​LACEDAEMON, in historical times an alternative name of Laconia (q.v.). Homer uses only the former, and in some passages seems to denote by it the Achaean citadel, the Therapnae of later times, in contrast to the lower town Sparta (G. Gilbert, Studien zur altspartanischen Geschichte, Göttingen, 1872, p. 34 foll.). It is described by the epithets κοίλη (hollow) and κητώεσσα (spacious or hollow), and is probably connected etymologically with λάκκος, lacus, any hollow place. Lacedaemon is now the name of a separate department, which had in 1907 a population of 87,106.