three survived; on the Spartan side Othryades-among the Argeians, Alcēnor and Chromius. The victory was claimed by both nations, which led to a general battle in which the Argeians were defeated. This last conquest gave to Sparta an unbroken line of coast from the Nedon on the west of Peloponnesus to the north-eastern coast of Centralizing Thyreatis. The extent and population of the Spartan territory were principle of thus Sparta. greater than those of any state in Greece, while it carried out the principle of centralization in the most efficient manner known to any province of ancient Hellas. Training of THE SPARTAN MILITARY SYSTEM. As we shall shortly have to view the results of the Laconian discipline, in the conquest of Messenia, we shall here make a few observations upon the military system of Sparta, the powerful engine of her ambition. The training of the Spartan citizen was not calculated like that of the Spartans. the Theban for gymnastic superiority alone, but for the more valuable quality of military endurance; and when in after times we find Socrates declining the ample diet of the professed athlete, as requiring prodigious supplies to maintain a forced muscular development, and adhering to the patient hardihood of the true soldier, we have in his military training the most valuable eulogy on the Spartan system. Early the Spartans. Spartan military system. We have the testimony of Aristotle to prove that at a time when the Greeks as a nation neglected gymnastic and warlike training, the military Spartans had in perfection these two elements of their ultimate perfection of military ascendency. Though the arms of this warlike people were identical with the ordinary Greek heavy-armed soldier, one of the chief causes of their superiority over the Hellenic states in general lay in the length of their military service and the completeness of their drill. The enōmoty or company, whose number varied from twenty-five to thirty-six men, headed by the Enōmotarch or captain, the best soldier in its ranks, was not only drilled together to the most efficient evolutions, but its members were mutually bound to each other by an oath. When the company moved forward in single file its captain gave the order of march, at the same time leading off; and should circumstances require the formation of several files, the Enōmotarch took post on the front left; the front and rear rank of each file were men of tried valour. The smallness of these Enōmoties gave a precision and rapidity in their practical handling by their officers, that communicated its virtue to the larger bodies which constituted their complete force. Their change from file to line marching, and their system of wheeling, so as to oppose their best men to the enemy, were brought to great perfection. In the ordinary drill, as in regular action, the charge Facility of mancu vring. 1 Vide Müller, Hist. Dor. iii. 12, and Cragius, Repub. Laced. iv. 4. step was regulated by the Dorian reed, so beautifully amplified by Milton officers. The officers, who held rank above the Enōmotarch, were the Pente- Scale of conter or commander of fifty; the Lochagus, of twice that number; the Polemarch, general over the Mora, equal to four Lochi or four hundred.' In times of necessity, as in the battle of Mantineia, or when the military population was great, these divisions were enlarged to double or quadruple their complement, still retaining the original technical name. The cavalry of Sparta was a very inefficient force; Spartan nor indeed was it one that was capable of being generally manœuvred inefficient. in the hilly country of Laconia; nor had this arm of the service been contemplated in the system of Lycurgus: its inferiority, however, was never severely felt till the great struggle with Epameinondas. Such were the military institutes of the great Spartan lawgiver. cavalry Origin of war. Messenians: is slain. THE FIRST MESSENIAN WAR. B. C. 743 TO B. C. 723. The account of the first Messenian war is the earliest historical information we possess of the Messenians, the rivals of Spartan valour, though even here our authorities are often obscure or contradictory. The origin of the fierce conflict between these two brave people is as follows: On the mountain territory, west of the highest ridge of Taygetus, stood the border temple common to the Lacedæmonians and MesseTeleklus lays nians dedicated to Artemis Limnatis. It is said that the Spartan king a snare for the Teleklus laid here a treacherous snare for the Messenians, by disguising as virgins some young Spartans whom he armed with daggers, and with whom he attended the border sacrifice. A fierce conflict ensued, in which Tēleklus was slain. Notwithstanding the death of the king war did not actually commence at that time, but it became inevitable in consequence of the violent dispute between the Spartan Euæphnus and the Messenian Polycharēs. The latter, finding his suit for redress Lacedæmo- rejected by the Spartans, avenged himself by indiscriminate aggressions nians surprise upon several of his enemy's countrymen. The Lacedæmonians, without any declaration of war, surprising the frontier town of Ampheia, slaughtered the garrison, and, after sweeping the defenders from the open territory of Messenia, unsuccessfully attacked several of her Ampheia. towns. After four years of warfare, the Spartans had made but little progress; in the fifth a vigorous effort was attempted. Polydorus and Theopompus, their two kings, encountered the full force of the Messenians under the command of their prince Euphaes. The conflict, Messenians though desperate and indecisive, had the effect of so far enfeebling the take post at Messenians as to compel them to take post on the fortified mountain of Ithōmē, and to leave undefended the more open districts of the country. The war had now continued thirteen years, when another fiercely contested battle was fought, distinguished by no decisive result except the death of the brave Euphaēs. Ithome. oracle consulted. Aristodēmus was elected his successor, and after five years of vigorous warfare vanquished the Lacedæmonians, and once more drove The Delphic them to take shelter within their own frontiers. The Delphic oracle was now successfully consulted by the Spartans, and the manifestations of the Divine wrath were portentously displayed against the devoted nation of Messenia. For two years longer did this gallant people struggle with the disciplined bravery of their inveterate foe and the disheartening predictions of Apollo. Their devoted heroism, however, was in vain, and in the twentieth year of the war their stronghold of Ithōmē was abandoned as untenable, razed to the ground by the Lacedæmonians, and the remaining inhabitants completely reduced; a few gallant spirits, who disdained submission, taking refuge in Eleusis or Arcadia. Ithōme abandoned. by Tyrtæus. Tyrtæus, the martial poet of Sparta, has drawn a most pitiable Description account of the absolute subjection of the Messenians at this period. "Worn down by intolerable burdens," he observes," they were forced to surrender to their masters the entire moiety of their agricultural produce, and themselves and wives to attend personally at Sparta in the weeds of woe as mourners on the decease of their princes and chieftains." THE SECOND MESSENIAN WAR. B. C. 685 to B. C. 668. Messenian war. A yoke so galling to freemen was not to be tamely endured, and in Second the next generation Aristomenēs, the great champion of Messenian freedom, stood forth as the leader of the second Messenian war. Three fierce engagements ensued in speedy succession; the first at Deræ, with indecisive result; the second at the Boar's Grave, in which the Messenians gained a glorious victory; and the third which the treachery Treachery of of Aristocrates, the bribed ally of Sparta, turned into a disastrous defeat. Aristocrates. Sparta. Notwithstanding this defeat, Aristomenēs with unparalleled daring, Aristoat the head of his own band made incursions into the Spartan territory. menes defies Here he surprised two of their chief towns, and at midnight penetrated even the unfortified outline of Sparta itself, where, in the temple of Athene of the Brazen House, he suspended his shield as a bold defiance. His personal strength and valour were incredible. Thrice did the Messenian hero sacrifice to Zeus Ithomates, the Hecatomphorica, the symbol of slaughter, by his own hands, of one hundred enemies; thrice was he a prisoner; in two instances effecting a marvellous escape; in the third a more disastrous fate awaited him. the Ceadas. the cavern of The Ceadas, a rocky gulf in Mount Taygetus, was the horrible spot Is precipiinto which the Spartans usually precipitated their criminals. Into this tated into terrible cavity fifty Messenians had been already cast: they perished; he alone, miraculously supported by the favour of the gods, reached the bottom unhurt. Here in this horrible dungeon of nature he perceived only the sky above and the naked sides of the cavern surrounding him. But the great champion of Messenia was not to perish in gloom and loneliness. He had wrapped himself up in his cloak Escapes from resigned to death, when on the third day sounds of life saluted his the Ceadas. ears. He observed a fox creeping amongst the dead bodies; watching his opportunity he seized the animal by the tail, and led by this singular guide, he was enabled to find the aperture by which the creature had entered. With much difficulty he enlarged the opening, and once more emerged to light; and to the great surprise of both friends and enemies, he appeared again in full vigour at Eira. The relation of the numerous exploits and daring adventures of this invincible chief might be greatly extended; he totally destroyed a Corinthian army on its Destroys a march to join the Spartans; he subsequently fell into an ambush of Cretan bowmen in Spartan pay, but again burst his bonds through the Corinthian force. the oracle. disabled. instrumentality of female compassion. He rewarded the maiden for this generous action by bestowing on her the hand of his son Gorgus. Decision of At length the eleventh year of the siege of Eira arrived; it proved the term of Messenian independence, for the oracle had said that "when a goat should drink of the water of the Neda, the destruction of Messenia should be near at hand." A wild fig-tree (in the dialect of Messenia, signifying a goat also,) overhung the stream, and now at length its boughs stretched down to the water. Thus warned, Theoclus the seer pronounced the oracle accomplished. Unfortunately, Aristomenēs at this crisis of his country's fortune, Aristomenēs was incapacitated by a wound from making his usual exertions; the discipline of the garrison had greatly relaxed, and the roughness of the weather induced the sentinels to leave their posts and seek shelter. Under the guidance The Spartans of a traitor the Spartans now scaled the walls; though surprised, the surprise Eira. inhabitants still contested every inch of ground; the combat was fierce and obstinate in the extreme, even the women armed themselves and fought amongst the men. For three days and nights, with the rain falling in torrents, the thunder pealing around them, and the lightning flashing in their eyes, they maintained the desperate struggle. Theoclus, the Messenian seer, now bade Aristomenēs preserve the relics of his band, and rushing into the thickest of the conflict fell amidst heaps of slain. Aristomenēs formed his warriors into a hollow square, in which the Messenians placing their wives and children, forced a passage through the ranks of the foe, and effected a safe retreat to Arcadia, where they were hospitably received. Thus in the first year of the twenty-eighth Olympiad (B. c. 668), the second Messenian war terminated in the complete subjugation of this gallant people. Manticlus B.C. 668. and Gorgus, the sons of Aristomenēs, sailed to the city of Rhegium on the Italo-Sicilian Straits, where they found some of their countrymen who had settled there at the close of the former war. AristoAristomenes menēs himelf died peacefully at Rhodes in the house of his son-in-law Domagetus: here a noble monument was raised to his memory, and his posterity became the most illustrious family in the island. Theoclus perishes. End of the second Messenian war. dies at Rhodes. A conquest so important could hardly have been effected by the unaided energies of the Spartans alone. They in all probability The Pericci. received valuable assistance from states early subjected to the Dorian sway over Peloponnesus. Such a policy was always acted upon by the Romans; and it is evidenced in the case of the Perioci, in the Peloponnesus, who date their origin from the Dorian conquest of the Achaians, the old inhabitants of the country. The Perioci served in the Spartan armies, and they themselves occupied the maritime towns, and exclusively carried on the trade and manufactures of the country. In after times many of them became distinguished artists.' BEAN 1 Müller, Dor. iii. 2, s. 3. |