The decisive Battle of Leuctra in 371 BC ended the Spartan hegemony, although the city-state maintained its political independence until the Roman conquest of Greece in 146 BC. Sparta was the principal enemy of Athens during the Peloponnesian War (between 431 and 404 BC), from which it emerged victorious after the Battle of Aegospotami. Given its military pre-eminence, Sparta was recognized as the leading force of the unified Greek military during the Greco-Persian Wars, in rivalry with the rising naval power of Athens. Around 650 BC, it rose to become the dominant military land-power in ancient Greece. In antiquity, the city-state was known as Lacedaemon ( Λακεδαίμων, Lakedaímōn), while the name Sparta referred to its main settlement on the banks of the Eurotas River in Laconia, in south-eastern Peloponnese. Sparta ( Doric Greek: Σπάρτα, Spártā Attic Greek: Σπάρτη, Spártē) was a prominent city-state in Laconia, in ancient Greece. Across the valley the successive ridges of Mount Taygetus are in evidence. Site of the Menelaion, the ancient shrine to Helen and Menelaus constructed in the Bronze Age city that stood on the hill of Therapne on the left bank of the Eurotas River overlooking the future site of Dorian Sparta.
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