Ἀριστομένης δὲ ὡς τὴν ἡγεμονίαν ἀπείπατο τῶν ἐς τὴν ἀποικίαν στελλομένων, τὰς θυγατέρας τὴν πρεσβυτάτην καὶ τὴν ἐπὶ ταύτῃ καὶ Ἁγναγόραν τὴν ἀδελφὴν τὴν μὲν Θάρυκι ἐς Φιγαλίαν, Δαμοθοΐδᾳ δὲ Λεπρεάτῃ καὶ Ἡραιεῖ Θεοπόμπῳ τὰς θυγατέρας συνῴκισεν· αὐτὸς δὲ ἀφικόμενος ἐς Δελφοὺς ἐχρῆτο τῷ θεῷ. καὶ τὸ μὲν τῷ Ἀριστομένει γενόμενον μάντευμα οὐ λέγεται·
Δαμαγήτῳ δὲ Ῥοδίῳ βασιλεύοντι ἐν Ἰαλυσῷ, τότε δὲ ἥκοντι παρὰ τὸν Ἀπόλλωνα καὶ ἐρωτῶντι ὁπόθεν ἀγαγέσθαι χρὴ γυναῖκα, ἔχρησεν ἡ Πυθία θυγατέρα ἀνδρὸς τῶν Ἑλλήνων τοῦ ἀρίστου λαβεῖν. ὁ δὲ—ἦν γὰρ καὶ τρίτη τῷ Ἀριστομένει θυγάτηρ— γαμεῖ ταύτην, Ἑλλήνων τῶν τότε ἐκεῖνον μακρῷ δή τινι ἄριστον νομίζων. Ἀριστομένης δὲ ἐς μὲν τὴν Ῥόδον ἀφίκετο σὺν τῇ θυγατρί, ἐκεῖθεν δὲ ἔς τε Σάρδεις ἐνενόει παρὰ Ἄρδυν τὸν Γύγου καὶ ἐς Ἐκβάτανα τὰ Μηδικὰ ἀναβῆναι παρὰ τὸν βασιλέα Φραόρτην·
ἀλλὰ γὰρ πρότερον τούτων συνέπεσεν ἀποθανεῖν αὐτῷ νοσήσαντι, οὐ γὰρ ἔδει συμφορὰν οὐδεμίαν Λακεδαιμονίοις ἔτι ἐξ Ἀριστομένους γενέσθαι. τελευτήσαντι δὲ αὐτῷ Δαμάγητος καὶ οἱ Ῥόδιοι μνῆμά τε ἐπιφανὲς ἐποίησαν καὶ ἔνεμον ἀπὸ ἐκείνου τιμάς. τὰ μὲν δὴ λεγόμενα ἐς τοὺς Διαγορίδας καλουμένους ἐν Ῥόδῳ, γεγονότας δὲ ἀπὸ Διαγόρου τοῦ Δαμαγήτου τοῦ Δωριέως τοῦ Δαμαγήτου τε καὶ τῆς Ἀριστομένους θυγατρός, παρῆκα, μὴ οὐ κατὰ καιρὸν δοκοίην γράφειν·
Λακεδαιμόνιοι δὲ τότε, ὡς ἐπεκράτησαν τῆς Μεσσηνίας, τὴν μὲν ἄλλην πλὴν τῆς Ἀσιναίων αὐτοὶ διελάγχανον, Μοθώνην δὲ Ναυπλιεῦσιν ἐδίδοσαν ἐκπεπτωκόσιν ἐκ Ναυπλίας ἔναγχος ὑπὸ Ἀργείων.
Μεσσηνίων δὲ τοὺς ἐγκαταληφθέντας ἐν τῇ γῇ, συντελοῦντας κατὰ ἀνάγκην ἐς τοὺς εἵλωτας, ἐπέλαβεν ἀπὸ Λακεδαιμονίων ὕστερον ἀποστῆναι κατὰ τὴν ἐνάτην Ὀλυμπιάδα καὶ ἑβδομηκοστήν, ἣν Κορίνθιος ἐνίκα Ξενοφῶν, Ἀρχιμήδους Ἀθήνῃσιν ἄρχοντος· ἀπέστησαν δὲ καιρὸν τοιόνδε εὑρόντες. Λακεδαιμονίων ἄνδρες ἀποθανεῖν ἐπὶ ἐγκλήματι ὅτῳ δὴ καταγνωσθέντες ἱκέται καταφεύγουσιν ἐς Ταίναρον· ἐντεῦθεν δὲ ἡ ἀρχὴ τῶν ἐφόρων ἀπὸ τοῦ βωμοῦ σφᾶς ἀποσπάσασα ἀπέκτεινε.
Σπαρτιάταις δὲ ἐν οὐδενὶ λόγῳ θεμένοις τοὺς ἱκέτας ἀπήντησεν ἐκ Ποσειδῶνος μήνιμα, καί σφισιν ἐς ἔδαφος τὴν πόλιν πᾶσαν κατέβαλεν ὁ θεός. ἐπὶ δὲ τῇ συμφορᾷ ταύτῃ καὶ τῶν εἱλώτων ὅσοι Μεσσήνιοι τὸ ἀρχαῖον ἦσαν, ἐς τὸ ὄρος τὴν Ἰθώμην ἀπέστησαν. Λακεδαιμόνιοι δὲ ἄλλα τε μετεπέμποντο συμμαχικὰ ἐπʼ αὐτοὺς καὶ Κίμωνα τὸν Μιλτιάδου πρόξενόν σφισιν ὄντα καὶ Ἀθηναίων δύναμιν· ἀφικομένους δὲ τοὺς Ἀθηναίους ὑποπτεῦσαι δοκοῦσιν ὡς τάχα νεωτερίσοντας καὶ ὑπὸ τῆς ὑποψίας ἀποπέμψασθαι μετʼ οὐ πολὺ ἐξ Ἰθώμης.
Ἀθηναῖοι δὲ τὴν ἐς αὐτοὺς τῶν Λακεδαιμονίων ὑπόνοιαν συνέντες Ἀργείοις τε φίλοι διʼ αὐτὸ ἐγένοντο καὶ Μεσσηνίων τοῖς ἐν Ἰθώμῃ πολιορκουμένοις ἐκπεσοῦσιν ὑποσπόνδοις ἔδοσαν Ναύπακτον, ἀφελόμενοι Λοκροὺς τοὺς πρὸς Αἰτωλίᾳ καλουμένους Ὀζόλας. τοῖς δὲ Μεσσηνίοις παρέσχεν ἀπελθεῖν ἐξ Ἰθώμης τοῦ τε χωρίου τὸ ἐχυρὸν καὶ ἅμα Λακεδαιμονίοις προεῖπεν ἡ Πυθία ἦ μὴν εἶναί σφισι δίκην ἁμαρτοῦσιν ἐς τοῦ Διὸς τοῦ Ἰθωμάτα τὸν ἱκέτην. ὑπόσπονδοι μὲν ἐκ Πελοποννήσου τούτων ἕνεκα ἀφείθησαν·
After Aristomenes had refused the leadership of the Messenians who set out to found a new home, he gave in marriage his sister Hagnagora, and his eldest and his second daughter. His sister he gave to Tharyx of Phigalia, and his daughters to Damothoidas of Lepreum and Theopompus of Heraea. He then went to Delphi and inquired of the god. The oracle which was vouchsafed to him is not mentioned; but Damagetus the Rhodian, king of Ialysus, who had come at that time to the sanctuary of Apollo and inquired where he should get a wife, was told by the Pythian priestess to marry the daughter of the noblest of the Greeks. Now Aristomenes had a third daughter, so the king married her, thinking Aristomenes far the noblest of the Greeks of that age. Aristomenes went with his daughter to Rhodes, from which he purposed going to the court of Ardys, son of Gyges, at Sardes, and to the court of King Phraortes at Ecbatana in Media; but before he could do so he fell sick and died, for the […] soon were to be troubled by Aristomenes no more. Damagetus and the Rhodians built him a splendid tomb, and paid honours to him from that time forward. The history of the Diagorids in Rhodes (the descendants of Diagorus, who was the son of Damagetus, who was the son of Dorieus, who was the son of Damagetus by the daughter of Aristomenes) I pass over, lest it should appear an impertinent digression.
When the […] had made themselves masters of Messenia they divided it all, except the territory of Asine, amongst themselves ; only they gave Mothone to the Nauplians, who had lately been expelled from Nauplia by the Argives. It fell out that the Messenians, who were taken in Messenia, and who were compelled to rank with the Helots, afterwards revolted from the Lacedaemonians in the seventy-ninth Olympiad, in which Xenophon the Corinthian was victorious, Archimedes being archon at Athens. The opportunity which they seized to revolt was this. Certain Lacedaemonians, condemned to death on some charge or other, took sanctuary at Taenarum ; but the college of ephors tore them from the altar and put them to death. For this violation of the rights of his sanctuary the wrath of Poseidon fell on the Spartans, and by an earthquake he levelled the whole city with the ground. And in addition to this calamity those Helots who had originally been Messenians revolted and took refuge on Mount Ithome. In order to subdue them the Lacedaemonians called in troops from their allies, in particular an Athenian force under Cimon, son of Miltiades, who was a public friend of theirs. But when the Athenians arrived it appears that the Lacedaemonians suspected them of treacherous designs and, moved by this suspicion, soon afterwards sent them away from Ithome.
The Athenians, resenting the suspicion which they saw that the Lacedaemonians had harboured of them, made friends with the Argives ; and when the Messenians, who were besieged in Ithome, capitulated and marched out, the Athenians gave them Naupactus. They had wrested it from the Ozolian Locrians, who dwell on the borders of Aetolia. For the permission to depart from Ithome the Messenians were indebted to the strength of the place; moreover, the Pythian priestess warned the Lacedaemonians that retribution would surely overtake them if they harmed the men who had thrown themselves on the protection of Zeus of Ithome. Hence the Messenians were suffered to quit Peloponnese under the terms of a capitulation.
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