Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/359

 MESSENIA. tinued to belonc; to the kin.ns of Pylus. (P;uis. iv. 3. §1.) Hence Euripides, in referring to the mythic times, malves the Pamisus the boundary of Lacnnia and Messenia ; for which he is reproved by Strabo, because this was not the case in the time of the geographer. (Strab. viii. p. 366.) Of the seven cities which Agamemnon in the Iliad (ix. 149) offers to Achilles, some were undoubtedly in Jlesse- nia ; but as only two, Pherae and Cardamyle, retained their Homeric names in the historical age, it is diffi- cult to identify the other five. (Strab. viii. p. 359; Diod. XV. 66.) With the conquest of Peloponnesus by the Dorians a new epoch commences in the history of Jlessenia. This country fell to the lot of Cresphontes, who is represented as driving the Neleidae out of Pylus and making himself master of the whole country. Ac- cording to the statement of Ephorus (ap. Strab. viii. p. 361), Cresphontes divided Messenia into five parts, of which he made Stenyclerus the royal residence.* In the other four towns he appointed viceroys, and bestowed upon the former inhabitants the same rights and privileges as the Dorian conquerors. But this gave offence to the Dorians ; and he was obliged to collect them all in Stenyclerus, and to declare this the MESSENIA. 343 Rhium, and Hyameitis ; but the passage is corrupt, and the name of Mesola should probably be added to complete the number. (Miiller, iJorians, vol. i. p. Ill, transl.) Stephanus B. calls Mesola, a city of Messene, one of the five {s. v. MetroAa); and Strabo in another passage (viii. p. 361) describes it as lying towards the gulf between Taygetus and Mes- senia ; and as the latter name can only apply to the western part of the country, Mesola was probably the district between Taygetus and the Pamisus. Pylus apparently comprehended the whole western coast. Rhiura is the southern peninsula, opposite Taenarum. (Strab. viii. p. 360.) The position of Hyameitis, of which the city was called Hyameia ('Tdyueio, Steph. B. s. «.), is quite uncertain. only city of Messenia. Notwithstanding these con- cessions, the Dorians put Cresphontes and all his children to death, with the exception of Aepytus, v/ho was then very young, and was living with his grandfather Cypselus in Arcadia. When this youth had grown up, he was restored to his kingdom by the help of the Arcadians, Spartans, and Argives. From Aepytus the Messenian kings were called Aepytidae, in preference to Heracleidae, and continued to reign in Stenyclerus till the sixth generation, — their names being Aepytus, Glaucus, Isthmius, Dotadas, Sybotas, Phintas, — when the first Jlessenian war with Sparta began. (Paus. iv. 3.) According to the common legend, which represents the Dorian invaders as conquering Peloponnesus at one stroke, Cresphontes immediately became master of the whole of Messenia. But, as in the case of Laconia [Laconia], there is good reason for believing this to be the invention of a later age, and that the Dorians in Messenia were at first confined to the plain of Stenyclerus. They appear to have penetrated into this plain from Arcadia, and their whole legendary history points to their close connection with the latter country. Cresphontes himself married the daughter of the Arcadian king Cypselus ; and the name of his son Aepytus, from whom the line of the Messenian kings was called, was that of an ancient Arcadian hero. (Hom. //. ii. 604, Schol. ad loc. ; comp. Grote, Hist, of Greece, vol. ii. p. 437, seq.) The Jlessenian wars with Sparta are related in every history of Greece, and need not be repeated here. According to the common chronology, the first war lasted from B.C. 743 to 724, and the second from B.C. 68.5 to 668 ; but both of these dates are probably too early. It is necessaiy, however, to glance at the origin of the first war, because it is connected with a disputed topographical question, which has only recently received a satisfactory solution. Jit. Taygetus rises abruptly and almost precipitously above the valley of the Eurotas, but descends more gradually, and in many terraces, on the other side. The Spartans had at a very early period taken pos- MAP OF THE AGEE DENTIIELLVTES. a a. Site of the boumlary stones. z 4
 * Of the other four parts Strabo mentions Pylus,