Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/361

 MESSEXIA. iv. 43.) That these districts were those of Al;ig;onia, Gerenia, Cardamyle, and Leuctra, situated north- ward of the smaller Pamisus, which flows into the Jlessenian gulf just below Leuctra, we may conclude from the statement of Strabo (viii. p. 361) that this river had been the subject of dispute between the Messenians and Lacedaemonians before Philip. The Jlessenians appear to have maintained that their territory extended even further south in the most ancient times, since they alleged that the island of Pephnus had once belonged to them. (Paus. iv. 26. § 3.) [Pephnus.] At a later time the Messenians joined the Achaean League, and fought along with the Achaeans and Antigonus Doson at the battle of Scllasia, n. c. 222. (Paus. iv. 29. § 9.) Long before this the Lacedaemonians appear to have recovered the districts assigned to the Messenians by Philip ; for after the battle of Sellasia the boundaries of the two people were again settled by Antigonus. (Tac. A7m. I. c.) Shortly afterwards Philip V. sent Demetrius of Pharas, who was then living at his court, on an expedition to surprise Messene; but the attempt was unsuccessful, and Demetrius himself was slain. (Polyb. iii. 19 ; Paus. iv. 29. §§ 1 — 5, where this attempt is erroneously ascribed to Demetrius IL, king of Macedonia.) Demetrius of Pharus had ob- serveil to Philip that Mt. Ithome and the Acroco- rinthus were the two horns of Peloponnesus, and that whoever held these liorns was master of the bull. (Strab. viii. p. 361.) Afterwards Nabis, tyrant of Lacedaemon, also made an attempt upon Jlessene, and had even entered within the walls, when he was driven back by Philopoemen, who came with succours from Megalopolis. (Paus. iv. 29. § 10.) In the treaty made between Nabis and the Romans in B.C. 195, T, Quintius Flamininus compelled him to restore all the property he had taken from the Messenians. (Liv. xxxiv. 35 ; Plut. Flwmin. 13.) A quarrel afterwards arose between the Messenians and the Achaean League, which ended in open war. At first the Achaeans were unsuc- cessful. Their general Philopoemen was taken prisoner and put to death by the Messenians, B. c. 183; but Lycortas, who succeeded to the command, not only defeated the Messenians in battle, but cap- tured their city, and executed all who had taken part in the death of Philopoemen. Messene again joined the Achaean League, but Abia, Thuria, and I'harae now separated themselves from Jlessene, and became each a distinct member of the league. (Paus. iv. 30. §§ 11, 12; Liv. xxxix. 49; Polyb. xxiv. 9, seq., XXV. 1.) By the loss of these states the ter- ritory of Messene did not extend further eastward than the Pamisus; but en the settlement of the aflairs of Greece by JIummius, they not only re- covered their cities, but also the Dentheliates Ager, which the Lacedaemonians had taken possession of. (Tac. Ann. iv. 43.) This district continued to be a subject of dispute between the two states. It was again assigned to the Messenians by the Mile^ sians, to whose arbitration the question had been submitted, and also by Atidius Geminus, praetor of Achaia. (Tac. I. c.) But after the battle of Ac- tium, Augustus, in order to punish the Messenians for having espoused the side of Antony, assigned Thuria and Pharae to the Lacedaemonians, and consequently the Dentheliates Ager, which lay east of these states. (Paus. iv. 31. § 2, comp. iv. 30. § 2.) Tacitus agrees with Pausanias, that the Dentheliates Ager belonged to the Lacedaemonians MESSENIA. 345 in the reign of Tiberius ; but he differs from the latter writer in assigning the possession of the Lacedaemonians to a decision of C. Caesar and M. Antonius (" post C. Caesaris et Marci Antonii sen- tentia redditum"). In such a matter, however, the authority of Pausanias deserves the preference. We learn, however, from Tacitus (/. c), that Tiberius reversed the decision of Augustus, and restored the disputed district to the Messenians, who continued to keep possession of it in the time of Pausanias; for this writer mentions the woody hollow called Choerius, 20 stadia south of Abia, as the boundary between the two states in his time (iv. 1. § 1, iv. 30. § 1 ). It is a curious fact that the district, which had been such a frequent subject of dispute in an- tiquity, was in the year 1835 taken from the go- vernment of Misthra (Sparta), to which it had always belonged in modern times, and given to that of Kalamdta. (Ross, lietsen im Peloponnnes, p. 2.) IV. ToAT«'S. 1. Tn the plain of Stemjcleriis. — Andania, the capital of the Messenian kings before the Dorians. Oechalia, at the distance of 8 stadia from Andania, the reputed residence of Eurytus, occupied, according to Pausanias, the grove of cypresses called Camasium. AjiPHEiA,in the mountains on the borders of Arcadia. Two roads led into Arcadia: the more northerly ran along the river Charadrus past Carnasium (Paus. viii. 35. § 1); the more southerly started from Messene, and was a military road made by Epami- nondas, to connect more closely the two newly founded cities of Slessene and Megalopolis. (Paus. viii. 34 ; comp. Leake, Morea., vol. ii. p. 296.) Stenyclarus, the capital of the Dorian conquerors, and which gave its name to the plain, was also on the borders of Arcadia. Ira or Eira, where the citizens maintained themselves during the Second Messenian War, was situated upon the mountain of this name, to the north of the plain above the river Neda. At the extreme south of this plain, com- manding also the entrance of the plain Macaria, was Messenk, with its citadel Ithome. To the west jiart of the plain, on the road from Andania to Cyparissia, were Policiine and Dorium. 2. In the plain of Macaria. — Pherae, the modern Kalamdta, situated about a mile from the sea, on the left bank of the river Nedon, was in antiquity, as it is at present, the cliief town in the plain. Three roads lead from Pherae: one south- wards along the coast to Ablv, said to be the Ho- meric Ira; a second up the valley of the Ncdon, across Mt. Taygetus to Sparta, one of whose gates was hence called the gate towards Pharae (" porta quae Pharas ducit," Liv. xxxv. 30); while the tliird ruad ran across the Nedon in a north-easterly direc- tion to Calamae, the modern Kah'tmi, where it divided into two, the one to the west going across the Pamisus, and the other to the north leading to Thuria, of which there were two towns so called, and from thence to the sources of the Pamisus. To the east of Pherae was the mountainous district called the Ager Dentheliates, and containing Llmnae, which iias been already described. 3. Jn the western jieninsiila and on the western coast. — Corone and Asine were on the Messenian gulf, and consequently on the east coast of this peninsula. The situation of Colonides is un- certain, some placing it on the Messenian gulf, and others near the harbour Phoenicus, NW. of tho promontory Acritas. At the extreme southern point