The Messenian Wars: How Sparta conquered and enslaved its neighbours

The Peloponnesian Peninsula is a rough land of mountains, fertile plains, and coastal areas, and in ancient times, was home to various city-states, each with a distinct culture, government, and goals. 

Among these were Sparta and Messenia, neighbours whose closeness proved both a benefit and a problem. 

Sparta was a society in the region of Laconia which focused on the military and valued discipline, courage, and martial skill; Messenia, by contrast, was a fertile region with many resources but placed less emphasis on warfare. 

The people of Messenia spent most of their time farming, and its government was not very centralised.

As a result, the region was prosperous and, from a Spartan point of view, easy to conquer. 

Meanwhile, Sparta's growing population and limited farmable land made the fertile plains of Messenia a tempting target.

The First Messenian War began in the mid-eighth century BCE, with ancient tradition dating its start to around 743 BCE, when long-standing conflicts between Sparta and Messenia finally erupted.

Spartan leaders used a minor incident as a pretext for war. One version of the war’s start involves Polychares, a Messenian Olympic champion, and Euaephnus, a Spartan entrusted with Polychares’s cattle; according to the story, Euaephnus sold the herd and killed Polychares’s son.

When Spartan leaders refused to punish him, Polychares killed several of their people in revenge, prompting them to demand his surrender.

The kings of Messenia refused and suggested an independent court instead. This failure to reach an agreement gave them the excuse needed.

Whether true or not, this story shows how a local dispute could trigger a full-scale war. 

Sparta started fighting with a sudden attack on the Messenian border town of Ampheia when, without warning, King Alcamenes led a secret night mission that captured Ampheia and killed many people in their homes or at their altars.

This quick victory gave Sparta a strong position in Messenia and triggered the start of a long war. 

For nearly twenty years, the resistance focused on Mount Ithome, a steep hill with natural defences.

Under King Euphaes, the Messenians endured a long siege and repelled several surprise attacks.

Early in the war, they were able to keep control of most of their walled towns while carrying out their own raids into Spartan territory.

In one fight near a ravine, neither side won. Slowly, however, Sparta’s larger army and military training wore them down.

The losses grew over the years, and their king Euphaes reportedly died in battle, after which leadership passed to Aristodemus.

Stories claim he gave up his daughter in response to an oracle’s claim that by doing so, he could acheive victory.

By about 724 BCE (the twentieth year by traditional count), Mount Ithome could not hold out any long, as starvation set in.

Soon, it finally fell to the attackers. As the winner, Sparta took control of Messenia’s fertile plains and divided them among its citizens, turning the native population into 'helots'.

These were serfs who were tied to the land who had to give much of their crops to their Spartan masters.

For Sparta, control of Messenia nearly doubled its land and provided a workforce for its farms, while at the same time it found itself ruling over a much larger, angry population.

This reality forced the city-state to maintain a strong military society and remain constantly alert for revolt. 

Our knowledge of the First Messenian War comes from later writers and archaeological finds rather than records from that time.

On of our main sources, Pausanias, used sources that are lost to us today, including an epic by Rhianus and a history by Myron of Priene.

These ancient accounts mix fact and myth. For example, the story of the daughter’s sacrifice resembles tales from Greek lore.

However, archaeology shows expansion westward in this period and the existence by the seventh century BCE of a large helot class.

About forty years after the end of the First Messenian War, the helots of Messenia rose in revolt against Spartan control.

After their initial defeat, the enslaved Messenians had lived under harsh conditions.

According to Pausanias, those who had never known freedom “preferred death in a free country” rather than comfortable slavery.

Because of this, they waited until a new generation grew up under Spartan rule before acting. 

The revolt is traditionally dated to the thirty-ninth year after the fall of Mount Ithome, around 685 BCE.

However, modern historians debate that date. For example, some argue the uprising began closer to 669 to 668 BCE, based on the idea that Sparta’s defeat in that year to Argos encouraged Messenians to rebel.

Nevertheless, the revolting helots aimed to throw off Spartan control. At first, leaders among the young men of Messenia reached out to Sparta’s enemies.

Argos and the Arcadians had their own reasons to oppose Sparta, and with their support secured, Messenians declared open revolt.

Spartan territory, which they thought was safe, was suddenly filled with helot rebellion. 

At the centre of this struggle was Aristomenes, a young noble from Andania in northern Messenia.

He became the revolt’s bravest leader, and later generations even told stories of a divine birth.

One tale said his mother was visited by a serpent that was, in fact, a god. Reports claim that Aristomenes even sneaked into Sparta itself and hung a shield in the temple of Athena to mock the Spartans.

Sparta was caught unprepared by the overconfidence of the rebels after decades of peace and they suffered early defeats.

Panic overtook the Spartans and the Messenians quickly spread that fear throughout Laconia.

The Spartan elders consulted the Oracle of Delphi, which told them to seek a leader from Athens for help.

To aid them, Athenians sent Tyrtaeus, who was said to be a lame schoolteacher or poet.

They may have sent him as a joke. Yet, when he arrived, he used his gift of writing poetry to lift Spartan spirit.

It was these new war songs that suddenly urged soldiers to fight with honour.

One song explicitly reminds the warriors that to die bravely in defence of their homeland was noble, whereas banishment as a coward brought shame.

Whether he came from Athens or was actually a Spartan, his poems strengthened spirit and discouraged political arguments.

The Second Messenian War included a series of battles fought on Messenian land and nearby.

For instance, one occurred near a place called the Boar’s Tomb, and another took place on the plain of Deres. However, exact details of those fights survive only in fragments.

At one point Spartan citizens grew so downhearted by the continued losses that they thought about giving up the war.

However, legends say that Tyrtaeus once again encouraged them to regroup. 

The turning point came at the Battle of the Great Trench, also called the Battle of the Great Foss.

By that moment, the war had lasted for two years and both sides sought a conclusive, final battle.

At this location, the Messenians and their Arcadian allies faced Spartans on an open plain.

However, the Messenians received word that the Spartans had successfully bribed the Arcadian king, Aristocrates, to betray their cause.

Realising that he was now in a precarious position, Aristocrates withdrew his troops, which caused mass confusion among Messenians.

As a result, the Spartans closed in, launched a rapid attack, and won a complete victory.

Many Messenian fighters were killed or captured. The Arcadian soldiers, when they learned of Aristocrates’ betrayal, stoned him to death.

Clearly, even the allies of Messenia saw his act as dishonourable. Some of the survivors fled with Aristomenes to Mount Eira in southwestern Messenia. There they set up a new defence.

On the hill’s rocky slopes, Messenians made a fortress similar to their ancestors’ strongholds.

However, the Spartans and their allies surrounded Eira, which began a siege that would last for eleven years.

During those long years, Messenians suffered from mass hunger once more, while Aristomenes led bold night raids from the heights in hopes of turning the tide of war in their favour.

One famous raid hit Amyclae near that city when he and his men slipped into the city by night, took supplies, and escaped before reinforcements arrived. 

Eventually, as the siege weakened Messenian defenders, Pausanias reports that the Spartans decided to use a thunderstorm as cover.

During a religious festival in the rain and lightning, troops climbed Eira’s heights.

They surprised defenders and broke through the walls, and in the storm’s chaos, many fell.

Aristomenes and a small group managed to fight their way out, but he refused to be captured.

The Messenian commander escaped and travelled throughout Greece rather than return to slavery.

Tradition says he eventually found safety in Rhodes, where he died as an old man, far from home. 

With Eira’s fall, coordinated resistance ended, and Sparta took control again. Any rebels captured faced execution or more slavery.

Some survivors chose exile, while others returned to their fields as helots under even stricter conditions than they were used to before.

By the fifth century BCE, Sparta had kept strong control over Messenia. Two generations had passed since Aristomenes, but Spartan leaders were still worried about helot unrest.

Their fears proved true in 464 BCE, when a powerful earthquake struck the city.

Ancient writers record that it destroyed buildings and killed many people.

Plutarch claimed 20 000 lives, though that figure may be exaggerated. After the quake, helots of Laconia and Messenia took advantage of situation and rebelled once again.

Thucydides wrote that most helots were descendants of the original Messenians and that they once more went to Mount Ithome.

That mountain had been a fortress in earlier conflicts, and now became the centre of a new rebellion.

Historians often call this revolt the Third Messenian War; others label it the Great Helot Revolt.

When the Spartan leaders surrounded Ithome once more, they recalled how past attempts to break into mountain forts had failed and knew those siege tactics did not match the hoplite methods on which they relied.

After some time, the leaders saw their limits and asked other cities for help, even asking Athens for assistance.

Although they had fundamental political differences, Athens sent a force under Cimon to help against Ithome. 

Thucydides wrote that the cooperation quickly went wrong because the Spartans were afraid Athenians might actually support the helots or spread their democratic ideas.

So, the city-state sent the Athenians away, saying their help was no longer needed. 

At Mount Ithome, the siege went on for about ten years as the rebels fought hard and stayed on the mountain, where they were cut off from new supplies.

By around 455 BCE, the Spartan leaders sought advice from oracles. Unfortunately, they never received a clear answer.

So, instead, they offered a truce: if rebels left Ithome for good, they would be permitted to leave the Peloponnese peninsula unharmed, but they would never be allowed to return.

The helots accepted the terms and, as they left their homeland, felt deep regret even though they had saved lives. 

However, the promises were kept when the surviving helots and their families left and found refuge in Athens.

Athenians welcomed them, both to punished Sparta for rejecting their help during the war, and also to gain loyal settlers.

In fact, in the coming years years, those exiles would became a genunine military asset for Athens.

During the Peloponnesian War, Athens sent Messenian troops from Naupactus into Messenia to encourage helots who remained. 

After the Third Messenian War ended, Sparta and its officials increased measures to control helots.

For Messenians, the war had mixed results: those who left gained freedom under Athenian protection but lost their homeland, while many helots stayed behind and faced more servitude.

Ultimately, Messenia remained under Sparta's control until 369 BCE, when Theban forces finally defeated Sparta at Leuctra.

The victorious Theban general Epaminondas freed the helots for good and founded the city of Messene to become their capital.

That event finally ended Sparta's control over the Messenians, and finally reversed the outcome of the First Messenian War.