medieval period, when much of its population relocated to Mystras. Modern Sparta is a provincial town and the seat of the Laconia regional administration.
