Pausanias Analysis

The Lacedaemonians say that they went to war both because Polycharis was not handed over to them, and because of the murder of Teleclus; and even before this, they had been suspicious due to the wrongdoing committed against Cresphontes concerning the inheritance. But the Messenians deny the accounts given about Teleclus, as I have already recounted, and they also point out that Aepytus, the son of Cresphontes, was restored to the throne by Aristodemus, son of Aristomachus—something they would never have done had they really been at odds with Cresphontes himself.

They say that Polychares refused to surrender himself for punishment to the Lacedaemonians, on the grounds that they likewise had not surrendered Euaiphnos to them. He declared, however, that he was willing to stand trial before the Argives, who were kinsmen of both parties, in the Amphictyonic council, or to entrust the judgment to the Athenian court known as the Areopagus, because from ancient times this court was reputed to adjudicate cases of homicide.

But they say that the Lacedaemonians did not wage war for these reasons (alone), but out of greed plotted against their own territory and committed other acts, citing against them the actions towards the Arcadians and Argives, claiming that the Spartans never ceased encroaching upon the land of both peoples, always severing off some part. Furthermore, when Croesus sent them gifts, they were the first Greeks to form friendship with a barbarian, the same Croesus who subdued the other Greeks dwelling in Asia, and all the Dorians settled on the mainland of Caria.

And they demonstrate also how, when the leaders of the Phocians had seized the sanctuary at Delphi, those who ruled in Sparta, individually each king by himself, as well as the rest of the notable men, and collectively the ephorate and the senate, had shared in things sacred to the god. And above all, as evidence that the Lacedaemonians would shrink from nothing for the sake of gain, they reproach them for their alliance with Apollodorus, who was tyrant in Cassandreia.

The reason why the Messenians found this disgrace so intensely bitter, it was not possible for me to introduce into my present narrative. For indeed, if it had not been for the bravery of the Messenians and the great length of time during which they persisted in war—factors that set them apart from the tyranny of Apollodorus—their misfortunes would scarcely have differed at all from what the Cassandreans suffered.

These, then, are named by each side as the reasons for the war. At that time an embassy came from the Lacedaemonians demanding Polychares. The kings of the Messenians replied to the ambassadors that after consulting with their people they would send to Sparta word of their decision, and once the Spartans had departed, they immediately convened a public assembly of the citizens. Opinions differed greatly. Androcles proposed that Polychares be handed over, claiming that he had committed an impious and exceptionally dreadful act. Antiochus, however, opposed him, urging various arguments, chief among these being the terrible shame it would bring if Polychares were to suffer punishment before the eyes of Euaephnus, recounting all that Polychares must inevitably endure.

Finally, matters went so far between those supporting Androcles and those backing Antiochus that they even took up arms. Yet the fighting did not last long, for Antiochus and his followers, greatly superior in number, killed Androcles along with those of his circle who were most prominent. Antiochus, now the sole ruler, sent messengers to Sparta declaring that he was willing to submit the issues previously mentioned to arbitration. The Lacedaemonians, however, are said to have given no reply to those who brought the message.

Not many months later, when Antiochus had died, his son Euphaes took over the rule. The Lacedaemonians sent no herald to declare war openly to the Messenians, nor did they openly renounce friendship beforehand. Instead, they made their preparations secretly and with the utmost concealment. They took an oath, swearing that neither the length of the war, should it not quickly be decided, nor the magnitude of any disasters occurring during it, would deter them until they had conquered Messenian territory by force of arms.

Having sworn these oaths beforehand, they made a sortie by night against Ampheia, appointing Alcamenes son of Teleclus as leader of the army. Ampheia was a town in Messenia bordering Laconia, not large in size, but situated upon a high hill and possessing abundant springs of water. For other reasons, too, Ampheia seemed to them a fitting point of departure for the whole war. They captured the town while its gates lay open and without any guard present, and slew the Messenians caught within; some were killed still in their beds, while others, realizing the attack, seated themselves as suppliants before the altars and shrines of the gods. Only a few managed to escape.

The Lacedaemonians made this first campaign against the Messenians in the second year of the ninth Olympiad, in which the Messenian Xenodokos won the stadion race. At that time, at Athens there were not yet magistrates who were chosen annually by lot. Indeed, the people initially stripped the descendants of Melanthus, known as the Medontidae, of most of their power, and changed the government from a kingship to a magistracy accountable to the people. Later, they even set a fixed period of ten years for their rule. At the time of the capture of Ampheia, Aesimides was governing the Athenians, in the fifth year of his magistracy, and he was the son of Aeschylus.