to the valley of Lacedaemon, just like κοίλη Ἦλις. Sparta, on the other
hand, always remained the proper name of the city, and it is only in
later writers, such as Polybius, that Lacedaemon is used as the name of
the city; wherever it occurs in this sense in earlier authors, it must be
regarded as an exception to the rule.
The middle of the south of Peloponnesus, from Arcadia downwards, is
formed by Mount TAYGETUS (now Pentedactylon), which ends in Cape
Taenarus. This mountain, as I have already observed, is the seat of
frequent volcanic commotions. Porphyry, the stone of which it consists,
is found most commonly in volcanic mountains; the green serpentine,
likewise peculiar to Taygetus, is found there in great masses, whence we
meet in Roman poets with the expressions, _metalla Taygeti_, _metalla
Laconica_, _virides lapides Taygeti_; _Taygeti virent metalla_. Mount
Taygetus is full of caverns; the most important are those near Taenarus
(now Cape Matapan), whence the legend that the entrance to the lower
world was there. Just as this mountain runs between the rivers Pamisus
and Eurotas, so another runs between the Eurotas and the Argolic Gulf;
the latter is of no less importance, though lower than Taygetus, and
terminates in Cape Malea. Taygetus is wild, and large tracts on its top
are incapable of cultivation; but in its lower parts it has fertile
valleys. The valley of the Eurotas (now Vasilipotamos), is broad and
beautiful, and the river itself, both in length and depth, is the most
important in all Peloponnesus.
SPARTA, situated on the Eurotas, was a royal city from the earliest
times; according to tradition, it was the residence of Menelaus, and
afterwards of the Heracleid kings. From its beginning down to the
Macedonian period, it remained an open place; but, like all other Greek
cities, it had an acropolis, whence the expression which is applied to
Sparta as well as to other places, that it was inhabited κωμηδόν, does
not exclude the existence of an ἀκρόπολις. On the heights of Epirus, too,
traces of Cyclopian walls and earthen ramparts have been discovered,
although it was inhabited κωμηδόν, which shows that towns thus described
were not surrounded by walls, but built round a fortified central
point. In this condition Sparta remained until the Macedonian period.
For a long time the Spartans, no doubt, lived in their open city, as it
were unconsciously, but afterwards the feeling of their own greatness
and security told them that it was not worth while to build walls. When
however they were visited by the Macedonians, Sparta was surrounded
with walls which remained until the city was united with the Achaean
confederacy, when they had to be pulled down again.
The houses at Sparta were built in an irregular and poor manner, almost
all being made of clay; such was indeed the case in other Greek towns
also, but at Sparta it was pre-eminently so, and the city appears
to have had no regular streets at all. There were, however, a few
notable buildings, though they cannot exactly be called magnificent.
Under the dominion of the Romans, Sparta was the most important city
in Peloponnesus, for during the Achaean war it had joined the Romans,
and had thereby afforded them a welcome pretext for destroying Achaia.
Ancient Sparta seems to have perished at an early part of the middle
ages, when the unfortunate Peloponnesus was ravaged by the Slavonians.
The building of the town of _Misitra_ is ascribed to a prince of the
family of the Palaeologi, but the probable fact is that he only restored
it. There are few places of which so scanty ruins are discoverable as of
Sparta. _Limnae_ was a suburb of Sparta.
About five miles from it was situated AMYCLAE, which was older than the
Doric conquest, and was respected by the Spartans.
Little can be said about the other places in Laconia. GYTHEION was the
ἐπίνειον of Sparta even during the maritime supremacy of Athens, and
remained what it then was as long as Sparta occurs in ancient history;
but it is not by any means a particularly good harbour.
It is not worth while to enumerate the places along the coast, for we
can say nothing about them, absolutely nothing being known except their
sites. The most important among them is EPIDAURUS, surnamed LIMERA (now
Monembasia or Napoli di Malvasia), to distinguish it from other towns
of the same name, with a very beautiful and safe harbour, which was
especially protected by a rock within it; on it was built the citadel,
which from its natural position was extremely strong. But Epidaurus was
too far from Sparta, and too much separated from it by mountains ever to
become its port town.
SELLASIA, in the interior of the country, situated between Tegea and
Sparta, in a pass where mount Taygetus and the other range of mountains
come close together, was a place of great historical reputation. It was
important as a military post, for it was occupied by Cleomenes in the
war against the Macedonians and Achaeans, and he there suffered his
unfortunate defeat. It seems at all times to have belonged to Lacedaemon.
But the case of PELLANA, BELEMINA, and other places between Megalopolis
and Sparta was different; they originally belonged to Arcadia, just as
Epidaurus Limera, Prasiae and others belonged to Argos, to which in the
end they were restored. Such change in the boundaries of Laconia took
place in the time of Philip of Macedonia, in consequence of a decision
which he made at Corinth after the battle of Chaeronea. Such at least
must be our inference, for we afterwards find the Achaeans and Argives,
without any war, in the possession of those parts, so that the Spartans
must either have ceded them of their own accord, or the Achaeans and
Argives were put in possession of them by force. However much, therefore,
the Spartans may boast of never having stooped under the power of
Macedonia, it is nothing but one of the many untruths they have uttered.
The district about Taenarus and the coast-country from the borders of
Messenia to Malea, afterwards bore the name of _Eleutherolacones_. This
tract of country is mentioned by Strabo and Pausanias with praise, and it
is said to have contained eighteen towns, the inhabitants of which were
designated by that name, because they had made themselves independent of
the supremacy of Sparta. Strabo refers the origin of this emancipation
to Augustus, but it probably arose from other circumstances. When T.
Quinctius Flamininus entered Laconia, and Nabis indulged in several acts
of insolence, the Romans, believing it dangerous to wage war against him,
connived at it; meantime he committed all possible cruelties against the
unfortunate Peloponnesians, and insulted the Romans into the bargain:
in short, he carried matters so far, that Flamininus, contrary to his
own inclinations, was forced to punish him; and although Flamininus was
unwilling, utterly to annihilate him, yet Nabis was afterwards unable to
recover himself. The consuls then proceeded to the towns on the coast
(the modern Maina, as far as Malea, now St. Angelo), which renounced
Nabis, and were constituted by the Romans as free and independent
towns. If afterwards, when the Achaean confederacy was broken up, they
were restored to Sparta, and remained subject to it until the time of
Augustus, the Romans must have given them up at that time; and Strabo’s
expression can refer only to a second constitution. But on the whole,
those towns were insignificant.
The island of CYTHERA (Cerigo) is separated from Laconia by a channel of
the sea; in antiquity it was the same as it is now, a rugged, volcanic
island, presenting a dismal aspect on account of its dark, burned rocks.
Aesthetic historians, anxious to have a more beautiful place for the
temple of Cytherea, have described the island as a paradise, and supposed
that a devastating change had taken place at a later period. But not
a trace of this is found among the ancients. The island was thinly
peopled. When the Athenians had expelled the Aeginetans from the island,
the Spartans gave up Cythera to them, and from this, as I have already
observed, we may infer that, as the island contained but little fertile
land, the number of Aeginetans must have been small. If, therefore,
Aegina once actually had an enormous population, it can have been owing
only to some accidental circumstance, as was the case with Pisa at the
time of the conquest of Sardinia.[33]
The real central point of the volcanic mountain-range of Peloponnesus and
of the Archipelago, is the island of THERA; one branch of the volcanic
range proceeds from Thera northward in the direction of Lemnos; another
turns to the East towards Rhodes and the coast of Ionia, whence the
frequent earthquakes in those parts. The whole district from Delos to
Lemnos, thence to the Asiatic coast, and thence again to Thera, forms as
it were a circle.
The ancients imagined that Laconia once contained within its boundaries
39,000 farms; but this statement is not well authenticated. The greater
part of the country as far as the sea was agricultural land in the
possession of the Spartans, and cultivated by their serfs or helots.
MESSENE, MESSENIA, MESSENIACA.
The third of the Dorian kingdoms is Messene, Messenia, or Messeniaca,
for all these three names are applied to the kingdom of Cresphontes. The
boundaries in the mythical age cannot be accurately defined, but so far
as we can see, they were about the same as in the Macedonian period;
it perhaps extended to the very top of Taygetus and the sources of the
Pamisus. Although it was likewise a mountainous country, yet owing to the
splendid valley of the Pamisus (valley of Calamata), which is one of the
richest in the world, and to other fertile coast-districts, it enjoyed
the reputation of being a particularly wealthy country, whence, according
to tradition, it was so much the object of the cupidity of Cresphontes,
when lots were drawn for Lacedaemon and Messene, that he used a false
lot. At present the country is in an unspeakably miserable condition. The
name Messene is said originally to have belonged to the country only, and
not to a city.
Messene, too, originally consisted of one sovereign principality
and several dependent ones, the Achaean princes being in a relation
of dependence on the Dorian kings. But while at Sparta the ancient
inhabitants were deprived of the actual exercise of their rights, they
rose in Messene to a condition of equality with their Dorian conquerors,
and the latter became amalgamated with the ancient inhabitants into
one compact nation. The two states also differed in other respects:
Sparta was ruled by two kings, while in Messene a Heracleid monarchy
was established. The early history of Messene is as uncertain as that
of the Roman kings; the traditions about the destruction of the kingdom
are anything but authentic, and we cannot fix the time of that event
within a hundred years. This observation is too important not to be
repeated in this place. The colony of Messenians which is said to have
been established at Zancle, is probably nothing but an inference from
the subsequent name of that place; for the foundation of that colony, if
we assign it to the time in which alone it can be conceived to have been
established, would be separated by more than a century from the events
in Messene, to which it is said to owe its origin. The only historical
fact is, that the last Messenian war belongs to the period about Olymp.
80; some towns were then reduced to the condition of perioeci, but the
great body of the country people became helots, and the land was divided
among the Spartans. The war ended with the capitulation of the helots,
who had withdrawn to the citadel of Ithome, whence the besieged obtained
a free departure to Naupactus; in this latter place they afterwards
lived under the protection of Athens. The chronology of the early history
of Greece is so uncertain, that, although we are here speaking of the
period subsequent to the Persian wars, the exact year in which the last
Messenian war was brought to a close cannot be determined; its outbreak
is known to belong to about Olymp. 80, as at that time Taygetus was
shaken by a violent earthquake. The war lasted at least ten years. From
that time till about the battle of Leuctra, a period of about eighty
years, Messene remained for the most part a wilderness, as the Morea was
under the dominion of the Turks, even during the time that it had already
somewhat recovered (1670-1680). In this condition, the country was found
by the Athenian fleet which, during the Peloponnesian war, appeared
before Sphacteria; the ancient towns lay in ruins. It was a well-deserved
punishment for Sparta’s tyranny and cruelty, that this was the very point
at which the Athenians entered the Spartan dominion and established
themselves about Pylos.
After the battle of Leuctra, Epaminondas collected all those who gave
themselves out to be descendants of the ancient Messenians; and they were
joined by numbers of Arcadians, Boeotians, perioeci of Sparta, and helots
who had shaken off the Spartan yoke, and he led them back into Messene.
This restoration of Messene was unquestionably just, and Sparta had well
deserved the infliction; but for Greece it was an unfortunate event,
for in the circumstances of the time, when the danger was threatening
from Macedonia, the only thing which might have saved Greece, was
concentration and strengthening, but by no means a going back to the
ancient times. Hence Macedonia declared in favour of Messene, as well
as of Argolis and Arcadia, for the purpose of weakening Sparta. Had the
latter been able to renew and consolidate itself, as was subsequently
attempted by Cleomenes, and had it been joined by all the Peloponnesians,
Greece might still have defied Macedonia for centuries, and all the
subsequent scenes of misery would not have occurred.
At the time of its restoration, Messene was not at once made so large a
state as it originally was, and as it subsequently became again through
the mediation of Macedonia. We still have an accidental statement
in Scylax of Caryanda respecting the extent of Messene during this
intermediate period between the Boeotian restoration and the later
extension under Philip of Macedonia, which we know from Strabo and
Pausanias. The influence of Epaminondas was brief, he established only
the town of Messene itself, with which were connected the western coast
and the valley of the Pamisus, but not quite as far as the sea. The
towns, however, which had been built by the Spartans, as Asine, Methone,
and others, were still in the hands of the Spartans, and inhabited by
Dryopians, ancient subjects of Argos, who had declared themselves in
favour of Sparta. Afterwards, when the boundaries of Messenia were
extended, these towns also became Messenian, standing, however, not in
a relation of dependence but in that of isopolity. The Messenian people
during the Macedonian period, therefore, was quite a different nation
from what it had been before. Some descendants of the ancient Messenians
were perhaps still living in the interior; they may have returned from
Naupactus, and from other parts of the world over which they had been
scattered. On the sea-coast, there were a few Boeotian and Argive
colonies, and also some Laconian perioeci and a number of helots, who had
emigrated from Laconia and established themselves there. It was natural
enough for the Messenians to represent themselves in a different light;
they took into consideration only the pure germs of their origin, and to
them they referred the story of Aristomenes; but ethnographers ought not
to have imitated them, for the Messenians were a new people.
The PAMISUS, the river of Messenia, is only a few miles in length, but
carries a great mass of water, being probably fed by subterraneous
tributaries from Arcadia.
MESSENE was situated about ten English miles from the sea, its situation
is very justly compared with that of Corinth; for it, too, had its ἄκρα
upon an inaccessible rock (ITHOME) surrounded by a wall, which connected
it with the lower town. The remains of these walls belong to the grandest
of all the remnants of Greek antiquity; they consist of blocks of five
feet in length and two and a half in breadth, and these are placed in
such a manner as to turn their smaller side outward. It is very doubtful
whether this wall was constructed in the time of Epaminondas, or whether
it is a relic of an earlier period; even the ancients observed that the
towers at the corners were a later addition; and modern travellers state,
that this observation is evidently correct. Hence it is conjectured,
that the towers were built in the time of Epaminondas; but that the
fortification itself belongs to an earlier period. It can hardly be
believed that, in the age of Epaminondas, such a style of building should
have continued to be employed, since Megalopolis, in the building of
which a whole people exerted itself, did not possess such walls. Messene
and Corinth were the strongest points in Peloponnesus; and whoever was in
possession of them, could control the whole peninsula. The cause of the
great strength of Ithome was the circumstance that, like Acrocorinthus,
the rock had a well furnishing an abundant supply of water, which was
wanting in many other Greek acropoleis, as, for example, in that of
Athens.
A town Messene did not exist before the time of Epaminondas. Some years
ago a French antiquary asserted that Messene was more ancient, but this
cannot be proved. Ithome, on the other hand, appears in the traditions of
the earliest times; and during the first Messenian war, it was the centre
of the country; that fortress, containing the temple of Zeus Ithomatas,
was the place of refuge of the Messenians; there the treaty with the
Lacedaemonians was concluded; and in the war of Aristomenes, too, it
appears in the same light and under the same circumstances.
All that is related about the first Messenian wars, attests the fearful
devastation which must then have taken place. Even as early as the
Peloponnesian war, we no longer find any traces of the many towns that
are mentioned, and which must be regarded as historical (for names of
towns are not invented), such as Stenyclaros, Andania, Aepy, Pedasos,
and many others. In the east of Messenia, a few places survived, and
for a time belonged to Laconia, but the western part of the country
was completely devastated. In the Homeric Catalogue[34] we find only a
few places in the west; in the east we have Cardamyle and Pherae, and
Cyparissia is the only town in the west that remained, being mentioned
in the Periplus and elsewhere, as a very good harbour for small vessels.
The little modern town of Arcadia is not far from the site of the ancient
Cyparissia: the country around it is very fertile.
CORONE (now Coron) was built, according to an account which appears
credible to me, at the time of the Boeotian interference, and named after
Coronea in Boeotia, from which town it also appears to have received
settlers.
ASINE was built by the Spartans at the time of the destruction of
Messene, and was peopled by Nauplians.[35]
METHONE (Madon) is likewise of late origin.
In the Catalogue, all western Messenia belongs to the kingdom of
Nestor, and the _Pylos_ in the Odyssey, where Telemachus visits Nestor,
cannot be the Triphylian, as Strabo thinks, but must be the Messenian
on the sea-coast; we have to look for it in the vicinity of Navarino.
_Sphacteria_ formed the harbour of Pylos, and that island has in our days
again attracted the eyes of the world.[36] It is remarkable in antiquity
from the circumstance that the Spartans, inconsiderately enough, occupied
it with 300 of their own citizens, and that these men were cut off and
compelled to surrender by the Athenians, who had taken helots into their
service, and were thus enabled to bring about negotiations for peace.
Pylos is still called Pylo; Navarino is situated on the other side of the
splendid gulf, where it is broadest, while ancient Pylos was situated
at the point where the passage between the mainland and Sphacteria is
quite narrow. We recognise the devastations caused by the Spartans in
those districts from the excellent description given by Thucydides of the
attack upon Pylos.
The boundaries of Messenia, as I have already mentioned, were fixed by
Philip of Macedonia. The Spartans for a long time refused to recognise
the independence of the country, but such obstinate resistance against
actual circumstances ruins a state, and this was the cause of the ever
increasing weakness of Sparta. The Messenians themselves likewise acted a
sorry part in Peloponnesus, and their continued hostility against Sparta
is very singular. They brought much misery upon the peninsula, and they
themselves at times had to pay dearly for it; they received the last
Philip at Ithome, and were on the point of becoming for ever the slaves
of Macedonia. They were always jealous of the ruling power, at first
of Sparta, and afterwards of the Achaeans: their constant opposition
led to nothing but false steps, for they were too weak to carry out any
independent policy.
ARCADIA.
The frontiers of Arcadia, on the side of Laconia, as I have already
observed, were at first contracted, but afterwards extended again; in
like manner, the boundary line between Elis was changed on account of
the varying possession of Triphylia. The Triphylians regarded themselves
as real Arcadians, but were always an object of ambition to the Eleans,
by whom they were several times overpowered. They were a remnant of the
former state of Pisa, which, if we may express an opinion at all on so
obscure a subject, must itself be regarded as originally Arcadian.