Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/350

 334 MESSA. by the present Mosul, — the name of which is pro- bably a corruption of the old name, — and that the ruins of Koyunjik, in its immediate neif^hbourhood (now certainly ascertained, by Colonel IJawIinson's decipherment of the inscriptions found there, to have been a vast palace erected by Sennacherib), are those which Xenophon beheld in a state much less uijured by time and violence than they are at present. (Layard, Nineveh and Bahylon, p. 658.) [V.] MESSA (MeVffr)), one of the nine cities of La- conia enumerated by Homer, who gives it the epithet of ToAuTprJpo)!', ''abounding in pigeons" (//. ii- 502). Strabo says that the position of iIessa was unknown (viii. p. 364) ; but Pausanias mentions a town and harbour, named Messa (iii. 25. § 9), which is iden- tified by most modern scholars with the Homeric town. This Messa, now Mezapo, is situated on the western coast of Mani, between Hippola and Oetylus ; and the cliffs in the neighbourhood are said to abound in wild pigeons. (Leake, 3Iorea, vol. i. p. 286 ; Boblaye, Rtcherches, cfc p. 91 ; Curtius, Pebponnesos, vol. ii. p. 282.) Leake, however, has subsequently conjectured that Messa corresponds to Mistrd in the Spartan plain, partly on account of its site, and partly because the Messa of Pausanias could never, from its situation, have been a place of much importance. (^Pelopon- nesiaca, p. 357.) But there does not appear any sulhcient reason for rejecting the identity of the Messa of Pausanias with the Jlesse of Homer. MESSABATE'NE (Plin. vi. 27. s. 31 ; Meaaa- SariKTj, Strab. si. p. 524 : Eth. MeffaaSdrai, Ptol. vi. 4. § 3), a narrow district in the mid-land of Susiana (as indeed its name implies), situated ac- cording to Pliny under Mt. Cambalidus (one of the southern spurs of ilt. Zagros), to the N. of the tribe of the Cossiaei. Strabo states that it lies under Zagrus, and is either a part of Media, or, as others hold, of Elymaea (xi. p. 524) : in another place he calls Massabatice an eparchate of Elymaea, and adds that the best pass into Assyria lay through it (xvi. p. 744). Ptolemy (I. c), who does not mention the district by its name, makes the Messabatae the inhabitants of Paraetacene, itself a subdivision of Persis, adjoining Media. [V.] MESSA'NA or MESSE'NE (Ueaarii'tj in almost all Greek authors, but the Doric form Mecrcraj'ci, which is found in Pindar, was universally in use among the citizens themselves, and was from them adopted by the Romans, who always write the name Messana: Eth. Mecray^uios and Metrcrawos, Mcssa- nensis : Messina), an important city of Sicily, situated on the strait which divided that island from Italy, nearly opposite to Pdiegium, and only a few miles from Cape Pelorus, the NE. extremity of the island. It was originally called Zancle (Zd7KA7j: Eth. Zcfy/cAoios), a name said to be of Siculiau origin, de- rived from ZajKhov, which in the language of that people meant a sickle, and was obviously applied to the spot from the peculiar configuration of the cuiTed spit or point of sand which encloses its port. (Thuc. vi. 4; Steph. Byz. s.v. ZajKATj; Strab. vi. p. 268; Diod. iv. 85.) From this derivation of the name it would appear probable that there was a Siculian set- tlement on the spot, before it was occupied by the Greeks; but no mention of this is found in history, and all ancient writers describe Zancle as a Chalcidic colony. According to Thucydides it was at first founded by a band of pirates from the Italian Cumae, itself a colony of Chalcis; but the advantageous MESSANA. situation of the place soon led to the establishment there of a more regular colony, consisting of settlers from Chalcis and the other cities of Euboea, at the head of whom were Perieres of Chalcis and Cratae- nienes of Cumae, who became the joint founders or Oekists of the new colony (Thuc. vi. 4). This state- ment of Thucydides is confirmed in its leading points by Pausanias; while Scymnus Chins, as well as Strabo, though agreeing in its Chalcidic origin, re- present it as founded immediately from the Chalcidic colony of Naxos in Sicily. (Paus. iv. 23. § 7; Scymn. Ch. 284—286; Strab. vi. p. 268.) From this last version we may infer that it was looked upon as of more recent origin than Naxos, and therefore not founded till after 735 b. c. ; but we have no clue to the precise, or even approximate date, of its esta- blishment. Of its early history we know scarcely anything; but we may probably infer that it rose early to a flourishing condition, from the circumstance that the Zanclaeans were able before the close of the seventh century b. c. to establish two colonies on the N. coast of the island : Mylae, about 30 miles W. of Cape Pelorus, and Himera, much further to the W. (Thuc. vi. 5; Scymn. Ch. 288; Strab. vi. p. 272.) The latter grew up into a great and powerful city, but iMylae appears to have continued for the mobt part a mere dependency of Zancle. (Strab. /. c.) The Zanclaeans appear to have been still desirous of extending their colonial system in this direction, and were endeavouring to induce fresh settlers from the Ionian cities of Asia to co-operate with them in this enterprise, when the fall of Miletus in b. c. 494 gave a fresh impulse to emigration from that quarter. A large body of Samians, together with some of the surviving Milesians, were in consequence induced to accept the invitation of the Zanclaeans, and set out for Sicily, with the purpose of establishing themselves on the N. coast between Mylae and Himera, which was commonly known as " the Fair Shore " (^ K0A7; 'A/cT?;'.) But having arrived, on their way, at Locri Epizephyrii, they were here persuaded by Anaxilas, tyrant of Khegium, to take a treacherous advantage of the absence of the Zanclaean troops, who were engaged in military operations elsewhere, and surprise tlie city of Zancle itself. That city was at this time under the government of a despot named Scythes, to whom Herodotus gives the title of king. On finding themselves thus betrayed, the Zanclaeans invoked the assistance of the powerful Hippocrates, despot of Gela; but that monarch in his turn betrayed them, and instead of aiding them to recover possession of Zancle, made common cause with the Samians, whom he confinned in the possession of the city, while he threw Scythes into prison, and reduced the greater part of the Zanclaeans into captivity. (Herod, vi. 22 —24; Thuc. vi. 4; Scymn. Ch. 293; Arist. Pol. v. 3.) By this sudden revolution, the Samians found themselves in undisputed possession of Zancle, but they did not long enjoy their new acquisition. Not many years afterwards they were in tlieir turn re- duced to subjection by Anaxilas himself, who is said to have expelled them from the city, which he peopled with a mixed body of colonists, while he gave to it the name of Messeno, in remembrance of the land of that name in Greece, from which his own ancestors derived their descent. (Thuc. vi. 4; Herod, vii. 164; Strab. vi. p. 268.) The exact period of this revolution cannot be de- termined with certainty; but the first settlement of the Samians at Zancle cannot be carried back further than B.C. 493, while their subsequent expulsion or