Daily Iowa State Democrat. [volume] (Davenport, Iowa) 1856-1859, 1858-07-13

Leondari, where we passed the night, is
on the frontier Of Sparta, but still in Arcadi.
Here Alpheus, from his glacier cold" on
Taygetus, ru-hes down the bills in pursuit
Of his Dorian Arethusa. Here is still the
rural paradise Of Ancient Greece, with its
pure air, its sweet water, its seclusion and
peace but alas! the people. We over
looked long tracts of oak forests-nothing
but oak-some ancient trunks, gnarled and
hoary with a thousand years, and younger
woods covering the gentle rounded knobs.
The morning was divinely clear and bril-
liant, but cold, with a thin sheet Of ice on
| standing water. In an hour and a halt, af-
ter treading scattering groves of oak and
lex, we passed a low bar connecting Tayge-
tus with Manalus on the north, and this, as
| rightly guessed, was the water shed be-
tween the Alpheus and Eurotas-the boun-
dairy of Sparta In the splendor of the day
every feature Of the landscape had its clear
est form and its richest coloring, and from
the beds of the daisy and crocus at our feet
to the snowy pyramids of Taygetus, high
above, everything spoke of life and of spring.
There is a village called Longnike, in a very
wild position, high up under the very crest
of the mountain, which supplies the Morea
with physicians. The boys are event sent
to France and Germany to complete their
studies During the day We met with
numbers of peasants, driving asses laden
with bundles of young mulberry and olive
trees, from the nurseries of Sparta. There
was refreshing evidence of improvement in
tn amount of new ground brought under
cultivation.
AS We approached Sparta, the road de
scended to the banks of the Eurotas. Traces
of the ancient walls which restrained the
river still remain in places, but in his shift
ing course he has swept the most of them
away and spreads his gravelly deposits free
" over the bottoms inclosed between the
spurs of the hills. The clumps of popular,
willow and sycamore which lined the stream
and tine thickets of blackberry, mastic, lick
and arbutus through which Our road wound
gave the scenery a charming, wild and ru-
raj aspect. The hills -deposits of alluvium
left by the pre-Adamite foods-took the
most remarkable forms, showing regular
terraces. cones, pyramids and b~astions, as
they fell off toward the river.
Toward evening We saw at a distance the
white houses of ancient Sparta, and pres
emily some indications of the ancient city.
At first, the remains of terraces and ram
parts, then the unmistakeable Hellenic
walls, and as the superb plain of the Euro
tas burst upon us, stretching in garden-like
beauty to the foot of the abrupt hills, over
which lowered the sun-touched SHOWS oil
Taygetus, We saw close on our right, almost
the only relic of the lost ages-the theatre.
Riding across a field Of wheat, which exten.
de-. all over the scene Of the Spartan gym
nastic exhibitions, we stood on the prosce-
mum and contemplated these silent ruins,
and the broad, beautiful landscape. 1t is
one of the finest views in Grcece-not 60
crowded with striking points, not SO splen
did in associations, as that of Athens; but
larger, grander, richer in coloring. The
plain, watered by the unfailing Eurotas, is
c vered with luxuriaut vegetation, and
opens its fruitful lap to the noon day sun.
In warm countries, water is the great fertil.
izer, and no part OF Greece is so we'll sup
piled in this respect as Sparta.
Beside the theatre, the only remains are
some masses of Roman brickwork, and the
massive. substrubtions of a small temple
which the natives call the tomb of Leonidas.
| walked over the shapeless rubbish which
cssyers the five hills, without a single feeling
OF regret. There were great fighters before
Agememnon, and there are as brave men as
Leonidas today. AS for the race Of military
savages whom Lycurgus-the man of ice
and i~ron-educated here, who would wish
to restore themg The one virtue of he
Spartans-bravery-is always exaggerated,
because it is their noble trait. They were
coarse, cruel, treacherous and dishonest,
and while they acted in two or three in
stances as a shield to Greece, they dealt the
pefidious stabs through which she persisted
at last In art, literature, science and phi
losophy, we W nothing to Sparta. She
has bequeathed to us only a few personal
examples of splendid patriotism, and a code
which, God be thanked, can never be put
in practice again.