Sparta – or a cautionary tale.
By Frederick Dixon: As the traveller in southern Greece descends from the uplands of Arcadia into the country of Laconia – the far south-eastern corner of the Greek mainland – he encounters a scene of extraordinary beauty. There, before him in the sun, lies a broad and smiling valley whose pastures and fields lie among vineyards and olive groves, citrus and almond orchards. This is the valley of the slow, green, River Eurotas, a valley…