Malea

MA´LEA(Μαλέα), a town in the district of Aegytis in Arcadia, the inhabitants of which were transferred to Megalopolis upon the foundation of the latter city. (Paus. 8.27.4.) Its territory was called the Maleatis (ἡ Μαλεᾶτις). Xenophon describes Leuctra as a fortress situated above the Maleatis; and as Leuctra was probably at or near Leondári, Malea must have been in the same neighbourhood. [LEUCTRA] Leake, however, connecting Malea with the river MALUS(Μαλοῦς, Paus. 8.35.1), a tributary of the Alpheius, places the town on this river, and on the road from Megalopolis to Carnasium (Leake, Peloponnesiaca, p. 248); but this is not probable. The place MIDEA(Μιδέα) mentioned by Xenophon (Xen. Hell. 7.1.28) is probably a corrupt form of Malea. (Curtius, Peloponnesos, vol. 1. p. 336.)