11. We now turn to LACONIA, which, according to the above-mentioned legend concerning the division of Peloponnesus, fell to the share of Aristodemus or his sons.(342) According to the common tradition (which was derived from the epic poets(343)) the twin brothers Eurysthenes and Procles(344) took possession of Sparta after the death of their father; whereas the national tradition of Sparta, as Herodotus informs us, represented Aristodemus himself as having been the first ruler,(345) and the double dominion of his children as not having been settled till after his death; the first-born, however, enjoying a certain degree of precedence.(346) This is, indeed, contradicted by the account of Thucydides,(347) who mentions as a Lacedæmonian tradition, that the kings who first took possession of Lacedæmon (_i.e._ Eurysthenes and Procles) were conducted thither with dances and sacrifices, an honour which at the command of the Delphian oracle was afterwards given to Pleistoanax at his restoration. This variation, however, is perhaps merely the effect of a pardonable negligence in the author. 12. It is, however, far more difficult to ascertain what was the condition of Laconia immediately after the invasion of the Dorians. For it is plain that the history, as it was arranged by Ephorus, and derived from him to other authors, is in contradiction with many isolated traditions, but which for that very reason are of the greater importance. So far, indeed, from the whole of the Laconian territory immediately falling into the hands of the Dorians,(348) it is certain that a powerful fortress of the ancient Achæans, at a short distance from Sparta itself, held out for nearly three centuries after the Doric invasion.