Μεσσηνίων δὲ ὅσοις μὲν ἔτυχον ἐν Σικυῶνι οὖσαι καὶ ἐν Ἄργει προξενίαι καὶ παρὰ τῶν Ἀρκάδων τισίν, οὗτοι μὲν ἐς ταύτας τὰς πόλεις ἀπεχώρησαν, ἐς Ἐλευσῖνα δὲ οἱ τοῦ γένους τῶν ἱερέων καὶ θεαῖς ταῖς Μεγάλαις τελοῦντες τὰ ὄργια· ὁ δὲ ὄχλος ὁ πολὺς κατὰ τὰς πατρίδας ἕκαστοι τὰς ἀρχαίας ἐσκεδάσθησαν.
Λακεδαιμόνιοι δὲ πρῶτα μὲν τὴν Ἰθώμην καθεῖλον ἐς ἔδαφος, ἔπειτα καὶ τὰς λοιπὰς πόλεις ἐπιόντες ᾕρουν. ἀνέθεσαν δὲ καὶ ἀπὸ τῶν λαφύρων τῷ Ἀμυκλαίῳ τρίποδας χαλκοῦς· Ἀφροδίτης ἄγαλμά ἐστιν ἑστηκὸς ὑπὸ τῷ τρίποδι τῷ πρώτῳ, Ἀρτέμιδος δὲ ὑπὸ τῷ δευτέρῳ, Κόρης δὲ ἢ Δήμητρος ὑπὸ τῷ τρίτῳ.
ταῦτα μὲν δὴ ἀνέθεσαν ἐνταῦθα, τῆς δὲ γῆς τῆς Μεσσηνίας Ἀσιναίοις μὲν ἀνεστηκόσιν ὑπὸ Ἀργείων διδόασιν ἐπὶ θαλάσσῃ ταύτην ἣν καὶ νῦν ἔτι οἱ Ἀσιναῖοι νέμονται· τοῖς δὲ Ἀνδροκλέους ἀπογόνοις—ἦν γὰρ δὴ καὶ θυγάτηρ Ἀνδροκλεῖ καὶ παῖδες τῆς θυγατρός, φεύγοντες δὲ ὑπὸ τὴν τελευτὴν τοῦ Ἀνδροκλέους ᾤχοντο ἐς Σπάρτην— τούτοις τὴν Ὑαμίαν καλουμένην ἀπονέμουσι.
τὰ δὲ ἐς αὐτοὺς Μεσσηνίους παρὰ Λακεδαιμονίων ἔσχεν οὕτως. πρῶτον μὲν αὐτοῖς ἐπάγουσιν ὅρκον μήτε ἀποστῆναί ποτε ἀπʼ αὐτῶν μήτε ἄλλο ἐργάσασθαι νεώτερον μηδέν· δεύτερα δὲ φόρον μὲν οὐδένα ἐπέταξαν εἰρημένον, οἳ δὲ τῶν γεωργουμένων τροφῶν σφισιν ἀπέφερον ἐς Σπάρτην πάντων τὰ ἡμίσεα. προείρητο δὲ καὶ ἐπὶ τὰς ἐκφορὰς τῶν βασιλέων καὶ ἄλλων τῶν ἐν τέλει καὶ ἄνδρας ἐκ τῆς Μεσσηνίας καὶ τὰς γυναῖκας ἐν ἐσθῆτι ἥκειν μελαίνῃ· καὶ τοῖς παραβᾶσιν ἐπέκειτο ποινή.
ἐς τιμωρίας δὲ ἃς ὕβριζον ἐς τοὺς Μεσσηνίους, Τυρταίῳ πεποιημένα ἐστὶν ὥσπερ ὄνοι μεγάλοις ἄχθεσι τειρόμενοι, / δεσποσύνοισι φέροντες ἀναγκαίης ὑπὸ λυγρῆς / ἥμισυ πᾶν ὅσσων καρπὸν ἄρουρα φέρει. / ὅτι δὲ καὶ συμπενθεῖν ἔκειτο αὐτοῖς ἀνάγκη, δεδήλωκεν ἐν τῷδε· δεσπότας οἰμώζοντες, ὁμῶς ἄλοχοί τε καὶ αὐτοί, / εὖτέ τινʼ οὐλομένη μοῖρα κίχοι θανάτου. /
τοιούτων οὖν οἱ Μεσσήνιοι κατειληφότων καὶ ἅμα ἐς τὰ μέλλοντα οὐδὲν ἐνορῶντες παρὰ τῶν Λακεδαιμονίων φιλάνθρωπον, πρό τε δὴ τῶν παρόντων τεθνάναι μαχομένους ἢ καὶ τὸ παράπαν ἐκ Πελοποννήσου φεύγοντας οἴχεσθαι νομίζοντες αἱρετώτερα, ἀφίστασθαι πάντως ἐγίνωσκον. ἐνῆγον δὲ οὐχ ἥκιστα ἐς τοῦτο καὶ οἱ νεώτεροι, πολέμου μὲν ἔτι ἀπείρως ἔχοντες, λαμπροὶ δὲ ὄντες τὰ φρονήματα καὶ ἀποθανεῖν προτιμῶντες ἐν ἐλευθέρᾳ τῇ πατρίδι, εἰ καὶ τὰ ἄλλα εὐδαιμόνως δουλεύειν παρείη.
ἐπετράφη δὲ νεότης καὶ ἀλλαχοῦ τῆς Μεσσηνίας, οἱ δὲ ἄριστοι καὶ ἀριθμὸν πλεῖστοι περὶ τὴν Ἀνδανίαν, ἐν δὲ αὐτοῖς καὶ Ἀριστομένης, ὃς καὶ νῦν ἔτι ὡς ἥρως ἔχει παρὰ Μεσσηνίοις τιμάς. καί οἱ καὶ τὰ τῆς γενέσεως ἐπιφανέστερα ὑπάρξαι νομίζουσι· Νικοτελείᾳ γὰρ τῇ μητρὶ αὐτοῦ δαίμονα ἢ θεὸν δράκοντι εἰκασμένον συγγενέσθαι λέγουσι. τοιαῦτα δὲ καὶ Μακεδόνας ἐπὶ Ὀλυμπιάδι καὶ ἐπὶ Ἀριστοδάμᾳ Σικυωνίους οἶδα εἰρηκότας, διάφορα δὲ τοσόνδε ἦν·
Μεσσήνιοι γὰρ οὐκ ἐσποιοῦσιν Ἀριστομένην Ἡρακλεῖ παῖδα ἢ Διί, ὥσπερ Ἀλέξανδρον Ἄμμωνι οἱ Μακεδόνες καὶ Ἄρατον Ἀσκληπιῷ Σικυώνιοι· Ἀριστομένει δὲ πατέρα Ἑλλήνων μὲν οἱ πολλοὶ Πύρρον φασὶν εἶναι, Μεσσηνίους δὲ οἶδα αὐτὸς ἐπὶ ταῖς σπονδαῖς Ἀριστομένην Νικομήδους καλοῦντας. οὗτος μὲν οὖν ἀκμάζων ἡλικίᾳ καὶ τόλμῃ καὶ ἄλλοι τῶν ἐν τέλει παρώξυνον ἐπὶ τὴν ἀπόστασιν· ἐπράσσετο δὲ ταῦτα οὐκ εὐθὺς ἐκ τοῦ φανεροῦ, κρύφα δὲ ἐς Ἄργος καὶ παρὰ τοὺς Ἀρκάδας ἀπέστελλον, εἴ σφισιν ἀπροφασίστως καὶ μηδὲν ἐνδεεστέρως ἢ ἐπὶ τοῦ πολέμου τοῦ προτέρου ἀμῦναι θελήσουσιν.
All the Messenians who had friends at Sicyon, Argos, and Arcadia, withdrew to these states, and the priestly race who were charged with the celebration of the orgies of the Great Goddesses withdrew to Eleusis; but the bulk of the common people were scattered each to his old home.
The Lacedaemonians first razed Ithome to the ground, and then took the other cities one after the other. Out of the spoils they dedicated bronze tripods to the Amyclaean god: under the first tripod stands an image of Aphrodite; under the second, an image of Artemis; under the third, an image of the Maid, the daughter of Demeter. These they dedicated there. But of the land of Messenia they gave to the Asinaeans, who had been expelled by the Argives, the district beside the sea which the Asinaeans still possess; and to the descendants of Androcles (for Androcles had a daughter, and she had children, who on the death of Androcles fled to Sparta) they assigned the district called Hyamia.
What they did to the Messenian people was this. In the first place, they made them swear that they would never revolt nor commit any other seditious act. In the second place, though no fixed tax was laid on them, they had to bring to Sparta the half of the produce of their farms. It was also stipulated that at the funerals of the Spartan kings and nobles, men and women should come from Messenia dressed in black ; and a penalty was imposed for transgressions of the rule. Tyrtaeus refers in some verses to the despiteful punishments which the Lacedaemonians inflicted on the Messenians :— Like asses galled with heavy loads, To their masters bringing by doleful necessity Half of all the fruit that the tilled land yields. That they were also obliged to join in mourning is shown by the following passage :— Themselves and their wives alike bewailing their masters, Whene’er death’s baneful lot has fallen on any. 4. In these circumstances the Messenians, seeing no hope of mercy from the Lacedaemonians in the future, and thinking that death in battle or exile from Peloponnese would be preferable to their present lot, resolved to revolt at all hazards. To this step they were urged especially by the younger generation, men who had never seen war, but clear spirits who would rather die in a free country than live at ease, if that were possible, in slavery.
Of the new generation that had grown up in Messenia, the youth of Andania were at once the most numerous and the flower, and amongst them was Aristomenes, who is still worshipped as a hero by the Messenians. They think that even the circumstances of his birth were above the common ; for his mother Nicotelea, they say, was visited by a demon or a god in the likeness of a serpent. A like tale is told, I am aware, about Olympias by the Macedonians, and about Aristodama by the Sicyonians, but with a difference. For the Messenians do not father Aristomenes on Hercules or Zeus, as the Macedonians father Alexander on Ammon, and as the Sicyonians father Aratus on Aesculapius. Most of the Greeks say that the sire of Aristomenes was Pyrrhus, but I know that at the libations the Messenians themselves call him Aristomenes, son of Nicomedes. So he, in the heyday of youth and spirit, with other men of rank, stirred up the people to revolt. The movement was at first kept secret, and messengers were sent by stealth to Argos and to the Arcadians, to ask whether they would be willing to stand by Messenia unflinchingly and as stoutly as in the former war.
Cite This Text