CHAPTER XVII.
And there is a place in Laconia called Ægila, where is a temple of Demeter. There Aristomenes and his soldiers, knowing that the women were keeping festival to Demeter, wished to seize them: but as these women inspired by the goddess made a bold defence, most of the Messenians received wounds with the swords which they used to sacrifice the victims with, and the sharp pointed spits on which they stuck their meat to roast it. And Aristomenes they struck with their torches and took him alive. However he escaped the same night to Messenia. They say that Archidamea the priestess of Demeter had the guilt of letting him escape. But she did not let him go for money, but was an old sweetheart of his, and made out that Aristomenes had escaped by burning[57] his bonds.
And in the third year of the war, when an engagement was about to take place at what was called The Great Trench, and when the Arcadians had come from all their cities to help the Messenians, the Lacedæmonians bribed Aristocrates, the son of Icetas, a native of Trapezus, king and general of the Arcadians at this period. The Lacedæmonians are the first we know of that bribed an enemy, and the first that made renown in arms a thing to be purchased by money. For before the Lacedæmonians violated honour in their war with the Messenians, in regard to this treason of Aristocrates the Arcadian, their fighting men were distinguished for bravery, and good fortune from the deity. Afterwards too at Ægos-potamoi, when they opposed the fleet of the Athenians, they certainly bribed Adimantus and other Athenian Admirals. But in process of time upon the Lacedæmonians came what is called the Retribution of Neoptolemus. For Neoptolemus the son of Achilles, having slain Priam at the altar of Household Zeus, was himself also slain at Delphi at the temple of Apollo, and—in consequence of that—suffering what one had inflicted on another got called the Retribution of Neoptolemus. For when the Lacedæmonians were at the zenith of their power, and had destroyed the fleet of the Athenians, and Agesilaus had reduced most of Asia Minor, then it was not possible to strip the Mede of all his power, because the barbarian circumvented them by sending money to Corinth and Argos and Athens and Thebes, and what was called the Corinthian war was brought about by this money, so that Agesilaus was compelled to leave Asia Minor. And so the deity made to recoil upon themselves the wiliness that the Lacedæmonians had displayed to the Messenians. And Aristocrates when he had received money from Lacedæmon, at first hid his plans from the Arcadians, but when they were on the eve of an engagement, then he threw them into consternation, by telling them they were in difficulty and straits and had no means of retreat if they should be beaten. He also said the sacrifices were not auspicious. He ordered everyone therefore to run away when he gave the signal. And when the Lacedæmonians began the engagement and the Messenians were opposite to them, thereupon at the commencement of the battle Aristocrates led off the Arcadians, and thus the Messenian centre and left wing was left exposed. For the Arcadians had occupied both these parts of the field, as the people of Elis were not present at the battle, nor the people of Argos and Sicyon. And Aristocrates put the finishing touch to his treason by fleeing through the Messenian lines. And they were quite bewildered at the unexpected state of affairs, and were disturbed by the passage of the Arcadians through their lines, so that most of them nearly forgot what they were about: for instead of the Lacedæmonians pressing on against the Arcadians they saw them fleeing, and some begged them to stand their ground, others reviled them as traitors and covenant-breakers. And for the Lacedæmonians to surround the Messenians who were now left alone was easy enough, and with the greatest ease they won a victory that was a foregone conclusion. And though Aristomenes and his division bravely stood their ground against the multitude of the Lacedæmonians that pressed against them, and endeavoured to keep them in check, yet they were too few to avail much. And such a quantity of Messenians were cut to pieces, that they, who had expected to be masters of the Lacedæmonians, now instead of having slaves had hardly any hope of safety. And of their leaders fell Androcles and Phintas and others, and Phanas, (who fought especially bravely, and had been victor at Olympia in the double course). And Aristomenes after the battle collected the Messenian fugitives, and persuaded them to leave Andania and any other towns in the heart of the country, and to take up their residence on the mountain Eira. And when they assembled there they were besieged by the Lacedæmonians who wished to take them. However they resisted and held out for eleven years after the disaster at The Great Trench. That that was the time the blockade lasted is plain from the verses of Rhianus about the Lacedæmonians.
“Along the ridges of the mountain white
Twenty-two summers and winters did they fight.”
The word used for summers in the line just above is a word properly meaning the grass when it is ripe, or a little before hay harvest.