through treachery, by his enemies in his mountain
stronghold, decided to give up the hopeless struggle. He broke fiercely
through the ranks of his assailants with his sons and followers, and
left his country to the doom which the gods had decreed.

The end of his career, like its earlier events, was, according to the
legend, under the control of the deities. Damagetes, the king of the
island of Rhodes, had been told by an oracle that he must marry the
bravest of the Hellenes (or Greeks). Believing that Aristomenes had the
best claim to this proud title, he asked him for the hand of his
daughter in marriage, and offered him a home in his island realm.
Aristomenes consented, and spent the remainder of his days in Rhodes.
From his daughter descended the illustrious family of the Diagoridae.

This romantic story of the far past resembles those of King Alfred of
England, of Wallace and Bruce of Scotland, and of other heroes who have
defended their countries single-handed against a powerful foe. But we
are not done with it yet. There is another singular and interesting
episode to be told,--a legend, no doubt, but one which has almost passed
into history.

The story goes that the Spartans, losing heart at the success of the
Messenians in the early years of the war, took the usual method then
adopted, and sent to the oracle at Delphi for advice. The oracle told
them to apply to Athens for a leader. They did so, sending an embassy to
that city; and in response to the oracle the Athenians sent them a lame
schoolmaster named Tyrtaeus. They did not dare to resist the command of
the god, but they had no desire to render any actual aid to the
Spartans.

However, Apollo seems to have been wiser than the Athenians. The lame
schoolmaster was an able poet as well, and on reaching Sparta he
composed a series of war-songs which so inspirited the army that they
marched away to victory. Tyrtaeus was probably not only an able poet;
very likely he also gave the Spartans good advice in the conduct of the
war, and though he did not lead their armies, he animated them by his
songs and aided them with his advice until victory followed their career
of defeat.

For many years afterwards the war-songs of Tyrtaeus remained highly
popular at Sparta, and some of them have come down to our own days. As
for the actual history of this war, most of what we know seems to have
been written by Tyrtaeus, who was thus not only the poet but the
historian of