On their return no apprehension was felt by them at first about the Lacedæmonians: for they, being afraid of the Thebans, did not interfere with the rebuilding of Messene, nor the gathering of the Arcadians into one town. But when the Phocian War, otherwise called the Holy War, withdrew the Thebans from the Peloponnese, then the Lacedæmonians pricked up their courage, and could no longer keep their hands off the Messenians. And the Messenians bore the brunt of the war alone, except the assistance they got from the Argives and Arcadians; they also begged for help from the Athenians,—but they replied that they could not join them in an incursion into Laconia, but if the Lacedæmonians were the aggressors and carried the war into Messenia, then they promised that they would not fail them. And eventually the Messenians got the help of Philip, the son of Amyntas, and the Macedonians, and this they say prevented them from participation in the struggle of the Greeks at Chæronea. Not that they would ever have been inclined to take up arms against the Greeks. But after the death of Alexander, when the Greeks commenced a second war against the Macedonians, the Messenians took their part in this, as I have before shewn in my account of Attica. But they did not join the Greeks in fighting against the Galati, as Cleonymus and the Lacedæmonians would not make a treaty with them.
And not long afterwards the Messenians occupied Elis, partly by cunning partly by audacity. The people of Elis in ancient times were the most orderly of all the Peloponnesians, but when Philip the son of Amyntas did all that harm to Greece that we have mentioned, and corrupted by bribes the most influential of the people of Elis, then for the first time in their history the people of Elis took up arms and became factious. And after they had taken the first plunge, they were likely with less reluctance to go into future civil strife, inasmuch as through the Lacedæmonians their policy had been shifted, and they had drifted into civil war. And the Lacedæmonians hearing of the factions at Elis made preparations to assist those who were for their party. And while they were drilling and mobilizing their forces, about 1000 picked men of the Messenians secretly approached Elis, with Lacedæmonian colours on their shields. And when the men in Elis who were friendly to the Spartans saw their shields, they concluded they had come to help them and admitted them within the walls. But when the Messenians got in, in the way I have described, they expelled from the town the Lacedæmonian party, and entrusted the town to their own friends. Their stratagem was Homeric, and the Messenians seem to have imitated Homer for the nonce, for Homer has represented in the Iliad Patroclus wearing the armour of Achilles, and how the Trojans, thinking that Achilles was leading the attack, were thrown into confusion in their van. Other stratagems of war are found in Homer, as when he describes two Greek spies coming to the Trojans by night instead of one, and afterwards a supposed deserter coming to Troy really to spy out the weak points. Moreover he represents those Trojans who were either too young or too old to fight as manning the walls, while those of a suitable age took the field against the Greeks. And those of the Greeks that were wounded gave their armour to other fighting men, that their services too might not be altogether lost. Thus Homer’s ideas have been generally useful to mankind.
CHAPTER XXIX.
And no long time after this action at Elis the Macedonians under Demetrius, the son of Philip the son of Demetrius, attacked Messene. Most of the audacity displayed by Perseus against Philip and his son Demetrius I have already described in my account about Sicyon: and the capture of Messene took place as follows. Philip was in need of money, and, as he must have it by hook or by crook, sent Demetrius with a fleet to the Peloponnese. And Demetrius chanced to put in at one of the least frequented harbours of Argolis: and without losing time he led his army by the shortest cuts through the country to Messene. And having posted in the van all his light-armed troops, as he was well acquainted with the road to Ithome, he got stealthily into the town a little before dawn, and took up his position between the town and the citadel. And when day broke and those in the town perceived their imminent peril, their first thought was that the Lacedæmonians had got into the town, so they rushed against them with the greatest alacrity owing to their ancient animosity. But when both from their arms and language they discovered that they were Macedonians under Demetrius the son of Philip, a panic came over them, when they considered the military renown of the Macedonians, and the good fortune which they had invariably had. However the magnitude of the impending danger suggested to them an almost supernatural bravery, and at the same time the hope to see better days supported them: for they could not but think their return to the Peloponnese after so long an exile was not against the will of the Deity. The Messenians therefore in the town rushed against the Macedonians with impetuosity, and the garrison in the citadel galled them from their higher position. The Macedonians from their courage and tactical skill fought at first like lions: but at last spent with their long march, and not only pressed hard by men, but pelted with tiles and stones by the women, fled in disorder. And most of them perished miserably, being pushed down the rocks, for Ithome was very precipitous here, but a few threw away their arms and got off safe.
What prevented the Messenians from joining at first the Achæan League was as follows. They had of their own accord gone to the aid of the Lacedæmonians when they were attacked by Pyrrhus the son of Æacus, and for this good service there were already friendlier relations between themselves and Sparta. They did not therefore wish to revive the old feud by going to the Achæan League, as the Achæans were most openly hostile to the Lacedæmonians. And what has not escaped my notice, and cannot have escaped the notice of the Messenians is that, even had there been no Achæan League, the Achæans would have been hostile to the Lacedæmonians, for among the Achæans the Argives and Arcadians were no small element. In process of time however the Messenians joined the Achæan League. And not long afterwards Cleomenes, the son of Leonidas and grandson of Cleonymus, took Megalopolis the chief town of the Arcadians in truce time. In the capture of the town about a third of the inhabitants were captured or slain, but Philopœmen the son of Craugis and those who escaped with him (and they say that rather more than two thirds of the people of Megalopolis got away) were kindly received by the Messenians, partly on account of the ancient friendliness which the Arcadians had first exhibited in the days of Aristomenes, and partly in consequence of the part they had taken in the rebuilding of Messene. The Messenians even went so far as to assign to the Arcadians equal rights to themselves. Such vicissitudes and changes are there in all human affairs, that the deity put it into the power of the Messenians to preserve in turn the Arcadians, and (what was still less to be expected) one day to capture Sparta. For when they fought against Cleomenes at Sellasia they joined Aratus and the Achæans in taking Sparta. And when the Lacedæmonians had got rid of Cleomenes, there rose up against them the tyrant Machanidas: and after his death Nabis sprang up as tyrant over them. And, as he not only plundered men but also sacrilegiously robbed the holy places, in no long time he amassed considerable sums of money, and got together with this money an army. And when he occupied Messene Philopœmen and the people of Megalopolis made a sally by night, and the Spartan tyrant departed on conditions. And the Achæans after this, in consequence of some difference with the Messenians, marched out against them in full force, and ravaged their territory. And again about harvest time they collected a force for the purpose of attacking Messenia, but Dinocrates a prominent man among the people, who had been recently elected ruler of the Messenians, forced Lycortas and the army with him to retire without effecting their object, and having occupied the byroads between Messenia and Arcadia he protected[58] the Messenians in their town and in all the neighbouring districts. And when Philopœmen with a few cavalry came a little later than the army of Lycortas, not having been able to gather any tidings about them, the Messenians having the advantage of ground beat them in battle, and took Philopœmen alive. And the manner of his capture and his death I shall relate hereafter in my account of Arcadia. Suffice it here to state that those Messenians who were guilty of the death of Philopœmen were punished, and Messene again joined the Achæan League.
Hitherto I have had to deal with the many sufferings of the Messenians, and to describe how the Deity, having scattered them to the ends of the earth, and to places most remote from the Peloponnese, restored them to their own country a long time afterwards. And now let us turn to a description of the country and its towns.
CHAPTER XXX.
There is in our days in Messenia, about 20 stades from the Chœrian dell, a town by the sea called Abia. They say in old times it was called Ire, and that it was one of the seven towns, which Homer represents Agamemnon as promising to Achilles. And when Hyllus and the Dorians were conquered in battle by the Achæans, then they say Abia, the nurse of Glenus the son of Hercules, went to Ire, and there lived, and built a temple of Hercules, and for that reason Cresphontes afterwards assigned her several honours, and changed the name of the town to her name Abia. There were notable temples there both to Hercules and Æsculapius.
And Pharæ is distant from Abia about 80 stades, and the water by the road is salt. The Emperor Augustus ordered the Messenians at Pharæ to be ranked under Laconia. The founder of the city was they say Pharis, the son of Hermes by Phylodamea the daughter of Danaus. And Pharis they say had no male children, but only a daughter Telegone. The direct line of genealogy has been given by Homer in the Iliad, who says that the twins Crethon and Ortilochus were the sons of Diocles, and that Diocles himself was the son of Ortilochus, the son of Alpheus. But he has said nothing about Telegone, who according to the Messenian tradition was the wife of Alpheus and mother of Ortilochus. I have also heard at Pharæ that Diocles had a daughter Anticlea as well as his twin sons, and that she bare Nicomachus and Gorgasus to Machaon the son of Æsculapius: they lived at Pharæ, and after the death of Diocles succeeded to the kingdom. And a constant tradition about them has prevailed even to this day, that they have the power of healing illnesses and people maimed in body. And because of this the people sacrifice to them and offer votive offerings. At Pharæ there is also a temple and ancient statue of Fortune. The first person that I know of that has mentioned Fortune is Homer. He has mentioned her in his Hymn to Demeter, when enumerating the other daughters of Oceanus, how they played with Demeter’s daughter Proserpine, and among them Fortune, also a daughter of Oceanus. These are the lines.[59] “We all were in the pleasant meadow, Leucippe, Phæno, Electra, and Ianthe, Melobosis, and Fortune, and Ocyroe of the beautiful eyes.” But he has said nothing further about her, how she is the greatest goddess in human affairs and has the greatest influence, as in the Iliad he represented Athene and Enyo as supreme in war, and Artemis as dreaded in childbirth, and Aphrodite as the goddess of marriages. He has not symbolized Fortune in this way. But Bupalus, a man of wonderful ability in building temples and making models of animals, is the first person we know of that made a statue of Fortune. His was for the people of Smyrna. Fortune has a globe on her head, and in one of her hands what is called by the Greeks the horn of Amalthea. Thus did he typify the actions of this goddess. Pindar also subsequently wrote various lines about Fortune, and named her City-Preserver.