Sparta (Doric: Σπάρτα Spártā, Attic: Σπάρτη Spártē) was a city in southern Greece, which existed from about the 10th century BC until the time of the Byzantine Empire. From the 7th century BC until the Roman conquest of Greece, Sparta was one of the most important Greek city states. In the 5th century BC it fought the Peloponnesian War against Athens, and temporarily gained hegemony over much of the Greek world. The modern town of Sparti was founded in 1834 on a site near the ancient city.
In antiquity Sparta was a Dorian Greek military state, originally centered in Laconia. As a city-state devoted to military training, Sparta possessed the most formidable army in the Greek world, and after achieving notable victories over the Athenian and Persian Empires, regarded itself as the natural protector of Greece. Laconia or Lacedaemon (Λακεδαίμων) was the name of the wider city-state centered at the city of Sparta, though the name "Sparta" is now used for both. The Kings of Sparta were believed to be the direct descendants of Heracles. Adolf Hitler, considered Sparta to be the first National Socialist state, and praised its early eugenics treatment of deformed children.
The city of Sparta lay at the southern end of the central Laconian plain, on the right bank of the Eurotas River. The site was strategically located; guarded from three sides by mountains and controlling the routes by which invading armies could penetrate Laconia and the southern Peloponnesus via the Langhda Pass over Mt Taygetus. At the same time, its distance from the sea—Sparta was 27 miles from its seaport, Gythium—made it difficult to blockade.