Messenians

And the Athenians received possession of Megara and Pegae, and built for the Messenians the long walls from the city to Nisaea, and themselves manned them.

Most of the Helots were the descendants of the old Messenians who were enslaved at that time [with which all are acquainted and for this reason the whole body of them were called Messenians.

and the Athenians received them, on the strength of the hatred they now felt for the Lacedaemonians, and settled them at Naupactus, which they had lately taken from the Locri Ozolae who held it.

They did not cease laying siege to the Messenians until they had driven them from their territory, and with the same object they are even now making war upon the Argives.

for, while the Lacedaemonians did not scruple to commit such wrongs both against the benefactors of Hellas and against their own kinsmen, our ancestors, on the other hand, gave the surviving Messenians a home in Naupactus and adopted the Plataeans who had escaped with their lives as Athenian citizens and shared with them all the privileges which they themselves enjoyed.

But after they had divided the territory with the Argives and the Messenians and for themselves had settled in Sparta—at this juncture, as you say, they were so proud that although they then numbered no more than two thousand men they considered themselves unworthy to live unless they could make themselves masters of all the cities in the Peloponnesus.

for they on their side, they said, had aided in expelling the tyrants from Athens, while the Athenians, on the other hand, gave them zealous assistance at the time when they were hard pressed by the Messenians.

And the Argives received one portion, the Thebans one, the Arcadians one, and the Messenians one.

Epaminondas reflected, however, that his people had supporters in Peloponnesus also — the Argives, the Messenians, and such of the Arcadians as held to their side.

Again, perhaps they will say in their haphazard style that some citizens, by claiming to be Megarians and Messenians, at once gain immunity, whole crowds at a time, to say nothing of slaves and jailbirds like Lycidas and Dionysius;

Yet you all know that, whether these speakers advise it or not, you are bound to help the Messenians, both for the sake of your sworn agreement with them and for the advantage that you derive from the preservation of their city.

For if the Argives and Messenians and Megalopolitans, and other Peloponnesians who side with them, quarrel with us because of our embassy to Sparta and because they think that we have some interest in Lacedaemonian policy;

Freedom.

And what of the Thessalians?

But he is not waiting to help the Messenians and Argives against the Lacedaemonians:

And indeed we see those Messenians, after how many years they recovered not only their freedom but also their own land.

"For when the Lacedaemonians were defeated at Leuctra by the Thebans, the Thebans, having marched into the Peloponnese with their allies, compelled the Lacedaemonians to give back the Messenian land, and all who were born of those who formerly served among the Lacedaemonians, those called Helots, they settled again in Messene.

for the Messenians had carried off three hundred sheep from Ithaca, and had sailed away with them and with their shepherds.

and still less so, if only the walls of her cities be destroyed, and therefore when the Lacedaemonians refused to admit the Messenians to swear to the peace of Greece, because the walls of their city were destroyed, it was carried against them in the General Assembly of the Allies.

And you, after inquiring of Apollo, and being directed by him to accept this gift and avenge the wronged, thereupon beleaguered the Messenians, forced them to surrender, and thus gained possession of their territory.

But the Messenians went so far in their wickedness that they plotted against and slew Cresphontes, albeit he was the founder of their state, the sovereign of their land, a descendant of Heracles, and once the leader of their armies.

Who would not censure us if, while the Messenians withstood siege for twenty years in order to retain Messene, we should so quickly withdraw from it under a treaty and should take no thought of our forefathers, but should allow ourselves to be persuaded by words to throw away this territory which they acquired by dint of struggles and wars?

so greatly that when in days gone by the Spartans, so renowned for courage, were at war with the Messenians the god advised them to take a leader from us;