DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4266#0097
DESCRIPTION
THE ENTRANCE GATE
TO THK
CITY OF MESSENE.
Although undistinguished by any superiority in science or art, at no period celebrated for their cul-
tivation of literature, nor ever renowned for their political institutions, the Messenians claim the sym-
pathy of posterity, from their persevering resistance to the enmity of Sparta; from their pertinacious
struggle for freedom during a period of nearly three centuries; and from their lengthened exile from
a land, in defence of which they had shed their noblest blood.
The wars between the Messenians and Spartans are divided into three epochs, the first of which
commences about 743 years before the Christian aera. For twenty years this extirpatory war raged
with varied success, marked by mutual acts of ferocious barbarity between the two States. During its
continuance, Aristodemus, in compliance with the response of the Oracle of Delphi, sacrificed his
daughter with his own hand to the predicted safety of his country; but after a long but fruitless defence
of Mount Ithome, Aristodemus, despairing of the success of his country's efforts, slew himself upon
his daughter's tomb, and subsequently the Messenians were forced to accept the most degrading terms
from their relentless conquerors.
The second war dates its commencement 684 years b. c. and ending 668 b. c, during which Ira,
like a second Ilion, braved for eleven years the Spartan fury, till the hero Aristomenes and his un-
conquerable bands were forced by treachery to quit the sacred scene of their bravery, and disperse
themselves among their allies.
The third and last struggle was shorter than the preceding, but it lasted ten years, between
464 B. c. and 454 b. c. ; during which the Messenians retired a second time to Mount Ithome, which
became the object of a protracted contest. For ten years these devoted Patriots endured all the priva-
tions which befal a besieged garrison. Pausanias has transmitted to us some of the incidents of this
sanguinary contest. A suspension of active hostilities was merely the prelude to more ferocious
conflicts; at length victory inclined to the besiegers, and Ithome experienced again the vindictive
effects of Spartan jealousy. A small band only escaped from Ithome, but others of the Messenians
had already quitted their native plains, and sought a refuge in neighbouring states. Part joined their
countrymen, who had fled to Messina in Sicily after the second war, but the greater number retired
to Libya under the command of Comon.
The Thebans having under Epaminondas defeated the Lacedaemonians at Leuctra in Boeotia,
in the year 371 b. c, that consummate warrior and statesman, in order to weaken for ever the military
influence of Sparta, and to put it out of her power to undertake distant expeditions, conceived the idea
°f re-erecting on her frontiers the barrier of a powerful and jealous neighbour, whose hostile disposition
should awe and counterbalance the Spartan state. To this politic measure Messene owes her origin,
to found which Epaminondas recalled from an exile of almost three centuries, the descendants of the
THE ENTRANCE GATE
TO THK
CITY OF MESSENE.
Although undistinguished by any superiority in science or art, at no period celebrated for their cul-
tivation of literature, nor ever renowned for their political institutions, the Messenians claim the sym-
pathy of posterity, from their persevering resistance to the enmity of Sparta; from their pertinacious
struggle for freedom during a period of nearly three centuries; and from their lengthened exile from
a land, in defence of which they had shed their noblest blood.
The wars between the Messenians and Spartans are divided into three epochs, the first of which
commences about 743 years before the Christian aera. For twenty years this extirpatory war raged
with varied success, marked by mutual acts of ferocious barbarity between the two States. During its
continuance, Aristodemus, in compliance with the response of the Oracle of Delphi, sacrificed his
daughter with his own hand to the predicted safety of his country; but after a long but fruitless defence
of Mount Ithome, Aristodemus, despairing of the success of his country's efforts, slew himself upon
his daughter's tomb, and subsequently the Messenians were forced to accept the most degrading terms
from their relentless conquerors.
The second war dates its commencement 684 years b. c. and ending 668 b. c, during which Ira,
like a second Ilion, braved for eleven years the Spartan fury, till the hero Aristomenes and his un-
conquerable bands were forced by treachery to quit the sacred scene of their bravery, and disperse
themselves among their allies.
The third and last struggle was shorter than the preceding, but it lasted ten years, between
464 B. c. and 454 b. c. ; during which the Messenians retired a second time to Mount Ithome, which
became the object of a protracted contest. For ten years these devoted Patriots endured all the priva-
tions which befal a besieged garrison. Pausanias has transmitted to us some of the incidents of this
sanguinary contest. A suspension of active hostilities was merely the prelude to more ferocious
conflicts; at length victory inclined to the besiegers, and Ithome experienced again the vindictive
effects of Spartan jealousy. A small band only escaped from Ithome, but others of the Messenians
had already quitted their native plains, and sought a refuge in neighbouring states. Part joined their
countrymen, who had fled to Messina in Sicily after the second war, but the greater number retired
to Libya under the command of Comon.
The Thebans having under Epaminondas defeated the Lacedaemonians at Leuctra in Boeotia,
in the year 371 b. c, that consummate warrior and statesman, in order to weaken for ever the military
influence of Sparta, and to put it out of her power to undertake distant expeditions, conceived the idea
°f re-erecting on her frontiers the barrier of a powerful and jealous neighbour, whose hostile disposition
should awe and counterbalance the Spartan state. To this politic measure Messene owes her origin,
to found which Epaminondas recalled from an exile of almost three centuries, the descendants of the