country in the south of Peloponnesus, mostly maritime, situated between Elea to the west, and Laconia to the east. Anciently a part of Laconia under Menelaus, and called Messene by Homer; interpreted by the scholiast, Messenica Regia. Messenii, the people, reduced to a state of slavery and subjection by the Spartans; Messenius, the epithet.

This country is famous in history, on account of the resistance made by the Messenians against the Spartans, and the exploits of their hero Arilomenes. The first hostilities commenced about the year 652 B.C. on what occasion is uncertain. Though the Messenians were inferior in the knowledge of the art of war to the Spartans; yet, by keeping for some time on the defensive, they improved so much, that in three years time they found themselves in a capacity of giving battle to their enemies in the open Messenia field; nor did they appear to be in any degree inferior either in courage or conduct: the war was therefore protracted, with various success, on both sides. At last, both consulted the oracle at Delphi; and received for answer, "that whoever should first dedicate 100 tripods in the temple of Jupiter at Ithome, a strong hold of the Messenians, should be masters of the country." The inhabitants of Messenia, on hearing this, having no money to make the tripods of brass, fell to cutting them out in wood; but before this could be accomplished, a Spartan having got into the city by stratagem, dedicated 100 little tripods of clay; which threw the Messenians into such despair, that they at last submitted to the Spartans.

The new subjects of Sparta were treated with the utmost barbarity by these cruel tyrants; so that a new war commenced under Arilomenes, a man of unconquerable valour, and enthusiastically fond of liberty. He perceived that the Argives and Arcadians, who were called the allies of the Lacedemonians, adhered to them only through fear of their power; but that in reality they hated them, and wished to revenge the injuries they had done them. To these Arilomenes applied; and receiving an answer conformable to his wishes, he engaged his countrymen unanimously to take up arms. About a year after the revolt began, and before either party had received any auxiliaries, the Spartans and Messenians met at a village called Derca, where an obstinate engagement ensued. Arilomenes was conceived to have performed more than mortal achievements: in gratitude therefore, respect being also had to his royal descent, his countrymen unanimously saluted him king; which title he modestly waved, alleging, that he took up arms to set them free, and not to make himself great; he consented, however, to accept the title of general, with a power of doing whatsoever he thought requisite for the service of the public. Knowing well the superstition of the age in which he lived, he resolved to intimidate the Spartans, by showing them what he was sure they would take for an ill omen. Disguising himself therefore, he went privately to the city, where, in the night, he hung up a shield on the wall of the temple of Minerva, with this inscription: Arilomenes dedicates this, out of the spoils of the Spartans, to the gods. It was easily perceived that this war would be both long and bloody; the Lacedemonians therefore sent deputies to Delphi, to inquire of the oracle concerning its event: the answer they received was, That it behoved the Spartans to seek a leader from Athens. The Athenians naturally envious of the Spartans, granted their request indeed, but in such a manner as manifested their spite; for they sent them for a general Tyrtaeus, a schoolmaster and poet, lame of one foot, and who was suspected to be a little out of his wits. But here their skill failed them; for this captain, notwithstanding his despicable appearance, proved of great consequence to Sparta, teaching them how to use good, and how to bear up under ill fortune.

In the mean time, Arilomenes had drawn together a mighty army, the Eleans, Argives, Sicyonians, and Arcadians, having sent troops to his assistance; the Spartans in this, as in the former war, having no ally but Corinth. The Spartan kings, according to the custom, custom of their city, no sooner took the field, than, notwithstanding their inferiority in number, they offered the enemy battle, which Aristomenes readily accepted. It was long, obstinate, and bloody; but in the end the Messenians were victorious, and the Lacedemonians put to flight with a great slaughter. It is scarce to be conceived how much the Spartans were struck with this defeat: they grew weary of the war, dissatisfied with their kings, dissident of their own power, and in a word sunk into a state of general uneasiness and want of spirit. It was now that the Athenian general convinced them, that he was capable of fulfilling all the promises of the oracle; he encouraged them by his poems, directed them by his counsels, and recruited their broken armies with chosen men from among the Helotes. Aristomenes, on the other hand, acted with no less prudence and vigour. He thought it not enough to restore the reputation of the Messenians, if he did not also restore their wealth and power: he therefore taught them to act offensively against their enemies; and, entering the territories of Sparta, he took and plundered Phaëte, a considerable borough in Laconia, putting all such as made any resistance to the sword, carrying off at the same time an immense booty. This, however, was an injury which the Spartans could not brook with patience; they therefore sent immediately a body of forces to overtake the Messenians, which accordingly they did: but Aristomenes routed these pursuers, and continued to make a mighty slaughter of them, till such time as he was disabled by having a spear thrust in his side, which occasioned his being carried out of the battle. His cure, which took up some time, being finished, he resolved to carry the war even to the gates of Sparta; and to that purpose raised a very great army: but, whether he found his design impracticable, or was really diverted by some dream, he gave out, that Castor and Pollux, with their sister Helena, had appeared to him, and commanded him to desist. A short time after this retreat, going with a small party to make an incursion, and attempting to take prisoners some women who were celebrating religious rites near Egila, a village in Laconia, those zealous matrons fell upon him and his soldiers with such fury, that they put them to flight, and took him prisoner: however, he soon afterwards made his escape, and rejoined his forces. In the third year of the war, the Spartans with a great force entered Messenia, whither Arifocrates king of Arcadia was come, with a great body of troops, to the assistance of his allies: Aristomenes therefore made no difficulty of fighting when the Spartans approached; but they entering privately into a negociation with Arifocrates, engaged him with bribes and promises to betray his confederates. When the battle began, the deceitful Arcadian represented to the forces under his command the mighty danger they were in, and the great difficulty there would be of retreating into their own country, in case the battle should be lost: he then pretended, that the sacrifices were ominous; and, having terrified his Arcadians into the disposition of mind fitted to serve his purpose, he not only drew them off from both wings, but, in his flight, forced through the Messenian ranks, and put them too in confusion. Aristomenes and his troops, however, drew themselves into close order, that they might defend themselves the best they could: and Messenia indeed they had need of all their valour and skill; for the Lacedemonians, who expected this event, immediately attacked and surrounded them on all sides. Fortune was, on this occasion, too powerful either for the courage or the conduct of the Messenians; so that, notwithstanding their utmost efforts, most of their army were cut to pieces, and amongst them the chief of their nobility. Aristomenes, with the poor remains of his shattered forces, retired as well as he could; and, perceiving that it was now impossible to maintain the war against the Lacedemonians upon equal terms, he exhorted his countrymen to fortify Mount Era, and to make the best dispositions possible for a long defence. He likewise placed garrisons in Pylus and Methone on the sea coasts; and to these three places he gathered all the inhabitants, leaving the rest of Messenia to the mercy of the Spartans. They, on the other hand, looked on the war as now in a manner finished; for which reason they divided the lands among their citizens, and caused them to be carefully cultivated, while they besieged Era. But Arifomenes quickly convinced them that the war was far from being over: he chose out of all the Messenians 300 men, with whom he ravaged all the adjacent country: carried off a prodigious booty; and, when Messenia could no longer supply the wants of his garrison, penetrated into Laconia, and bore away corn, wine, cattle, and whatever else was necessary to the subsistence of his countrymen shut up in Era: so that at last the Spartans were constrained to issue a proclamation, forbidding the cultivation, not only of the Messenian territory in their hands, but also of Laconia in its vicinity; whereby they distressed themselves more than their enemies, inducing at last a famine in Sparta itself, which brought with it its usual attendant, sedition. Here again all things had gone wrong, if the wisdom of the poet Tyrtæus had not supported the Spartan courage; nor was it without much difficulty that he influenced them to continue the blockade of Era, and to maintain a flying camp for the security of the country.

Aristomenes, in spite of all these precautions, committed terrible depredations with his small corps of 300 men. Amongst other places which he plundered, the city of Amyclæ was one; from whence he carried not only a great quantity of riches, but also many carriages laden with provisions. The kings of Sparta lying with their troops in its neighbourhood, as soon as they heard of this expedition, marched after Aristomenes with the utmost diligence; and, as the Messenians were encumbered with their booty, came up with them before they could reach Era. In this situation of things, Aristomenes, prompted rather by despair than prudence, disposed his troops in order of battle; and, notwithstanding they were so few, made a long and vigorous resistance against the whole Lacedemonian army. At length, however, numbers prevailed: the greatest part of the Messenians were slain on the spot; and Aristomenes, with about 50 of his men who survived the slaughter, were taken prisoners; that chief having received so many wounds, that he was senseless when they carried him away. The Lacedemonians expressed the loudest joy at the sight of this illustrious captive; who for so many years, by his single abilities, had Mes

Messenia had enabled his exhausted country to defend itself against the whole force of Sparta. When he was recovered from his wounds, they decreed him and all his fellow prisoners to be thrown together into a deep cavern, which was the common punishment of the lowest kind of offenders. This judgement was executed with the utmost severity, excepting that Ariftomenes had leave to put on his armour. Three days he continued in this dismal place, lying upon and covered over with dead bodies. The third day, he was almost famished through want of food, and almost poisoned with the stench of corrupted carcases, when he heard a fox gnawing a body near him. Upon this he uncovered his face, and perceiving the fox just by him, he with one hand seized one of its hind legs, and with the other defended his face, by catching hold of its jaw when it attempted to bite him. Following as well as he could his struggling guide, the fox at last thrust his head into a little hole; and Ariftomenes then letting go his leg, he soon forced his way through, and opened a passage to the welcome rays of light, from which the noble Messenian had been so long debarred.

Feeble as he was, Ariftomenes wrought himself an outlet with his nails; and travelling by night with all the expedition he could, at length arrived safe at Era, to the great joy and amazement of his countrymen. When this news was first blazed abroad, the Spartans would have had it pass for a fiction; but Ariftomenes soon put the truth of it out of doubt, by falling on the pots of the Corinthians, who, as allies of the Spartans, had a considerable body of troops before Era.

Most of their officers, with a multitude of private men, he slew; pillaged their camp; and, in short, did so much mischief, that the Spartans, under the pretence of an approaching festival, agreed to a cessation of arms for 40 days, that they might have time to bury their dead. On this occasion, Ariftomenes for the second time celebrated the hetaeromphonia, or the sacrifice appointed for those who had killed 100 of the enemy with their own hands. He had performed the same before and after his second battle; and he lived to do it a third time: which must appear wonderful to the reader, when he is informed, that notwithstanding this truce, certain Cretan archers in the service of the Spartans seized Ariftomenes as he was walking without the walls, and carried him away a prisoner. There were nine of them in all; two of them immediately flew with the news to Sparta, and seven remained to guard their prize, whom they bound, and conducted to a lone cottage inhabited only by a widow and her daughter. It fell out, that the young woman dreamed the night before, that she saw a lion without claws, bound, and dragged along by wolves; and that she having loosed his bonds, and given him claws, he immediately tore the wolves to pieces. As soon as Ariftomenes came into the cottage, and her mother, who knew him, had told her who he was, she instantly concluded that her dream was fulfilled; and therefore plied the Cretans with drink, and, when they were asleep, took a poniard from one of them, cut the thongs with which Ariftomenes was bound, and then put it into his hands. He presently verified her vision, by putting all his guards to death; and then carried her and her mother to Era, where, as a reward for her service, he married the young woman to his son Gorgus, then about 18 years of age.

When Era had held out near eleven years, it fell into the hands of Sparta by an accident: the servant of one Empiramus, a Spartan commander, driving his master's cattle to drink at the river Neda, met frequently with the wife of a Messenian, whom he engaged in an amour. This woman gave him notice, that her husband's house was without the wall; so that he could come to it without danger, when the good man was abroad; and she likewise gave him intelligence when her husband was upon duty in the garrison. The Spartan failed not to come at the time appointed; but they had not been long in bed before the husband returned, which put the house into great confusion: the woman, however, secured her gallant; and then let in her husband, whom she received in appearance with great joy, inquiring again and again by what excess of good fortune she was blest with his return. The innocent Messenian told her, that Ariftomenes being detained in his bed by a wound, the soldiers knowing that he could not walk the rounds, had a grant to retire to their houses, to avoid the inclemency of the season. The Spartan no sooner heard this, than he crept softly out of doors, and hastened away to carry the news to his master. It happened, that the kings were at this time absent from the camp, and Empiramus had the chief command of the army. As soon as he received this information, he ordered his army to begin its march, though it rained excessively, and there was no moonlight. The fellow guided them to the ford, and managed matters so well that they seized all the Messenian pots: yet, after all, they were afraid to engage; darkness, and high wind, heavy rain, together with the dread of Ariftomenes, keeping them quiet in the places they had seized. As soon as it was light, the attack began; and Era had been quickly taken, if only the men had defended it; but the women fought with such fury, and by their mingling in the fray, brought such an accession of numbers, as made the event doubtful. Three days and two nights this desperate engagement lasted: at last, all hopes of preserving the city being lost, Ariftomenes drew off his wearied troops. Early in the fourth morning, he disposed the women and children in the centre, the Messenian youth in the front and rear, the least able men in the main body: himself commanded the van; the rear-guard was brought up by Gorgus and Manticlus, the former the son of Ariftomenes, the latter of Theocles, a Messenian of great merit, who fell with much glory in this attack, fighting valiantly in the cause of his country. When all things were ready, Ariftomenes caused the last barrier to be thrown open; and, brandishing his spear, marched directly towards the Spartan troops, in order to force a passage. Empiramus, perceiving his intent, ordered his men to open to the right and left, and fairly gave them a passage; so that Ariftomenes marched off in triumph, as it were, to Arcadia.

The Arcadians, when they heard that Era was taken, were very desirous of succouring their old confederates in this deep distress: they therefore treated their king Ariftocrates to lead them into Messenia. But he, corrupted by the Lacedemonians, persuaded them that it was too late; that the Messenians were all cut off; and that such a step would only expose them to the fury of the conquerors. When the thing appeared to be otherwise, and it was known that Arictomenes was on the frontiers of Arcadia, they went in crowds to carry him provisions, and to testify their readiness to assist him and those under his command all the affluence in their power. Arictomenes desired to be heard before a general assembly; which being accordingly convoked, he there opened one of the boldest and best laid schemes recorded in history: he said, that he had yet 500 undaunted soldiers, who, at his command, would undertake anything; that it was very probable most of the Spartans were employed in pillaging Eria, and that therefore he determined to march and surprise Sparta; which appeared so sensible, that all the assembly loudly commended his great capacity and unshaken courage. Arictocrates, however, took care to betray him; having, by various pretences, retarded the execution of the project. The Arcadians, who began to suspect him, waited for and surprized the messengers as they came back. They took the letters from them, and read them openly in the assembly. The purport of them was, that they acknowledged his great kindness both now and in the battle; and promised, that the Lacedemonians would be grateful. As soon as the letters were read, the Arcadians fell to stoning their king, frequently calling upon the Messenians to assist them; which, however, they did not, waiting for Arictomenes's orders; who, far from triumphing in this spectacle, stood still, with his eyes fixed on the ground, which he wet with his tears, his soul pierced with sorrow to see a crowned head so shamefully and so deservedly put to death. The Arcadians afterwards erected a monument over him, with an inscription to perpetuate his infamy. As for the Messenians under the command of Gorgus and Manticlus, they passed over into Sicily; where they founded the city of Messene, one of the most famous in the island. Arictomenes remained, however, in Greece; where he married all his daughters, except the youngest, to persons of great rank. A prince of Rhodes, inquiring of the oracle at Delphi whom he should espouse, that his subjects might be happy under his prosperity, was directed to marry the daughter of the most worthy of the Greeks; which answer was immediately understood to point at the virgin daughter of Arictomenes. Her therefore he demanded, and received; Arictomenes accompanying him back to his dominions, where he formed a scheme of uniting the Lydians and Medes against the Spartans, resolving with this view to go into Media, and to the court of Sardis; but while he meditated these great things, death surprized him, and thereby freed Lacedemon from the most formidable enemy she ever had.