The FIRST MESSENIAN WAR lasted from B.C. 743 to 724. During the
first four years the Lacedaemonians made little progress; but in
the fifth a great battle was fought, and although its result was
indecisive, the Messenians did not venture to risk another
engagement, and retired to the strongly fortified mountain of
Ithome. In their distress they sent to consult the oracle at
Delphi, and received the appalling answer that the salvation of
Messenia required the sacrifice of a virgin of the royal house to
the gods of the lower world. Aristodemus, who is the Messenian
hero of the first war, slew his own daughter, which so
disheartened the Spartans, that they abstained from attacking the
Messenians for some years. In the thirteenth year of the war the
Spartan king marched against Ithome, and a second great battle
was fought, but the result was again indecisive. The Messenian
king fell in the action; and Aristodemus, who was chosen king in
his place, prosecuted the war with vigour. In the fifth year of
his reign a third great battle was fought. This time the
Messenians gained a decisive victory, and the Lacedaemonians were
driven back into their own territory. They now sent to ask
advice of the Delphian oracle, and were promised success upon
using stratagem. They therefore had recourse to fraud: and at
the same time various prodigies dismayed the bold spirit of
Aristodemus. His daughter too appeared to him in a dream, showed
him her wounds, and beckoned him away. Seeing that his country
was doomed to destruction, Aristodemus slew himself on his
daughter's tomb. Shortly afterwards, in the twentieth year of
the war, the Messenians abandoned Ithome, which the
Lacedaemonians razed to the ground, and the whole country became
subject to Sparta. Many of the inhabitants fled into other