9. Peloponnesus took the less concern in these proceedings, as internal differences had arisen from some unknown cause, which led to an open war between Sparta and Arcadia. We only know, that, between the battle of Platæa (in which Tegea, as also later still, showed great fidelity towards Sparta) and the war with the Helots (_i.e._ between 479 and 465 B.C.), the Lacedæmonians fought two great battles, the one against the Tegeates and Argives at Tegea, the other against all the Arcadians, with the exception of the Mantineans, at Dipæa in the Mænalian territory. Tisamenus, an Elean, of the family of the Iamidæ, was in both battles in the Spartan army; and in both Sparta was victorious.(818) Yet, in an epigram of Simonides, the valour of the Tegeates is praised, who by their death had saved their city from destruction;(819) probably after the loss of the first battle. As we find that Argos had a share in this war,(820) it is possible that the views of that state were directed against the ascendancy of Sparta; perhaps also the independence of the Mænalians, Parrhasians, &c. had been, as was so often the case, attacked by the more powerful states of Arcadia, and was defended by the head of the Peloponnesian confederacy.
10. This war had not been brought to a termination, when, in the year 465 B.C., in the reign of Archidamus(821) and Pleistoanax, a tremendous earthquake (which is said to have been predicted by Anaximander(822)) destroyed Sparta, and a sudden ruin threatened to overwhelm the state of Greece. For, in the hope of utterly annihilating their rulers, many Helots (perhaps doubly excited by the late outrage on the suppliants at the altar of the Tænarian god),(823) especially the ancient inhabitants of Messenia, and two cities of the Periœci, revolted from Sparta; these rebels were all named Messenians, and the war was called the third Messenian war.(824) The circumstances of this terrible contest are almost unknown to us; and we can only collect the few fragments extant of its history. Aëimnestus the Spartan, who had killed Mardonius, fought with 300 men at Stenyclarus against a body of Messenians, and was slain with all his men.(825) This was followed by a great battle with the same enemy at Ithome,(826) in which the Spartans were victorious. Most of the conquered Messenians then intrenched themselves on the steep summit of Ithome, which was even then sacred to Zeus Ithomatas; and they probably restored the ancient walls and defences which had fallen down. Upon this the Lacedæmonians, foreseeing a tedious siege, called in the aid of their allies; and this call was answered among others by the Æginetans,(827) the Mantineans,(828) the Platæans,(829) and the Athenians, who, at the request of the Spartan envoy Periclides, sent 4000 hoplites(830) under the command of Cimon; the Spartans, however, dismissed them before the fortress was taken, in which they expected to be aided by the superiority of the Athenians in the art of besieging, not without showing their suspicion of the innovating spirit of their ally.(831) In the tenth year of the siege, 455 B.C., Ithome surrendered on terms; and the Messenians, together with their wives and children, quitted Peloponnesus, under a promise of never again entering it. It appears that the war between Lacedæmon and Arcadia was concluded upon conditions, of which one was, that no person should be put to death for the sake of the Lacedæmonian party at Tegea; and another, that Sparta was to expel the Messenians from the country, but not kill them—which were inscribed on a pillar on the banks of the Alpheus.(832) The Athenians, however, gave the fugitives the town of Naupactus, which they had shortly before conquered, and which was conveniently situated for tempting them, against their promise, to make inroads and forays in Peloponnesus. The Messenians still continued, in the Peloponnesian war, to be distinguished from the neighbouring people by their Doric dialect.(833)