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Ruined Spartan port town in Laconia in ancient Greece that was sacked by Athens From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Prasiae or Prasiai (Ancient Greek: Πρασιαί),[1][2][3] or Prasia (Πρασία),[4][5] also known as Brasiae or Brasiai (Βρασιαί),[6] was a town on the eastern coast of ancient Laconia, described by Pausanias as the farthest of the Eleuthero-Laconian places on this part of the coast, and as distant 200 stadia by sea from Cyphanta.[6] The Periplus of Pseudo-Scylax speaks of it as a city and a harbour.[4]
The name of the town was derived by the inhabitants from the noise of the waves (Βράζειν). Pausanias relates a story, found nowhere else in Greece, that Semele, after giving birth to her son by Zeus, was discovered by Cadmus and put with Dionysus into a chest, which was washed up by the waves at Prasiae. Semele, who was no longer alive when found, received a splendid funeral, but the Prasiaeans brought up Dionysus and changed the name of their town from Oreiatae or Oreiatai (Ὀρειάταί) to Brasiae.[7][lower-alpha 1]
It was an important Spartan naval base during the Peloponnesian War. It was burnt by the Athenians in the second year of the Peloponnesian War, 430 BCE.[1][3] Also in 414 BCE, the Athenians, in conjunction with the Argives, ravaged the coast near Prasiae.[10] In the Macedonian period Prasiae, with other Laconian towns on this coast, passed into the hands of the Argives;[11] whence Strabo calls it one of the Argive towns,[2] though in another passage he says that it belonged at an earlier period to the Lacedaemonians.[12] It was restored to Laconia by Augustus, who made it one of the Eleuthero-Laconian towns.[13] Among the curiosities of Prasiae Pausanias mentions a cave where Ino nursed Dionysus; a temple of Asclepius and another of Achilles, and a small promontory upon which stood four brazen figures not more than a foot in height.[14]