As at that time it was fated for him and the Messenians to be unfortunate, so in after time was it fated for Lacedæmon when her day had come. And now the Thebans after the victory of Leuctra sent messengers to Italy and Sicily and to the Euesperitæ, to recall the Messenians from their wanderings to the Peloponnese. And they gathered together quicker than anyone would have thought, from yearning affection to their fatherland, and from their abiding hate to the Lacedæmonians. And Epaminondas was in doubt what city he should build as a base against the Lacedæmonians, or where he should find a site, for the Messenians would not dwell again at Andania and Œchalia, because they had been so unlucky when they lived there before. As he was in this doubt they say an old man, very like a priest of the mysteries, appeared to him in a vision of the night, and said to him, “My gift to you is universal conquest in war: and when you shall leave this earth I will make your name, O Theban, immortal and ever glorious. But do you in return restore to the Messenians their country and cities, for the wrath of Castor and Pollux towards them is now appeased.” These were his words to Epaminondas, who revealed the dream to Epiteles the son of Æschines, whom the Argives chose as their General and the restorer of Messene. This man was bidden in a dream, in the place where he should find at Ithome an ivy and myrtle tree growing, to dig between them and recover an old woman who was ill and confined there in a brass coffin and already near to death’s door. And Epiteles when day broke went to the appointed place, and dug up a cinerary urn of brass, and took it at once to Epaminondas and narrated his dream, and he told him to remove the lid and see what was in it. And he after sacrifice and prayer to the person who had sent him this dream opened the urn, and found some tin beaten very thin, and rolled up like a book. On it were written the mysteries of the Great Goddesses, and it was in fact what Aristomenes had buried. And they say the person who appeared to Epiteles and Epaminondas in their dreams was Caucon, who formerly came from Athens to Andania to Messene the daughter of Triopas.
CHAPTER XXVII.
The wrath of Castor and Pollux against the Messenians began before the battle at Stenyclerus, and I conjecture it to have originated in the following way. Panormus and Gonippus, two lads of Andania in the bloom of youth, were great friends, and used jointly to make incursions and raids into Laconia. And as the Lacedæmonians in camp were keeping the festival of Castor and Pollux, and after the banquet were full of wine and merrymaking, Gonippus and Panormus, clad in white tunics and purple cloaks, well mounted, with hats on their heads and spears in their hands, presented themselves to the Lacedæmonians. And when they saw them they bowed down before them and worshipped them, thinking they were Castor and Pollux who had come to the sacrifice. But these young men mixed up with them and rode through them and stabbed many with their lances, and, after many of them had fallen, rode back to Andania, having thus outraged the festival of Castor and Pollux. This is what I think made the Twin Brethren hate the Messenians. But now, as was hinted to Epaminondas in his dream, the Twin Brethren had no objection to the return of the Messenians. And Epaminondas was very greatly encouraged also to the restoration of Messene by the oracles of Bacis, who had been driven mad by the Nymphs and had given various prophetic utterances to several of the Greeks, and amongst others this one about the return of the Messenians:
“And then shall Sparta lose her glorious flower,
Messene built again be for all time.”
I find also that Bacis foretold the manner in which Eira would be taken: this is one of his prophetic lines,
“Those from conquered Messene with its splashing fountains.”
And as the records of the Mysteries had been recovered, the priests entered them in books. And Epaminondas, as the place where the Messenians now have their capital seemed most convenient to settle in, bade the seers examine if the gods were favourable to the spot. And on their replying that the omens were favourable, he at once made preparations for building the town, ordering a large supply of stone, and sending for builders who should artistically lay out streets and build houses and temples and lines of walls. And when all was in readiness the Arcadians furnished victims, and Epaminondas and the Thebans sacrificed to Dionysus and Apollo Ismenius in the accustomed manner, and the Argives to Argive Hera and Nemean Zeus, and the Messenians to Zeus of Ithome and Castor and Pollux, and the priests of the Mysteries to the Great Goddesses and Caucon. And with one consent they invoked the heroes to come and dwell with them, especially Messene the daughter of Triopas, and Eurytus and Aphareus and his sons, and of the Heraclidæ Cresphontes and Æpytus. But most unanimous of all was the cry for Aristomenes. And that day they devoted to sacrifices and prayers, and on the following days they raised the circuit of the walls, and began to build their houses and temples inside the walls. And they carried on this work only to the music of Bœotian and Argive flutes, and the tunes of Sacadas and Pronomus now first came into competition. And they called the capital Messene, and they restored others of their towns. But the people of Nauplia were not turned out of Mothone, the Asinæi also were allowed to remain where they were, the latter out of gratitude because they had refused to join the Lacedæmonians against them. And the people of Nauplia, when the Messenians returned to the Peloponnese, had brought them as gifts whatever they had, and had continually prayed to the deity for their return, and had also made many requests to the Messenians for their own safety.
Thus the Messenians returned to the Peloponnese, and were restored to their country, 287 years after the capture of Eira, when Dyscinetus was Archon at Athens, and in the third year of the 102nd Olympiad, in which Damon of Thurii won the second prize. It was indeed no short time that the Platæans were exiles from their country, or the Delians when (expelled from Delos by the Athenians) they dwelt at Adramyttium. The Minyæ from Orchomenus also, having been driven out by the Thebans from Orchomenus after the battle of Leuctra, were restored to Bœotia by Philip the son of Amyntas, as the Platæans also. And although Alexander stript Thebes of Thebans, yet not many years afterwards Cassander the son of Antipater rebuilt it. The exile from Platæa seems to have been the longest of those which I have recorded, however it was not longer than two generations. But the Messenians were wanderers from the Peloponnese for nearly 300 years, during which time it is evident that they abandoned none of their national customs, nor did they change their Doric dialect, but even to our day they preserve it purer than any other of the Peloponnesians.