τελευτήσαντος δὲ Ἀλκαμένους Πολύδωρος τὴν βασιλείαν παρέλαβεν ὁ Ἀλκαμένους, καὶ ἀποικίαν τε ἐς Ἰταλίαν Λακεδαιμόνιοι τὴν ἐς Κρότωνα ἔστειλαν καὶ ἐς Λοκροὺς τοὺς πρὸς ἄκρᾳ Ζεφυρίῳ, καὶ ὁ πόλεμος ὁ καλούμενος Μεσσηνιακὸς Πολυδώρου βασιλεύοντος μάλιστα ἐς ἀκμὴν προῆλθε. λέγουσι δὲ οὐ τὰς αὐτὰς Λακεδαιμόνιοί τε αἰτίας καὶ Μεσσήνιοι τοῦ πολέμου.
τὰ οὖν λεγόμενα ὑπʼ αὐτῶν, καὶ ὁποῖον ὁ πόλεμος ἔσχεν οὗτος πέρας, τοῦ λόγου μοι τὰ ἐφεξῆς δηλώσει· τοσοῦτον δὲ ἐν τῷ παρόντι μνησθησόμεθα αὐτῶν, τὰ πολλὰ ἡγήσασθαι Λακεδαιμονίοις ἐν τῷ προτέρῳ πρὸς Μεσσηνίους πολέμῳ Θεόπομπον τὸν Νικάνδρου, βασιλέα ὄντα τῆς ἑτέρας οἰκίας. διαπεπολεμημένου δὲ τοῦ πρὸς Μεσσήνην πολέμου καὶ ἤδη Λακεδαιμονίοις δορικτήτου τῆς Μεσσηνίας οὔσης, Πολύδωρον εὐδοκιμοῦντα ἐν Σπάρτῃ καὶ κατὰ γνώμην Λακεδαιμονίων μάλιστα ὄντα τῷ δήμῳ—οὔτε γὰρ ἔργον βίαιον οὔτε ὑβριστὴν λόγον παρείχετο ἐς οὐδένα, ἐν δὲ ταῖς κρίσεσι τὰ δίκαια ἐφύλασσεν οὐκ ἄνευ φιλανθρωπίας, ἔχοντος δὲ ἤδη Πολυδώρου λαμπρὸν
ἀνὰ πᾶσαν τὴν Ἑλλάδα ὄνομα, Πολέμαρχος οἰκίας ἐν Λακεδαίμονι ἀνὴρ οὐκ ἀδόξου, θρασύτερος δὲ ὡς ἐδήλωσε γνώμην, φονεύει τὸν Πολύδωρον· ἀποθανόντι δὲ αὐτῷ πολλά τε παρὰ Λακεδαιμονίων δέδοται καὶ ἀξιόλογα ἐς τιμήν. ἔστι μέντοι καὶ Πολεμάρχου μνῆμα ἐν Σπάρτῃ, εἴτε ἀγαθοῦ τὰ πρότερα ἀνδρὸς εἶναι νομισθέντος εἴτε καὶ κρύφα οἱ προσήκοντες θάπτουσιν αὐτόν.
ἐπὶ μὲν δὴ Εὐρυκράτους τοῦ Πολυδώρου βασιλεύοντος Μεσσήνιοί τε ἠνείχοντο ὑπήκοοι Λακεδαιμονίων ὄντες καὶ παρὰ τοῦ δήμου τοῦ Ἀργείων οὐδέν σφισιν ἀπήντησε νεώτερον· ἐπὶ δὲ Ἀναξάνδρου τοῦ Εὐρυκράτους—τὸ γὰρ χρεὼν ἤδη Μεσσηνίους ἤλαυνεν ἐκτὸς Πελοποννήσου πάσης—ἀφίστανται Λακεδαιμονίων οἱ Μεσσήνιοι. καὶ χρόνον μὲν ἀντέσχον πολεμοῦντες· ὑπόσπονδοι δὲ ὡς ἐκρατήθησαν ἀπῄεσαν ἐκ Πελοποννήσου, τὸ δὲ αὐτῶν ἐγκαταλειφθὲν τῇ γῇ Λακεδαιμονίων ἐγένοντο οἰκέται πλὴν οἱ τὰ ἐπὶ τῇ θαλάσσῃ πολίσματα ἔχοντες.
τὰ μὲν δὴ ἐπὶ τοῦ πολέμου συμβάντα, ὃν οἱ Μεσσήνιοι Λακεδαιμονίων ἀποστάντες ἐπολέμησαν, οὔ μοι κατὰ καιρὸν ἦν ἐν τῇ συγγραφῇ τῇ παρούσῃ δηλῶσαι· Ἀναξάνδρου δὲ υἱὸς Εὐρυκράτης γίνεται, Εὐρυκράτους δὲ τοῦ δευτέρου Λέων. ἐπὶ τούτων βασιλευόντων Λακεδαιμόνιοι προσέπταιον ἐν τῷ πρὸς Τεγεάτας πολέμῳ τὰ πλείονα. ἐπὶ δὲ Ἀναξανδρίδου τοῦ Λέοντος ἐπικρατέστεροι Τεγεατῶν γίνονται τῷ πολέμῳ· γίνονται δὲ οὕτως. ἀνὴρ Λακεδαιμόνιος Λίχας ὄνομα ἀφίκετο ἐς Τεγέαν·
τηνικαῦτα δὲ αἱ πόλεις ἄγουσαι σπονδὰς ἔτυχον. ἀφικομένου δὲ τοῦ Λίχα Ὀρέστου τὰ ὀστᾶ ἀνεζήτουν· ἀνεζήτουν δὲ αὐτὰ ἐκ θεοπροπίου Σπαρτιᾶται. συνῆκεν οὖν ὁ Λίχας ὡς ἔστι κατακείμενα ἐν οἰκίᾳ χαλκέως, συνῆκε δὲ οὕτως· ὁπόσα ἐν τῇ τοῦ χαλκέως ἑώρα, παρέβαλεν αὐτὰ πρὸς τὸ ἐκ Δελφῶν μάντευμα, ἀνέμοις μὲν τοῦ χαλκέως εἰκάζων τὰς φύσας, ὅτι καὶ αὐταὶ βίαιον πνεῦμα ἠφίεσαν, τύπον δὲ τὴν σφῦραν καὶ τὸν ἄκμονα ἀντίτυπον ταύτῃ, πῆμα δὲ εἰκότως ἀνθρώπῳ τὸν σίδηρον, ὅτι ἐχρῶντο ἐς τὰς μάχας ἤδη τῷ σιδήρῳ· τὰ δὲ ἐπὶ τῶν ἡρώων καλουμένων ἂν εἶπεν ὁ θεὸς ἀνθρώπῳ πῆμα εἶναι τὸν χαλκόν.
τῷ χρησμῷ δὲ τῷ γενομένῳ Λακεδαιμονίοις ἐς τοῦ Ὀρέστου τὰ ὀστᾶ καὶ Ἀθηναίοις ὕστερον ἐοικότα ἐχρήσθη κατάγουσιν ἐς Ἀθήνας ἐκ Σκύρου Θησέα, ἄλλως δὲ οὐκ εἶναί σφισιν ἑλεῖν Σκῦρον· ἀνεῦρε δὲ τὰ ὀστᾶ τοῦ Θησέως Κίμων ὁ Μιλτιάδου, σοφίᾳ χρησάμενος καὶ οὗτος, καὶ μετʼ οὐ πολὺ εἷλε τὴν Σκῦρον.
ὅτι δὲ ἐπὶ τῶν ἡρώων τὰ ὅπλα ὁμοίως χαλκᾶ ἦν πάντα, μαρτυρεῖ μοι καὶ Ὁμήρου τῶν ἐπῶν τὰ ἔς τε ἀξίνην ἔχοντα τὴν Πεισάνδρου καὶ ἐς τοῦ Μηριόνου τὸν ὀιστόν. βεβαιοῖ δὲ καὶ ἄλλως μοι τὸν λόγον ἐν Φασήλιδι ἀνακείμενον ἐν Ἀθηνᾶς ἱερῷ τὸ δόρυ Ἀχιλλέως καὶ Νικομηδεῦσιν ἐν Ἀσκληπιοῦ ναῷ μάχαιρα ὁ Μέμνονος· καὶ τοῦ μὲν ἥ τε αἰχμὴ καὶ ὁ σαυρωτήρ, ἡ μάχαιρα δὲ καὶ διὰ πάσης χαλκοῦ πεποίηται.
ταῦτα μὲν δὴ ἴσμεν ἔχοντα οὕτως· Ἀναξανδρίδης δὲ ὁ Λέοντος Λακεδαιμονίων μόνος γυναῖκάς τε δύο ἅμα ἔσχε καὶ οἰκίας δύο ἅμα ᾤκησε. τὴν γάρ οἱ πρότερον συνοικοῦσαν ἀρίστην τὰ ἄλλα οὖσαν συνέβαινεν οὐ τίκτειν· ἀποπέμψασθαι δὲ αὐτὴν κελευόντων τῶν ἐφόρων τοῦτο μὲν οὐδαμῶς ἐπαγγέλλεται, τοσοῦτον δέ σφισιν εἴκει γυναῖκα ἑτέραν λαβεῖν πρὸς ταύτῃ. καὶ ἥ τε ἐπεισελθοῦσα Κλεομένην παῖδα ἔσχε καὶ ἡ προτέρα τέως οὐ σχοῦσα ἐν γαστρὶ ἐπὶ γεγονότι ἤδη Κλεομένει τίκτει Δωριέα καὶ αὖθις Λεωνίδαν, ἐπὶ δὲ αὐτοῖς Κλεόμβροτον.
ἐπεὶ δὲ ἀπέθανεν Ἀναξανδρίδης, Λακεδαιμόνιοι Δωριέα καὶ γνώμην Κλεομένους καὶ τὰ ἐς πόλεμον ἀμείνονα εἶναι νομίζοντες τὸν μὲν ἀπώσαντο ἄκοντες, Κλεομένει δὲ διδόασιν ἐκ τῶν νόμων πρεσβεῖα τὴν ἀρχήν.
Alcamenes died, and his son Polydorus succeeded to the throne. The Lacedaemonians now sent colonies to Crotona in Italy, and to Locri at Cape Zephyrium.
It was in the reign of Polydorus, too, that the Messenian war, as it is called, raged most hotly. Messenians and Lacedaemonians differ in the accounts which they respectively give of the origin of the war. I shall notice these accounts, and narrate the final issue of the war hereafter : for the present I shall content myself with mentioning that in the first Messenian war the Lacedaemonians were generally led by Theopompus, son of Nicander, the king of the other house. The war was over, and Messene had been reduced to subjection, when King Polydorus fell by the hand of an assassin. The assassin was one Polemarchus, a Lacedaemonian of respectable birth, but, as his action proved, of a bold and desperate temper. At the time of his death the king’s reputation stood high both in Sparta and throughout Greece, and he had endeared himself to his people by his mild and affable deportment, and by a series of judgments in which he had tempered justice with mercy. Honours were heaped on his memory. But his assassin has also a tomb in Sparta. Perhaps his former character had been fair: perhaps his friends buried him secretly.
During the reign of Polydorus’ son, Eurycrates, the Messenians submitted to the Lacedaemonian yoke, and Argos also gave no trouble.
But in the reign of Anaxander, son of Eurycrates, fate began to drive the Messenians from Peloponnese, and they revolted from the Lacedaemonians. For a time they held their own, but being overpowered they were suffered to leave Peloponnese under a safe conduct. The remnant that was left in the land, with the exception of the inhabitants of the maritime towns, became serfs of the Lacedaemonians. A full account of the Messenian rebellion would be out of place here.
Anaxander had a son Eurycrates, and Eurycrates the second had a son Leon. In their reigns the Lacedaemonians were generally unsuccessful in the war with Tegea. But in the reign of Anaxandrides, son of Leon, they got the better of the Tegeans. It happened thus. A Lacedaemonian, named Lichas, came to Tegea at a time when there chanced to be a truce between the two states. 6. At the time of his arrival the Spartans were searching for the bones of Orestes in compliance with the injunction of an oracle. Well, then, Lichas perceived that the bones were buried in a smithy. This is how he made the discovery. He compared the things he saw in the smithy with the words of the Delphic oracle. Thus the ‘winds,’ spoken of by the oracle, were the smith’s bellows, because the bellows also gave out a strong blast: the ‘ blow,’ to which the oracle referred, was the hammer, and the ‘ counterblow’ was the anvil; and the ‘woe to man’ was naturally the iron, because in that age iron was already in use for weapons of war. But in the heroic age the god would have said that bronze was ‘a woe to man.’ The oracle which the Lacedaemonians received touching the bones of Orestes resembled an oracle which was afterwards given to the Athenians. They were told that they could not conquer Scyros unless they brought back Theseus from Scyros to Athens. The bones of Theseus were discovered, as in the parallel case, by the shrewdness of one man, Cimon, son of Miltiades, and not long afterwards he conquered Scyros. That weapons in the heroic age were all of bronze is shown by Homer’s lines about the axe of Pisander and the arrow of Meriones ; and I am confirmed in this view by the spear of Achilles, which is dedicated in the sanctuary of Athena at Phaselis, and by the sword of Memnon in the temple of Aesculapius at Nicomedia; for the blade and the spike at the butt-end of the spear and the whole of the sword are of bronze. This I know to be so.
Anaxandrides, son of Leon, was the only Lacedaemonian who had two wives and inhabited two houses at the same time. His first wife was excellent, but she had no children. When the ephors ordered him to divorce her, he would not promise to do so, but yielded to them so far as to take a second wife in addition to his first. The second wife had a son Cleomenes, after whose birth the first wife, who had never conceived before, gave birth successively to Dorieus, Leonidas, and Cleombrotus.
On the death of Anaxandrides the Lacedaemonians reluctantly rejected Dorieus, whom they esteemed a wiser man and a better soldier than Cleomenes, and gave the kingdom to the latter, to which, as the elder, he had a legal right.
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