Μεσσήνιοι δὲ ὡς ἐς τὴν Εἶραν ἀνῳκίσθησαν, τῆς δὲ ἄλλης ἐξείργοντο πλὴν ὅσον σφίσιν οἱ Πύλιοι τὰ ἐπὶ θαλάσσῃ καὶ οἱ Μοθωναῖοι διέσωζον, ἐλῄστευον τήν τε Λακωνικὴν καὶ τὴν σφετέραν, πολεμίαν ἤδη καὶ ταύτην νομίζοντες· ἄλλοι τε δὴ συνίσταντο ἐς τὰς καταδρομάς, ὡς ἕκαστοι τύχοιεν, καὶ Ἀριστομένης δὲ τοὺς περὶ αὑτὸν λογάδας ἐς τριακοσίων ἀριθμὸν προήγαγεν.
ἦγον μὲν δὴ τὰ Λακεδαιμονίων καὶ ἔφερον ὅ τι καὶ δύναιτο αὐτῶν ἕκαστος, ἑλόντες δὲ σῖτον καὶ βοσκήματα καὶ οἶνον ἀνήλισκον, ἔπιπλα δὲ καὶ ἀνθρώπους ἀπεδίδοσαν χρημάτων· ὥστε καὶ ἐποιήσαντο οἱ Λακεδαιμόνιοι δόγμα, ἅτε τοῖς ἐν τῇ Εἴρᾳ μᾶλλον ἢ σφίσιν αὐτοῖς γεωργοῦντες, τὴν Μεσσηνίαν καὶ τῆς Λακωνικῆς τὴν προσεχῆ, ἕως ἂν πολεμῶσιν, ἐᾶν ἄσπορον.
καὶ ἀπὸ τούτου σιτοδεία ἐγένετο ἐν Σπάρτῃ καὶ ὁμοῦ τῇ σιτοδείᾳ στάσις· οὐ γὰρ ἠνείχοντο οἱ ταύτῃ τὰ κτήματα ἔχοντες τὰ σφέτερα ἀργὰ εἶναι. καὶ τούτοις μὲν τὰ διάφορα διέλυε Τυρταῖος· Ἀριστομένης δὲ ἔχων τοὺς λογάδας τὴν μὲν ἔξοδον περὶ βαθεῖαν ἐποιήσατο ἑσπέραν, ἔφθη δὲ ὑπὸ τάχους τὴν ἐς Ἀμύκλας ἀνύσας πρὸ ἀνίσχοντος ἡλίου, καὶ Ἀμύκλας τὸ πόλισμα εἷλέ τε καὶ διήρπασε καὶ τὴν ἀποχώρησιν ἐποιήσατο πρὶν ἢ τοὺς ἐκ τῆς Σπάρτης προσβοηθῆσαι.
κατέτρεχε δὲ καὶ ὕστερον τὴν χώραν, ἐς ὃ Λακεδαιμονίων λόχοις πλέον ἢ τοῖς ἡμίσεσι καὶ τοῖς βασιλεῦσιν ἀμφοτέροις συμβαλὼν ἄλλα τε ἔσχεν ἀμυνόμενος τραύματα καὶ πληγέντι ὑπὸ λίθου τὴν κεφαλὴν αὐτῷ σκοτοδινιῶσιν οἱ ὀφθαλμοί. καὶ πεσόντα ἀθρόοι τῶν Λακεδαιμονίων ἐπιδραμόντες ζῶντα αἱροῦσιν· ἥλωσαν δὲ καὶ τῶν περὶ αὐτὸν ἐς πεντήκοντα. τούτους ἔγνωσαν οἱ Λακεδαιμόνιοι ῥῖψαι πάντας ἐς τὸν Κεάδαν· ἐμβάλλουσι δὲ ἐνταῦθα οὓς ἂν ἐπὶ μεγίστοις τιμωρῶνται.
οἱ μὲν δὴ ἄλλοι Μεσσηνίων ἐσπίπτοντες ἀπώλλυντο αὐτίκα, Ἀριστομένην δὲ ἔς τε τὰ ἄλλα θεῶν τις καὶ δὴ καὶ τότε ἐφύλασσεν· οἱ δὲ ἀποσεμνύνοντες τὰ κατʼ αὐτὸν Ἀριστομένει φασὶν ἐμβληθέντι ἐς τὸν Κεάδαν ὄρνιθα τὸν ἀετὸν ὑποπέτεσθαι καὶ ἀνέχειν ταῖς πτέρυξιν, ἐς ὃ κατήνεγκεν αὐτὸν ἐς τὸ πέρας οὔτε πηρωθέντα οὐδὲν τοῦ σώματος οὔτε τραῦμά τι λαβόντα. ἔμελλε δὲ ἄρα καὶ αὐτόθεν ὁ δαίμων ἔξοδον ἀποφαίνειν αὐτῷ.
καὶ ὁ μὲν ὡς ἐς τὸ τέρμα ἦλθε τοῦ βαράθρου, κατεκλίθη τε καὶ ἐφελκυσάμενος τὴν χλαμύδα ἀνέμενεν ὡς πάντως οἱ ἀποθανεῖν πεπρωμένον· τρίτῃ δὲ ὕστερον ἡμέρᾳ ψόφου τε αἰσθάνεται καὶ ἐκκαλυψάμενος—ἐδύνατο δὲ ἤδη διὰ τοῦ σκότους διορᾶν—ἀλώπεκα εἶδεν ἁπτομένην τῶν νεκρῶν. ὑπονοήσας δὲ ἔσοδον εἶναι τῷ θηρίῳ ποθέν, ἀνέμενεν ἐγγύς οἱ τὴν ἀλώπεκα γενέσθαι, γενομένης δὲ λαμβάνεται· τῇ δὲ ἑτέρᾳ χειρί, ὁπότε ἐς αὐτὸν ἐπιστρέφοιτο, τὴν χλαμύδα προὔβαλλέν οἱ καὶ δάκνειν παρεῖχε. τὰ μὲν δὴ πλείω θεούσῃ συνέθει, τὰ δὲ ἄγαν δυσέξοδα καὶ ἐφείλκετο ὑπʼ αὐτῆς· ὀψὲ δέ ποτε ὀπήν τε εἶδεν ἀλώπεκι ἐς διάδυσιν ἱκανὴν καὶ φέγγος διʼ αὐτῆς.
καὶ τὴν μέν, ὡς ἀπὸ τοῦ Ἀριστομένους ἠλευθερώθη, τὸ φωλίον ἔμελλεν ὑποδέξεσθαι· Ἀριστομένης δὲ—οὐ γάρ τι ἡ ὀπὴ καὶ τούτῳ παρέχειν ἐδύνατο ἔξοδον—εὐρυτέραν τε ταῖς χερσὶν ἐποίησε καὶ οἴκαδε ἐς τὴν Εἶραν ἀποσώζεται, παραδόξῳ μὲν τῇ τύχῃ καὶ ἐς τὴν ἅλωσιν χρησάμενος, τὸ γάρ οἱ φρόνημα ἦν καὶ τὰ τολμήματα μείζονα ἢ ὡς ἐλπίσαι τινὰ Ἀριστομένην αἰχμάλωτον ἂν γενέσθαι, παραδοξοτέρα δέ ἐστι καὶ πάντων προδηλότατα οὐκ ἄνευ θεοῦ ἡ ἐκ τοῦ Κεάδα σωτηρία.
When the Messenians settled on Ira, and were shut out from the rest of their territory except in so far as the people of Pylus and Mothone preserved for them the districts on the coast, they harried Laconia and their own land, which they now regarded as the enemy’s country. These forays were especially conducted by Aristomenes with his picked men, whose numbers he had raised to three hundred, but they were also made by any men who chose to muster for the purpose. They plundered the Lacedaemonian country, and carried off whatever they could lay hands on: the corn, cattle, and wine which they took they consumed, but the movables and men they sold. The Lacedaemonians, seeing that they were tilling the land more for the benefit of the people at Ira than for their own, decreed that Messenia and the adjoining part of Laconia should be left unsown so long as the war lasted. 3. This produced a scarcity at Sparta, and with the scarcity a sedition ; for the persons who owned property in these districts were discontented at their lands being left uncultivated. However, Tyrtaeus composed these dissensions.
Late in the evening Aristomenes marched out at the head of his picked men, and so rapid were his movements that he was at Amyclae before the sun rose. He took the town, pillaged it, and beat a retreat before the Spartans could come to the rescue. Afterwards he continued to scour the country, till in an encounter with more than half the Lacedaemonian regiments under their two kings he received amongst other wounds a blow on the head from a stone which stunned him, and when he was down a body of Lacedaemonians rushed on him and took him prisoner. About fifty of his men also were taken. They were all sentenced by the Lacedaemonians to be thrown into the abyss into which they throw the greatest malefactors. 4. The rest of the Messenians were killed on the spot by the fall ; but on this, as on other occasions of his life, one of the gods watched over Aristomenes. Those who magnify the story of his life say that when he was cast into the abyss an eagle flew under him, and supported him with its wings until it had brought him to the bottom unmaimed and unwounded. And Providence was about to show him a way even out of the abyss. When he reached the bottom of the chasm he lay down, and drawing his mantle about him, awaited the death which he believed to be inevitable. But on the second day afterwards he heard a noise, and uncovering his face, his eyes being now accustomed to the darkness, he perceived a fox battening on the corpses. Guessing that the beast had an entrance somewhere, he waited till it came near, and then caught it with one hand, and whenever it turned on him he held out his mantle to it with the other hand, and allowed the beast to bite it. Most of the way he ran with it as it ran, but in the very difficult places he was dragged by it. At last he spied a hole large enough for the fox, and light shining through it. When he let the fox go, it ran, I suppose, into its lair. But the hole was not large enough to let Aristomenes out, so he widened it with his hands and got safe home to Ira. Now, if the capture of Aristomenes was strange, his spirit and prowess being so great that no one would have thought he could have been taken prisoner, much stranger was his escape from the abyss, and plainly the hand of God was in it.
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