The harbor of Gytheio was a vital port for the Spartans. Mainly made up of Perioiki, the harbor wasrumored to be a source for the highly coveted dye, Murex, which is made from shell fish, andof  which Phoenicians traders prized above gold and gems. The harbor was said to have had godly founders, namely Heracles and Apollo. Durning the first Peloponnesian war, the harbor was destroyed by the Athenians in 455b.c., and later was the shipyards for the Spartan navy. Alcibiades himself was reported as having seen the growing navy being built there, some 50 triremes. Taken and recaptured numerous times, this vital source for the Lacadaemonian naval forces was extremely important to the mainland Spartans. In 219BC, Philip V of Macedonia tried and failed to capture the port.

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Pausanius, "Descriptions of Greece, 2.21.6-9."http://www.perseus.tufts.edu, accessed 2/24/2017

Xenophon, J. Irving Manatt, and Charles E. Bennett. Xenophon. "Hellenica,1.1.1" .. Boston: Ginn & Co., 1901.

 Patrick Leigh Fermer," Mani travels in the southern Peloponnese". New York: New York Review Books, 2006.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gytheio#/media/File:Gythio.JPG

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