Page:History of Greece Vol II.djvu/455

 PISA ASD ELIS. 439 the part of the Messenians, the occupation of a mountain difficult of access, and the fortification of it for the special pur- pose and resistance, Ithome (which is said to have had already a smull town upon it) in the first war, Eira in the second. It is reasonable to infer from hence, that neither their principal town Stenyklerus, nor any other town in their country, was strongly fortified, so as to be calculated to stand a siege ; that there were no walled towns among them analogous to Mykeniv, and Tiryns on the eastern portion of Peloponnesus ; and that, per- haps, what were called towns were, like Sparta itself, clusters of unfortified villages. The subsequent state of Helotism into which they w r ere reduced is in consistency with this dispersed village residence during their period of freedom. The relations of Pisa and Elis form a suitable counterpart and sequel to those of Messenia and Sparta. Unwilling sub- jects themselves, the Pisatans had lent their aid to the Messe- nians, and their king, Pantaleon, one of the leaders of this combined force, had 'gained so great a temporary success, as to dispossess the Eleians of the agonothesia or administration of the games for one Olympic ceremony, in the 34th Olym- piad. Though again reduced to their condition of subjects, they manifested dispositions to renew their revolt at the 48th Olympiad, under Damophon, the son of Pantaleon, and the Eleians marched into their country to put them down, but were persuaded to retire by protestations of submission. At length, shortly afterwards, under Pyrrhus, the brother of Damo- phon, a serious revolt broke out. The inhabitants of Dyspcn- tium, and the other villages in the Pisatid, assisted by those of Makistus, Skillus, and the other towns in Triphylia, took up arms to throw off the yoke of Elis ; but their strength was in- adequate to the undertaking. They were completely conquered ; Dyspontium was dismantled, and the inhabitants of it obliged to flee the country, from whence most of them emigrated to the colonies of Epidamnus and Apollonia, in Epirus. The inhabi- tants of Makistus and Skillus were also chased from their abodes, while the territory became more thoroughly subject to Elis than it had been before. These incidents seem to have occurred about the 50th Olympiad, or B. c. 580 ;' and the dominion of Elis over her Pericekic territory was thus as well assured as that