CHAP. tering without resistance, massacred the defenceless inhabitants in their beds, or at their altars. As B. C. 743. Amphea stood on a high hill, supplied with copious springs of water, the Spartans determined to make it their place of arms, from which to carry the war at all seasons into the heart of the enemy's country. This was the beginning of the first Messenian war. Authorities for the history of nian wars. Before we proceed, a word must be said as to the evidence on which the following narrative rests. Almost the Messe- every thing we know of the two first Messenian wars is drawn from Pausanias; who, beside the general histories of Ephorus and others, had before him the works of two writers who selected the Messenian wars as their peculiar subject, and to them he appears to have been chiefly indebted for the details he communicates. Both of them flourished late, probably after Alexander. One, Rhianus, of Bené in Crete, related the principal events of the second war in an epic poem; the other, Myron of Priené, wrote a prose history of the first war, beginning from the surprise of Amphea. From the poet it would be unreasonable to expect historical accuracy, and Pausanias charges him with a gross anachronism. But he gives a still more unfavourable notion of the prose writer, and expressly accuses him of generally neglecting truth and probability. It need not be observed, that a narrative drawn from such sources cannot be entitled to full confidence; it may rather be questioned whether it deserves a place in history; for the importance of the Messenian wars would not justify a historian in admitting a fictitious description, though he might have no other way of filling up a large blank. But though little reliance can be placed on the circumstances related by Pausanias, there seems to be enough of truth in the whole history to claim room for it here. Its general outlines may be safely depended on; and of the rest, it cannot be doubted that many, perhaps most, touches IX. belong to a very ancient popular tradition, which, CHAP. notwithstanding its poetical colouring, faithfully transmitted the genuine spirit of the men and the times. B. c. 743. This-the essence probably of heroic songs, which cheered the outcast nation in its exile, and kept alive the hope of better days till they came-it would be unwisely fastidious to reject because it is mixed up with much that is false and worthless; and this neither Rhianus nor Myron can be supposed to have entirely perverted or corrupted. The latter has probably injured it most by arbitrary and tasteless interpolations: he seems to have been a rhetorical historian, who selected this half-mythical subject, which, after the restoration of Messenian independence, excited a general interest in Greece, as an exercise for his pen; and, like Dionysius of Halicarnassus, filled up the intervals of a long period, in which he found only a few insulated poetical incidents, with wordy harangues, and elaborate descriptions of great battles that produce no consequences. Yet, careless as he may have been about any higher object than this display, neither he nor Rhianus can have spun their materials wholly out of their own brains; and therefore we may still listen to them, in the hope of catching many sounds that breathe the life of ancient days. When the Messenians heard of the surprise of Amphea, they knew that they must prepare for a long and hard struggle; and they turned their thoughts more than before to warlike arts and exercises: but seeing themselves unequal to their enemy in the field, they avoided battle, and sheltered themselves behind the walls of their towns. These the Spartans were unable to force: but they made inroads into the heart of the country from Amphea, and began already to look upon Messenia as their own; for they spared the farmhouses, and the vines, and olive trees, and only carried away the fruit, and corn, and cattle, and slaves. The CHAP. B. C. 739. The Messenians fortify Ithomé. Messenians, on their part, were not inactive, but made incursions into Laconia, and infested its coasts. In the fourth year of the war, the Messenians are said to have gathered courage so far as to take the field; but their king, Euphaes, still did not venture to face the Spartans on even ground. He intrenched himself in a strong position, where they could not attack him without great risk; and after a few skirmishes of the light troops, the two armies parted as they met. The next year, a great battle is said to been fought, in which the Spartans were assisted by Cretan archers, and by the Dryopes whom Argos had expelled from Asiné: but neither side raised a trophy; and they buried their dead, not by leave prayed, but by mutual consent. Thus the war crept on, and every year Messenia suffered more and more from the enemy's presence. It was necessary to keep garrisons in all the towns at great cost; the husbandmen had scarcely heart to till the ground, and the slaves ran away to the Spartans. Diseases, such as commonly attend upon war and scarcity, began to spread their ravages through the unhappy land. The Messenians now resolved to try a new plan; not to scatter their forces over the country, but to collect them in an impregnable hold, where they might keep the enemy in check, and cover the region that lay behind them. On the western side of the vale of the Pamisus rise two lofty hills, connected together by a narrow ridge about half a mile long. The southern hill is mount Evan; the northern, mount Ithomé. The latter towers high above all in its immediate neighbourhood, and commands a view over all Messenia from the southern to the western coast. It descends steeply to the south and the west; but on the side of the river, and toward the north, its summit is guarded by precipitous cliffs. On this summit, a little town had been built in early times, probably CHAP. IX. by the Eolian settlers from the north of Thessaly. And now the Messenians resolved to enlarge the ancient circuit, or to join a new city at the foot of the B. c. 734. hill to the citadel on its top. mus. But at the same time, lest any secret anger of the gods should render these precautions vain, they sent to consult the oracle at Delphi. The god declared, that an unsullied virgin of the blood of Epytus, selected by lot, must be made the victim of a nocturnal sacrifice to the powers below: should the lot fall wrong, one willingly offered must suffer instead. The lot was drawn, and fell on a daughter of Lyciscus: but a soothsayer forbad the sacrifice; for he knew by his art that the maid was not of the lineage of Epytus: meanwhile, in the midst of the general amazement, Lyciscus carried her away, and fled to Sparta. Hereupon Aristodemus, an Epytid also, and Aristode renowned for valour, freely offered his own daughter; though he had already betrothed her, and the day fixed for her marriage was at hand. The disappointed lover, after many unavailing remonstrances, forged a tale to defeat the father's purpose, alleging that the maid would not be an unsullied victim; that she was about to become a mother. Aristodemus, furious or impatient, killed his daughter with his own hand: her honour was cleared, but the soothsayer pronounced that a murder was not a sacrifice; that a fresh victim must be sought. The people was enraged with the calumnious lover; but the king, Euphaes, who was his friend, persuaded them that the oracle had been duly obeyed. So, believing that they had made their peace with the gods, they celebrated the event with joy and feasting. The new ground which the Messenians had taken, and the report of their awful rites, discouraged the Spartans; and it was only in the sixth year after Ithomé had been fortified, that their king Theo CHAP. IX. pompus led an army against it. The Messenians gave battle; but as before, though the fight lasted till B. C. 730. nightfall, no victory was gained. Only the chiefs came forward, like the heroes of old, and proved their prowess in single combat. Euphaes himself attacked Theopompus, and fell: he was rescued by his friends, but died soon after of his wounds, without an heir. The people elected Aristodemus to succeed him, though the soothsayers warned them to beware of a man who would bring the stain of blood upon the throne of Epytus. The new king however won the hearts of high and low by his good government ; and he sent to obtain succour from his neighbours the Arcadians, and from Argos and Sicyon. The Arcadians joined the Messenians in ravaging Laconia: for beside petty inroads, which never ceased to be made from time to time, each hostile nation regularly invaded the other's territory before the harvest. Argos and Sicyon waited for a fit occasion. In the fifth year of the reign of Aristodemus, the Spartans are said to have been defeated in a great battle at the foot of Ithomé. Their spirit began to sink, and they sought advice from Delphi. The oracle promised success to stratagems, and Sparta tried many in vain but Aristodemus also was warned by the god to beware of Spartan cunning; and it was darkly announced, that prodigies should mark the approaching fall of Ithomé. These warnings were not understood, till the year arrived in which Messenia was overtaken by the destined calamity. The city was now closely besieged by the Spartans; but Apollo declared to the Messenians, that their land should belong to the nation which should first dedicate a hundred tripods at the altar of Jupiter in Ithomé. While they were preparing the offering, for which, in lack of brass, they were forced to use wood, a Spartan, who had heard of the oracle, stole |