Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 16.djvu/63

Rh M E S M E S 53 of this river is divided, near Mount Ithome^ into two distinct parts, the plain or basin of Stenyclarus on the north, and the plain of Macaria, so called from its extreme fertility, on the south. The climate is delightful. The earliest inhabitants of Messenia were Leleges, whose capital was at Andania. After these came ./Etolians, whose chief centre was at Pylus. After the Dorian conquest the country was divided by Cresphontes into five parts, whose chief cities were respectively Stenyclarus, Pylus, Rhion, Hyamia, and Mesola. The towns of Messenia were not numerous. Homer mentions Pylus (the seat of the Thessalian Neleids), Amphigeneia (possibly the same as Ampheia), Dorion, ^Epeia (possibly Methone), (Echalia, Pharos, Antheia (probably the later Thuria), Pedasus, and Ira (the later Abia). Other important towns were Asine, Corone, Limnse, Carnasium, Cyparissia, and, finally, Messene. Of the history of Messenia before the Dorian invasion little is known except a few fables related by Pausanias. Two generations after the Trojan war, the country was invaded by the Dorians, who expelled the Neleids and conferred the sovereignty upon Cresphontes, who seems to have been a popular king. Perhaps for this reason he was put to death by the chiefs along with all his sons except ^Epytus. ^Epytus was restored to the throne by the Arcadians, took vengeance for his father s death, and became very popular. His line lasted through several generations. We know little of the subsequent history of Messenia until the date of the Messenian wars, waged against Sparta. The ostensible and immediate causes of these wars are variously assigned ; but the true cause was the cupidity of Sparta. Our chief trustworthy authority for the history of them is the old elegiac poet Tyrtteus ; but so little is known about them that it is a matter of doubt in which of them the great hero Aristomenes won his fame. The date of the first was from 743 to 724, of the second from 685 to 668 or, according to others, from 648 to 631 B.C. Ithome was the centre of action in the first, Eira in the second. The result of these wars was the complete subjuga tion of Messenia to Sparta. Its territory was parcelled out among Spartans, and its towns handed over to Periceci and Helots. Many of the inhabitants took refuge in Arcadia, but still more in Italy and Sicily. A very large number settled in Rhegium, whose chiefs for many generations were of Messenian stock. About 200,000 remained behind in bondage. After the second war a large number of Messenians settled on the Sicilian coast at Zancle, to which they subsequently gave the name Messana (see MESSINA). In 464 B.C. the Messenian Helots, taking advantage of an earthquake at Sparta, revolted, and, though they were finally compelled to surrender in 455, they did so only on condition of being allowed to retire to Naupactus on the Corinthian Gulf. This city had been offered them as a residence by the Athenians, ever glad to favour the foes of Sparta. Here the Messenians remained for sixty years, until the loss of the battle of ^Egospotami deprived them of the protection of the Athenians. They were then driven out, and had to find homes in Cephallenia and Zacynthus, or among their kinsmen in Rhegium and Messana. Some even went to Africa, and took up their abode at Euesperidse or Hespcridai, afterwards called Berenice. Things remained in this condition until 369 B.C., when Epaminondas, having broken the power of Sparta, rent from her Messenia, and, collecting from all quarters the descendants of the exiled inhabit ants, helped them to found the city of MESSENE (q.v.}. Sparta never gave up her claim to Messenia, and made many attempts to reconquer it, but without success. The Messenians maintained their independence until 146 B.C., when, with the Achseans, they were reduced under the power of Rome. From that time they fall into the background of history. In the Middle Ages the country, like the rest of the Peloponnesus, was largely overrun by Slavic tribes, as is shown by the numerous Slavic local names occurring in it. At the establishment of Greece as a kingdom, Messenia was constituted into a province, with a governor or nomarch residing at Kalamata (officially Kalamai), the ancient Pharre. The country, though beautiful and fertile, is still in a deplorably backward con dition, and the population is sparse and semi-barbarous. Agricul ture languishes, and the roads and bridges are few and bad. More deeds of violence occur in Messenia than in any other part of Greece. With the exception of Kalamata, it contains no town of importance. Navarino, on the Gulf of Pylus, was the scene of the destruction of the Turkish fleet in 1827. MESSIAH (Dan. x. 25, 26), MESSIAS (John i. 41; iv. 25), are transcriptions (the first form modified by reference to the etymology) of the Greek Meo-o-tas (Meo-t as, Meo-etas), which in turn represents the Aramaic KIWp (meshi/id), answering to the Hebrew rwt?n, &quot;the anointed.&quot; x The Hebrew word with the article prefixed occurs in the Old Testament only in the phrase the anointed priest&quot; (Lev. iv. 3, 5, 1C; vi. 22 [15]), but &quot; Jehovah s anointed &quot; is a common title of the king of Israel, applied in the historical books to Saul and David, in Lam. iv. 20 to Zedekiah, and in Isa. xlv. 1 extended to Cyrus. In the Psalms corresponding phrases (My, Thy, His anointed) 2 occur nine times, to which may be added the lyrical passages 1 Sam. ii. 10, Hab. iii. 13. In the intention of the writers of these hymns there can generally be no doubt that it refers to the king then on the throne, or, in hymns of more general and timeless character, to the Davidic king as such (without personal reference to one king) ; 3 but in the Psalms the ideal aspect of the kingship, its religious importance as the expression and organ of Jehovah s sovereignty, is prominent. When the Psalter became a liturgical book the historical kingship had gone by, and the idea alone remained, no longer as the interpretation of a present political fact, but as part of Israel s religious inheritance. It was impossible, however, to think that a true idea had become obsolete merely because it found no expression on earth for the time being ; Israel looked again for an anointed king to whom the words of the sacred hymns should apply with a force never realized in the imperfect kingship of the past. Thus the psalms, especially such psalms as the second, were neces sarily viewed as prophetic; and meantime, in accordance with the common Hebrew representation of ideal things as existing in heaven, the true king remains hidden with God. The steps by which this r.esult was reached must, however, be considered in detail. The hope of the advent of an ideal king was only one feature of that larger hope of the salvation of Israel from all evils, the realization of perfect reconciliation with Jehovah, and the felicity of the righteous in Him, in a new order of things free from the assaults of hostile nations and the troubling of the wicked within the Hebrew community, which was constantly held forth by all the prophets, from the time when the great seers of the 8th century B.C. first proclaimed that the true conception of Jehovah s relation to His people was altogether different from what was. realized, or even aimed at, by the recognized civil and religious leaders of the two Hebrew kingdoms, and that it could become a practical reality only through a great deliverance following a sifting judgment of the most terrible kind. The idea of a judgment so severe as to render possible an entire breach with the guilty past, and of a subsequent complete realization of Jehovah s kingship in a regenerate nation, is common to all the prophets, but is expressed in a great variety of forms and images, con ditioned by the present situation and needs of Israel at the time when each prophet spoke. As a rule the prophets directly connect the final restoration with the removal of the sins of their own age, and with the accomplishment of such a work of judgment as lies within their own horizon ; to Isaiah the last troubles are those of Assyrian invasion, to Jeremiah the restoration follows on the exile to Babylon ; Daniel connects the future glory with the overthrow of the Greek monarchy. The details of the prophetic pictures show a corresponding variation ; but all agree in giving the central place to the realization of a real effective kingship of Jehovah ; in fact the conception of the religious subject 1 The transcription is as in Tfffaovp, Ttvcrip for &quot;V)E&amp;gt;jl, Onomastica, ed. Lag., pp. 247, 281, Bcur. ft ii. 3.- For the termination a? for Kfl, see Lagarde, Psalt. Memph., p. vn. 2 The plural is found in Psalm cv. 15, of the patriarchs as conse crated persons. 3 In Ps. Ixxxiv. 9 [10] it is disputed whether the anointed one is che king, the priest, or the nation as a whole. The second view is perhaps the best.