Messenian Wars

## Description

A war between Sparta and Messenia in the 8th, 7th, and 4th century BC.

### Battle of Amphia (Ongoing War)

The village of Amphia was occupied by the Spartans, who continued to expand until 740 BC, when the Messenians succeeded in expelling the Spartans.

### Siege of Messenia (Aftermath of the War)

* Many Messenian Peasants became slaves and sent to Sparta.
* 100 Years later the people of Messenia rebelled against Sparta.

## Second Messenian War

### Description

A rebellion against Sparta by the Messenia people who want their freedom back from Sparta.

### Rebellion of Messenia

The Messenians nevertheless fortified themselves on Mount Ithóme. The battle for this mountain was fought in 728 BC and again the Messenians, led by King Aristodemus, were victorious. This king died in 724 BC and his successor had already succumbed to the Spartans. Subsequently, the entire population acknowledged defeat and the war ended.

### War

he Second Messenian War was the result of revolt by the helot population of Messenia, supported with the aid of the Argives and the Arcadians. In an attempt to regain freedom, the Messenians invaded Laconia. The first battle, the Battle of Deres, happened before the allies arrived. Aristomenes fought so well that he was made the new king of Messenia by his people. He followed this up by crossing into Sparta and placed a shield in the temple of Athena in order to scare the Spartans. This forced the Spartans to send to Delphi where they were told to gain a leader from Athens. Upon doing so the Spartans marched on the Messenians at Boar's Grave where they met Aristomenes and his troops, who defeated them.

However, it was Sparta who had the upper hand in the Battle of the Great Foss when they bribed Aristocrates, king of Messenia-allied Arcadia, into retreating through the Messenian lines when the Spartans advanced into battle. Again, this loss forced the Messenians into a fortified city at Mt. Eira (Ira). It was, while fortified here, that the Messenians started to use the land as enemy territory and several raids were made of the surrounding towns, some even led by Aristomenes himself.

During this time Aristomenes was captured. Before he could be executed he escaped his holding and made it back to Eira. The Messenians held Eira for over ten years before the Spartans made their last attack. Before Eira fell, however, the Spartans allowed the women and children to be released along with Aristomenes. The ones who did not escape Eira were again turned into helots and most of the ones who escaped fled to Italy. Aristomenes himself left for Rhodes where he died and was honored as a hero.

Ultimately, the Spartans were able to quell the revolts following the death of the Argive commander, and further suppressed the Messenians back to a helot status. As a result of this war, Spartan society became a strong militaristic power in the Mediterranean in order to control the masses along the Peloponnese and to prevent further rebellions brought on by the helots who later did manage to break away from Spartan rule around 350 BC.

### Battle of Deres

The Battle of Deres was a fight between the Spartans and the Messenians which occurred c. 684 BC. It was the first major military engagement of the Second Messenian War. The Spartans and Messenians didn't have any allies at the time of the conflict and the outcome of the battle was highly disputed. Neither side won a clear victory, but Aristomenes is said to have achieved more than it seemed that one man could, so that, as he was of the race of the Aepytidae, the Messenians offered to make him king after the battle. However, he declined the offer, preferring instead to become general with absolute powers.

This battle did not take place at the Lakonian Dereion, but one would expect Derai to mean a "small hill". the place-name Dera occurs in a fragmentary late second century Messenian inscription, which appears to have been a definition of the Messenian borders with Arcadia, otherwise, nothing else is known about this place.

### Battle of the Great Foss

The Battle of the Great Foss occurred in 682 BC during the Second Messenian War (685–668 BC). The word "foss" derives from the Latin fossa, meaning "ditch" or "trench." According to Pausanias the outcome of the battle was determined by trickery. The Spartans bribed Aristocrates of Orchomenus, the king of the Arcadians, to withdraw his men just as the battle was beginning. This resulted in the slaughter of the Messenians. Aristocrates was later stoned to death by the Arcadians for this treachery.

# Third Messenian War

### War

The uprising coincident with the earthquake of 464 BC is soundly attested to, although Greek historians do not agree on the interpretation of this event.

According to Thucydides, the helots and perioeci of Thouria and Aithaia took advantage of the earthquake to revolt and establish a position on Mt. Ithome. He adds that most of the rebels were of Messenian ancestry—confirming the appeal of Ithome as a historical place of Messenian resistance—and focuses attention on the perioeci of Thouria, a city on the Messianian coast. Conversely, historians could deduce that a minority of the helots were Laconian, thus making this the one and only revolt of their history. Commentators such as Stephanus of Byzantium - writing around a thousand years later - suggest that this Aithaia was in Laconia, thus indicating a large-scale uprising in the region. The version of events given by Pausanias is similar.

Diodorus Siculus (XI, 63,4 – 64,1), probably influenced by Ephorus of Cyme, attributed the uprising equally to the Messenians and the helots. This version of events is supported by Plutarch.

Finally, some authors make responsibility for the uprising with the helots of Laconia. This is the case of Plutarch in his *Life of Cimon*: the helots of the Eurotas River valley want to use the earthquake to attack the Spartans whom they think are disarmed. The intervention of Archidamus II, who calls the Lacedaemonians to arms, simultaneously saves them from the earthquake and the helot attack. The helots fold, but revert to open warfare joined by the Messenians.

It is difficult to reconcile these versions. It is nevertheless clear that in any case the revolt of 464 BC represented a major traumatic event for the Spartans. Plutarch indicates that the Crypteia and other poor treatments of the helots were instituted after this revolt. If there is any doubt in these affirmations, they at least underscore the immediate Spartan reaction: gathering allies and pursuing war with the same Athens that would later be faced in the Peloponnesian War. After all, the rebellion represented an early indication of souring relations between the Athenians and the Spartans. The Spartans spuriously expelled an Athenian army sent to assist in putting down the rebellion, and the Athenians assisted in the resettlement of helots in the town of Naupactus on the coast across the Gulf of Corinth from the Peloponnese.

### Ending

The Messenians seeing the Spartan win all gave up and Messenian fell into the control and rule of Sparta.

## Who was involved?

1. Sparta.
2. Messenia.
3. Argos.
4. Arcadia.