The 'Round Building' of Ancient Sparta. The identification of this monument is problematic. Among those proposed the most favoured is that of the 'Circular Building' of Epimenides containing statues Zeus and Aphrodite Olympia, c. 600 BC. Scholars have also suggested the monument could be the Skias, a place for public and musical performances built by Theodoros of Samos c.mid 6th century BC., the sanctuary of the goddess Gaia (Earth). This was known as the Choros, where the the festival of Gymnopaediai was performed, as well as the place where the colossal statue of the Demos of Sparta once stood. Dorian Sparta rose to dominance in the 6th century BC. At the time of the Persian Wars, it was the leader by assent of the Greek city-states. When Sparta defeated Athens in the Peloponnesian War, it secured an unrivaled hegemony over southern Greece. An earthquake destroyed Sparta in 464 BC.