Las (Greece)
Las, or Laas, or La, was an Ancient Greek town in Laconia on the Peloponnese, on the east coast of the Mani Peninsula on the Laconian Gulf. The c. 330 BCE Periplus of Pseudo-Scylax names Las as the only coastal town between Tainaron and Gytheio.
The Periplus describes a port at Las, but according to the 2nd-century CE geographer Pausanias, the town itself was 10 stadia from the sea, and 40 stadia from Gytheio. In the time of Pausanias the town lay in a hollow between three mountains called "Asia", "Ilium", and "Cnacadium"; the old town stood on the summit of Mt. Asia. The name "Las" signified a rock at the original location. Las is named in the Catalogue of Ships in the Iliad.
According to local tradition the founder of the town was Las.
In Greek mythology, Las was destroyed by the twins Castor and Pollux, who then called themselves "Lapersae". The name "Lapersa" was in turn given to a mountain in Laconia.
History
In ancient times Las was a Spartan possession. Las broke with Sparta in 195 BC and became part of the Union of Free Laconians; the Spartans recaptured the city in 189 BC. The Spartan citadel was then taken over by the Achaean League and Las gained its independence again. When the Romans took over most of Greece in 146 BC, Las and the other Free Laconian cities continued to be recognized as free cities. In Roman times, Las had a thermae and a gymnasium.Las's importance diminished under Roman rule. Livy speaks of it as "vicus maritimus", and Pausanias mentions the ruins of the city on Mt. Asia. Before the walls he saw a statue of Heracles, and a trophy erected over the Macedonians who were a part of Philip V of Macedon's army when he invaded Laconia; and among the ruins he noticed a statue of Athena Asia. The modern town was near a fountain called Galaco, from the milky colour of its water, and near it was a gymnasium, in which stood an ancient statue of Hermes. On Mt. Ilium stood a temple of Dionysus, and on the summit a temple of Asclepius; and on Mt. Cnacadium a temple of Apollo Carneius. Las is spoken of by Polybius and Strabo under the name of "Asine"; it is possible that colonists from Asine in Argolis settled at Las and gave their name to the town.
The site is not mentioned in Byzantine times until after the "Frankish" conquest of the Peloponnese, when Mani, as part of the Principality of Achaea, was given to the French nobleman John of Nully, who built a castle at Las sometime after 1218. This castle became known as in Greek, a name probably related to the motto or war-cry Passe-Avant, "move forward", or to one of the similar toponyms in northeastern France. Nully's Barony of Passavant comprised four knight's fiefs, but virtually nothing is known about it. It was apparently short-lived, with the castle itself falling to the Byzantines during their first offensives in the Peloponnese in ca. 1263.
The castle was in use once again during the second Byzantine period, under the Despotate of the Morea. The castle of Passavas was occupied by the Ottomans for a short time when they took over the majority of the Peloponnese, in a failed attempt to keep control over the Maniots who refused to accept Ottoman rule. In 1601, a Spanish fleet led by Alonso de Contreras that was raiding in the area surprised the Ottoman garrison and sacked the city. It was regarrisoned in 1669 by the Ottoman general Kuesy Ali Pasha. The castle was captured again in 1684 by the Venetians and the Maniots. The Venetians carried off the cannons and destroyed the city so it would not be used again. When the leader of the Maniots was executed by the Ottomans, his mother led the men of Skoutari who dressed up as priests on Easter Sunday and were allowed entry to the castle. When they got in they took out their hidden weapons and not many of the 700 families inhabiting the castle escaped. The castle was abandoned after that and has not been inhabited since.