much resolution and fury, that the whole number, except three men, two on the side of the Argives, and one on that of the Lacedæmoniaus, lay dead upon the spot; and only the night parted them. The two Argives, looking upon themselves as the conquerors, made what haste they could to Argos to carry the news; the single Lacedæmonian, Othryades by name, instead of retiring, stripped the dead bodies of the Argives, and carrying their arms into the Lacedæmonian camp, continued in his post. The next day the two armies returned to the field of battle. Both sides laid equal claim to the victory: the Argives, because they had more of their champions left alive than the enemy had; the Lacedæmonians, because the two Argives that remained alive had fled ; whereas their single soldier had remained master of the field of battle, and had carried off the spoils of the enemy: in short, they could not determine the dispute without coming to another engagement. Here fortune declared in favour of the Lacedæmonians, and the little territory of Thyrea was the prize of their victory. But Othryades, not able to bear the thoughts of surviving his brave companions, or of enduring the sight of Sparta after their death, killed himself on the same field of battle where they had fought, resolving to have one fate and tomb with them.

Wars between the Messenians and Lacedæmonians.

THERE were no less than three several wars between the Messenians and the Lacedæmonians, all of them very fierce and bloody. Messenia was a country in Peloponnesus, towards the west, and not far from Sparta: it was of considerable strength, and was governed by its own kings.

A. M. 3261. Ant. J. C. 743.

The first Messenian War.

* The first Messenian war lasted twenty years, and broke out the second year of the ninth Olympiad. The Lacedæmonians pretended to have received several considerable injuries from the Messenians, and among others, that of having had their daughters ravished by the inhabitants of Messenia, when they went, according to custom, to a temple, that stood on the borders of the two nations; as also that of the murder of Telecles, their king, which was a consequence of the former outrage. Probably a desire of extending their dominion, and of seizing a territory which lay so convenient for them, might be the true cause of the war. But be that as it may, the war broke out in the reign of Polydorus and Theopompus, kings of Sparta, at the time when the office of Archon at Athens was still decennial.

Euphaes, the thirteenth descendant from Hercules, was then

king of Messenia. He gave the command of his army to Cleonnis. The Lacedæmonians opened the campaign with the siege of Amphea, a small, inconsiderable city, which, however, they thought

z Pausan. 1. iv. p. 216-242. Justin. 1. iii. c. 4.

7 Pausan. 1. iv. p. 225, 226.

would suit them very well as a place for military stores. The town was taken by storm, and all the inhabitants put to the sword. This first blow served only to animate the Messenians, by showing them what they were to expect from the enemy, if they did not defend themselves with vigour. The Lacedæmonians, on their part, bound themselves by an oath, not to lay down their arms, nor return to Sparta, till they had made themselves masters of all the cities and lands belonging to the Messenians; so much did they rely upon their strength and valour.

Two battles were fought, wherein the loss was nearly equal on both sides. But after the second, the Messenians suffered extremely through the want of provisions, which occasioned a great desertion in their troops, and at last brought a pestilence among them.

Hereupon they consulted the oracle at Delphi, which directed them, in order to appease the wrath of the gods, to offer up a virgin of the royal blood in sacrifice. Aristomenes, who was of the race of the Epytides, offered his own daughter. The Messenians then considering, that if they left garrisons in all their towns, they should extremely weaken their army, resolved to abandon them all, except Ithome, a little place seated on the top of a hill of the same name, about which they encamped and fortified themselves. In this situation were seven years spent, during which nothing passed but slight skirmishes on both sides, the Lacedæmonians not daring in all that time to force the enemy to a battle.

a

Indeed, they almost despaired of being able to reduce them: nor was there any thing but the obligation of the oath, by which they had bound themselves, that made them continue so burdensome a war. What gave them the greatest uneasiness was, their apprehension lest their absence from their wives for so many years, an absence which might still continue many more, should destroy their families at home, and leave Sparta destitute of citizens. To prevent this misfortune, they sent home such of their soldiers as were come to the army since the fore-mentioned oath had been taken, and made no scruple of prostituting their wives to their embraces. The children that sprung from this unlawful intercourse, were called Parthenidæ, a name given them to denote the infamy of their birth. As soon as they were grown up, not being able to endure such an opprobrious distinction, they banished themselves from Sparta with one consent, and under the conduct of* Phalantus, went and settled at Tarentum in Italy, after driving out the ancient inhabitants.

At last, in the eighth year of the war, which was the thirteenth of Euphaes's reign, a fierce and bloody battle was fought near Ithome. Euphaes pierced through the battalions of Theopompus with too much heat and precipitation for a king. He there received a multitude of wounds, several of which were mortal. He fell, and seemed to give up the ghost. Whereupon wonderful efforts of cou-rage were exerted on both sides; by the one, to carry off the king ; Pausan. 1. iv. p. 227-234. a Diod. l. xv. p. 378. b Pausan. 1. iv. p. 234, 235. Diod. in Frag. Hor. Cd. vi. 1. 2.

* Et regnata petam Laooni rura Phalanto.

by the other, to save him. Cleonnis killed eight Spartans, who were dragging him along, and spoiled them of their arms, which he committed to the custody of some of his soldiers. He himself received several wounds, all in the fore-part of his body, which was a certain proof that he had never turned his back upon his enemies. Aristomenes, fighting on the same occasion, and for the same end, killed five Lacedæmonians, whose spoils he likewise carried off without receiving any wound. In short, the king was saved and carried off by the Messenians; and, all mangled and bloody as he was, he expressed great joy that they had not been worsted. Aristomenes, after the battle was over, met Cleonnis, who, by reason of his wounds, could neither walk by himself, nor with the assistance of those that lent him their hands. He therefore took him upon his shoulders, without quitting his arms, and carried him to the camp.

As soon as they had applied the first dressing to the wounds of the king of Messenia and of his officers, there arose a new contention among the Messenians, that was pursued with as much warmth as the former, but was of a very different kind, and yet the consequence of the other. The affair in question was, the adjudging the prize of glory to him that had signalized his valour most in the late engagement. It was a custom among them, which had long been established, publicly to proclaim, after a battle, the name of the man that had showed the greatest courage. Nothing could be more proper to animate the officers and soldiers, to inspire them with resolution and intrepidity, and to stifle the natural apprehension of death and danger. Two illustrious champions entered the lists on this occasion, namely, Cleonnis and Aristomenes.

The king, notwithstanding his weak condition, attended by the principal officers of his army, presided in the council where this important dispute was to be decided. Each competitor pleaded his own cause. Cleonnis founded his pretensions upon the great number of the enemies he had slain, and upon the multitude of wounds he had received in the action, which were so many undoubted testimonies of the courage with which he had faced both death and danger; whereas, the condition in which Aristomenes came out of the engagement, without hurt and without wound, seemed to show, that he had been very careful of his own person, or, at most, could only prove, that he had been more fortunate, but not more brave or courageous, than himself. And as to his having carried him on his shoulders into the camp, that action indeed might serve to prove the strength of his body, but nothing farther; and the thing in dispute at this time, says he, is not strength but valour. The only thing Aristomenes was reproached for, was, his not being wounded; therefore he confined himself to that point. I am, says he, called fortunate, because I have escaped from the battle without wounds. If that were owing to my cowardice, I should deserve another epithet than that of fortunate; and instead of being admitted to dispute the prize, ought to undergo the rigour of the laws that punish cowards. But what is objected to me as a crime, is in truth my greatest glory. For, if my enemies, astonished at my

valour, durst not venture to attack or oppose me, it is no small degree of merit that I made them fear me; or if, whilst they engaged me, I had at the same time strength to cut them in pieces, and skill to guard against their attacks, I must then have been at once both valiant and prudent. For whoever, in the midst of an engagement, can expose himself to dangers with caution and security, shows, that he excels at the same time both in the virtues of the mind and the body. As for courage, no man living_can_reproach Cleonnis with any want of it; but for his honour's sake, I am sorry that he should appear to want gratitude.

After the conclusion of these harangues, the question was put to the vote. The whole army is in suspense, and impatiently waits for the decision. No dispute could be so warm and interesting as this. It is not a competition for gold or silver, but solely for honour. The proper reward of virtue is pure disinterested glory. Here the judges are unsuspected. The actions of the competitors still speak for them. It is the king himself, surrounded with his officers, who presides and adjudges. A whole army are the witnesses. The field of battle is a tribunal without partiality and cabal. In short, all the votes concurred in favour of Aristomenes, and adjudged him the prize.

C

Euphaes died not many days after the decision of this affair. He had reigned thirteen years, and during all that time had been engaged in war with the Lacedæmonians. As he died without children, he left the Messenians at liberty to choose his successor. Cleonnis and Damis were candidates in opposition to Aristomenes; but he was elected king in preference to them. When he was on the throne, he did not scruple to confer on his two rivals the principal offices of the state; all strongly attached to the public good, even more than to their own glory; competitors, but not enemies; these great men were actuated by a zeal for their country, and were neither friends nor adversaries to one another, but for its preservation.

In this relation, I have followed the opinion of the late Monsieur * Boivin the elder, and have made use of his learned dissertation upon a fragment of Diodorus Siculus, which the world was little acquainted with. He supposes and proves in it, that the king spoken of in that fragment is Euphaes; and that Aristomenes is the same that Pausanias calls Aristodemus, according to the custom of the ancients, who were often called by two different

names.

Aristomenes, otherwise called Aristodemus, reigned near seven years, and was equally esteemed and beloved by his subjects. The war still continued all this time. Towards the end of his reign he beat the Lacedæmonians, took their king Theopompus, and, in honour of Jupiter of Ithome, sacrificed three hundred of

Pausan. 1. v. p. 235, 241.

a Clem. Alex. in Protrep. p. 20. Euseb. in Præp. 1. iv. c. 16.

* Memoirs of the Academy of Inscriptions, vol. ii. p. 84-113.

them, among whom their king was the principal victim. Shortly after, Aristodemus sacrificed himself upon the tomb of his daughter, in conformity to the answer of an oracle. Damis was his successor, but without taking upon him the title of king.

e After his death, the Messenians never had any success in their affairs, but found themselves in a very wretched and hopeless condition. Being reduced to the last extremity, and utterly destitute of provisions, they abandoned Ithome, and fled to such of their allies as were nearest to them. The city was immediately razed, and the other part of the country submitted. They were made to engage by oath never to forsake the party of the Lacedæmonians, and never to revolt from them; a very useless precaution, only proper to make them add the guilt of perjury to their rebellion. Their new masters imposed no tribute upon them; but contented themselves with obliging them to bring to the Spartan market one half of the corn they should reap every harvest. It was likewise stipulated, that the Messenians, both men and women, should attend, in mourning, the funerals either of the kings or chief citizens of Sparta; which the Lacedæmonians probably looked upon as a mark of dependence, and as a kind of homage paid to their nation. Thus ended the first Messenian war, after having lasted twenty years.

A. M. 3281. Ant. J. C. 723.

The second Messenian War.

THE lenity with which the Lacedæmonians treated the Messenians at first, was of no long duration. When once they found the whole country had submitted, and thought the people incapable of giving them any farther trouble, they returned to their natural character of insolence and haughtiness, that often degenerated into cruelty, and sometimes even into ferocity. Instead of treating the vanquished with kindness, as friends and allies, and endeavouring by gentle methods to win those whom they had subdued by force, they seemed intent upon nothing but aggravating their yoke, and making them feel the whole weight of subjection. They laid heavy taxes upon them, delivered them up to the avarice of the collectors of those taxes, gave no ear to their complaints, rendered them no justice, treated them with contempt like vile slaves, and committed the most heinous outrages against them.

Man, who is born for liberty, can never reconcile himself to servitude; the most gentle slavery exasperates, and provokes him to rebel. What could be expected then from so cruel a one as that under which the Messenians groaned? After having endured it with great uneasiness near forty years, they resolved to throw off the yoke, and to recover their ancient liberty. This was in the

*

• Pausan. l. iv. p. 241, 242.

f Pausan. p. 242. 262. Justin. 1. iii. c. 5.

* Cùm per complures annos gravia servitutis verbera, plerumque et vincula, cæteraque captivitatis mala perpessi essent, post longam pænarum patientiam bellum instaurant. Justin. l. iii. c. 5.