and had carried off the spoils of the enemy: in short, they could not
determine the dispute without coming to another engagement. Here fortune
declared in favour of the Lacedaemonians, and the little territory of
Thyrea was the prize of their victory. But Othryades, not able to bear the
thoughts of surviving his brave companions, or of enduring the sight of
Sparta after their death, killed himself on the same field of battle where
they had fought, resolving to have one fate and tomb with them.

Wars between the Messenians and Lacedaemonians.

There were no less than three several wars between the Messenians and the
Lacedaemonians, all of them very fierce and bloody. Messenia was a country
in Peloponnesus, towards the west, and not far from Sparta: it was of
considerable strength, and was governed by its own kings.

The First Messenian War.

(M9) The first Messenian war lasted twenty years, and broke out the second
year of the ninth Olympiad.(231) The Lacedaemonians pretended to have
received several considerable injuries from the Messenians, and among
others, that of having had their daughters ravished by the inhabitants of
Messenia, when they went, according to custom, to a temple, that stood on
the borders of the two nations; as also that of the murder of Telecles,
their king, which was a consequence of the former outrage. Probably a
desire of extending their dominion, and of seizing a territory which lay
so convenient for them, might be the true cause of the war. But be that as
it may, the war broke out in the reign of Polydorus and Theopompus, kings
of Sparta, at the time when the office of archon at Athens was still
decennial.

Euphaes, the thirteenth descendant from Hercules, was then king of
Messenia.(232) He gave the command of his army to Cleonnis. The
Lacedaemonians opened the campaign with the siege of Amphea, a small,
inconsiderable city, which, however, they thought would suit them very
well as a place for military stores. The town was taken by storm, and all
the inhabitants put to the sword. This first blow served only to animate
the Messenians, by showing them what they were to expect from the enemy,
if they did not defend themselves with vigour. The Lacedaemonians, on their
part, bound themselves by an oath not to lay down their arms, nor to
return to Sparta, till they had made themselves masters of all the cities
and lands belonging to the Messenians: so much did they rely upon their