GYTHIUM, the harbour and arsenal of Sparta (some 3o m. distant), lay at the north-west extremity of the Laconian gulf, in a small fertile plain at the mouth of the Gythius. Its reputed founders were Heracles and Apollo, who frequently appear on its coins. In classical times it was a community of perioeci, politi cally dependent on Sparta. Subsequently it formed the most important of the Eleutherolaconian towns, a group of twenty-four, later eighteen, communities leagued to maintain their autonomy against Sparta and declared free by Augustus. The highest officer of the confederacy was the general.
Pausanias (iii. 21 f.) has a description of the town in the reign of Marcus Aurelius, the agora, the Acropolis, the island of Cranae (Marathonisi) where Paris celebrated his nuptials with Helen, the Migonium or precinct of Aphrodite Migonitis (occupied by the modern town of Marathonisi or Gythium), and the hill Larysium (Koumaro) rising above it. Extant remains are all of Roman date: the theatre and the buildings partially submerged by the sea are noteworthy.
The modern town is a busy port with a good harbour protected by Cranae, now connected by a mole with the mainland : it is the capital of the prefecture (voľos ) of Laconia with a population (1928) 6,701.