Page:History of Greece Vol X.djvu/247

 FOUNDATION OF MESSENE. 225 three great sections of the Arcadian name, each an aggregate of villages. Four little townships, occupying a portion of the; urea intended for the new territory, yet being averse to the scheme, were constrained to join ; but in one of them, Trapezus, the aver sion was so strong, that most of the inhabitants preferred to emi- grate, and went to join the Trapezuntines in the Euxine Sea (Tre- bizond), who received them kindly. Some of the leading Trape- zuntines were even slain by the violent temper of the Arcadian majority. The walls of the new city enclosed an area of fifty sta- dia in circumference (more than five miles and a half) ; while an ample rural territory was also gathered around it, extending north- ward as much as twenty-four miles from the city, and conterminous on the east with Tegea, Mantinea, Orchomenus, and Kaphyge, on the west with Messene, 1 Phigalia, and Herasa. The other new city, Messdne, was founded under the joint auspices of the Thebans and their allies, Argeians and others ; Epiteles being especially chosen by the Argeians for that purpose. 2 The Messenian exiles, though eager and joyful at the thought of regaining their name and nationality, were averse to fix their new city either at OEchalia or Andania, which had been the scenes of their calamities in the early wars with Sparta. Moreover the site of Mount Ithome is said to have been* pointed out by the hero Kaukon, in a dream, to the Ageian general Epiteles. The loca} circumstances of this mountain (on which the last gallant resist- ance of the revolted Messenians against Sparta had been carried on. between the Persian and Peloponnesian wars) were such, that the indications of dreams, prophets, and religious signs coincided fully with the deliberate choice of a judge like Epaminondas. In after days, this hill Ithome (then bearing the town and citadel of Mes- gne), together with the Akrocorinthus, were marked out by De- 1 Pausan. viii, 27 ; viii, 35, 5. Diodor. xv, 63. See Mr. Fynes Clinton, Fasti Hellenici, Appendix, p. 418, where the facts respecting Megalopolis are brought together and discussed. It is remarkable that though Xenophon (Hellen. v, 2, 7) observes that the capture of Mantinea by Agesipolis had made the Mantineans see the folly of having a river run through their town, yet in choosing the site of Me- galopolis, this same feature was deliberately reproduced : and in this choice the Mantineans were parties concerned. VOL. X. 10* 150C-
 * Pausan. iv, 26, 6.