The origins of the term are unclear. It is first recorded in the Latin form "caryatides" by the Roman architect Vitruvius. He stated in his 1st century BC work "De architectura" (I.1.5) that the female figures of the Erechtheion represented the punishment of the women of Caryae, a town near Sparta in Laconia, who were condemned to slavery after betraying Athens by siding with Persia in the Greco-Persian Wars. However, Vitruvius' explanation is doubtful; well before the Persian Wars, female figures were used as decorative supports in Greece and the ancient Near East. Whatever the origin may have been, the association of caryatids with slavery persists and is prevalent in Renaissance art.