facts are beyond dispute; but of the details we have no trustworthy
narrative.

The FIRST MESSENIAN WAR lasted from B.C. 743 to 724. During the first
four years the Lacedaemonians made little progress; but in the fifth a
great battle was fought, and although its result was indecisive, the
Messenians did not venture to risk another engagement, and retired to
the strongly fortified mountain of Ithome. In their distress they sent
to consult the oracle at Delphi, and received the appalling answer that
the salvation of Messenia required the sacrifice of a virgin of the
royal house to the gods of the lower world. Aristodemus, who is the
Messenian hero of the first war, slew his own daughter, which so
disheartened the Spartans, that they abstained from attacking the
Messenians for some years. In the thirteenth year of the war the
Spartan king marched against Ithome, and a second great battle was
fought, but the result was again indecisive. The Messenian king fell
in the action; and Aristodemus, who was chosen king in his place,
prosecuted the war with vigour. In the fifth year of his reign a third
great battle was fought. This time the Messenians gained a decisive
victory, and the Lacedaemonians were driven back into their own
territory. They now sent to ask advice of the Delphian oracle, and
were promised success upon using stratagem. They therefore had
recourse to fraud: and at the same time various prodigies dismayed the
bold spirit of Aristodemus. His daughter too appeared to him in a
dream, showed him her wounds, and beckoned him away. Seeing that his
country was doomed to destruction, Aristodemus slew himself on his
daughter's tomb. Shortly afterwards, in the twentieth year of the war,
the Messenians abandoned Ithome, which the Lacedaemonians razed to the
ground, and the whole country became subject to Sparta. Many of the
inhabitants fled into other countries; but those who remained were
reduced to the condition of Helots, and were compelled to pay to their
masters half of the produce of their lands.

For thirty-nine years the Messenians endured this degrading yoke. At
the end of this time they took up arms against their oppressors. The
SECOND MESSENIAN WAR lasted from B.C. 685 to 668. Its hero is
Aristomenes, whose wonderful exploits form the great subject of this
war. It would appear that most of the states in Peloponnesus took part
in the struggle. The first battle was fought before the arrival of