Becoming Messenian

Journal of Hellenic Studies

Volumn 122, Issue , 2002, Pages 45-69

  Luraghi, Nino ^a  

^a HARVARD UNIVERSITY   (United States)

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EID: 60950356631     PISSN: 00754269     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.2307/3246204     Document Type: Review

References (123)

1. On Epameinondas' campaign in the Peloponnese, see J. Buckler, The Theban Hegemony, 371-362 BC (Cambridge, MA 1980) 70-87
2. and C.D. Hamilton, Agesilaus and the Failure of Spartan Hegemony (Ithaca and London 1991) 215-31.
3. On the foundation of Messene, see C.A. Roebuck, A History of Messenia from 369 to 146 B.C. (Chicago 1941) 27-41.
4. 2) thought that Messene had been conquered and the Messenians chased away from Mount Ithome by the Spartans led by King Theopompos two generations before himself, if his 'fathers of our fathers' is to be taken literally, a point on which not all scholars agree. On Messene and Messenians in Homer, see below. The only evidence on the Second Messenian War earlier than the fourth century is the garbled reference to Tyrtaios in Strab. 8.4.10, while fifth-century authors like Herodotos (3.47.1) and Antiochos of Syracuse (555 F13) speak of 'the Messenian war' without further qualification, which seems to imply that they knew only one war.
5. Paus. 4.27.11. Note that Pausanias' figure presupposes that the Messenians had been expelled en masse at the time of the Spartan conquest, although Pausanias himself elsewhere says that some Messenians had remained in the Peloponnèse as Helots, and left their country only in the mid fifth century, as a result of the revolt after the earthquake. See D. Asheri, 'La diaspora e il ritorno dei Messeni', in E. Gabba (ed.), Tria corda. Scritti in onore di Arnaldo Momigliano (Como 1983) 27-9.
6. On the Messenians' linguistic archaism and its meaning, see J.M. Hall, Ethnic Identity in Greek Antiquity (Cambridge 1997) 180.
7. Thuc. 4.3.3; 41.2, on which see now T. Figueira, 'The evolution of the Messenian identity', in S. Hodkinson and A. Powell (eds), Sparta: New Perspectives (London 1999) 213.
8. In this connection, M.L. Zunino, Hiera Messeniaka. La storia religiosa della Messenia dall'età micenea all'età ellenistica (Udine 1997), speaks of an original 'Messenian-Lakonian koinê'.
9. For an introduction to this longstanding debate and its huge bibliography, see S.E. Alcock, 'The pseudohistory of Messenia unplugged', TAPhA 129 (1999) 333-5
10. and ead., 'The peculiar Book IV and the problem of the Messenian past', in S.E. Alcock, J.F. Cherry
11. and J. Elsner (eds), Pausanias: Travel and Memory in Roman Greece (Oxford 2001) 142-53.
12. Jacoby's treatment of the problem of Messenian tradition is embedded in his commentary on the fragments of Rhianos' epic poem on the Messenian War; see F. Jacoby, Fragmente der griechischen Historiker IIIa, Kommentar (Leiden 1943) 265 Rhianos von Bene (Kreta) 87-200.
13. The two most substantial post-Jacobian contributions on the continuist side are F. Kiechle, Messenische Studien. Untersuchungen zur Geschichte der Messenischen Kriege und zur Auswanderung der Messenier (Kallmünz 1959), and Zunino (n.7).
14. See e.g., on the discontinuist side, L. Pearson, 'The pseudo-history of Messenia and its authors', Historia 11 (1962) 397-426
15. and D. Musti, introduction to Pausania. Guida della Grecia. Libro IV - La Messenia, ed. with trans. and comm. by D. Musti and M. Torelli (Milan 1991) xii-xxviii.
16. See J.N. Coldstream, Greek Geometric Pottery (London 1968) 220-32
17. and W.D.E. Coulson, The Dark Age Pottery of Messenia (Göteborg 1986) 55-6 and 68-9.
18. See J.-L. Zimmermann, Les chevaux de bronze dans l'art géométrique grec (Mainz 1989) 114-22.
19. See J.N. Coldstream, Geometric Greece (London 1977) 160-2;
20. for Coldstream's interpretation of the local styles in Late Geometric pottery as signals of emerging polities, see id., 'The meaning of the regional styles in the eighth century B.C.', in R. Hägg (ed.), The Greek Renaissance of the Eighth Century B.C.: Tradition and Innovation (Stockholm 1983) 17-25.
21. See C. Morgan, 'The origins of pan-Hellenism', in N. Marinatos and R. Hägg (eds), Greek Sanctuaries: New Approaches (London and New York 1993) 21.
22. The relevant sources are discussed in my 'Die Dreiteilung der Peloponnes. Wandlungen eines Gründungsmythos', in H.-J. Gehrke (ed.), Geschichtsbilder und Gründungsmythen (Würzburg 2001) 37-63.
23. Geometric pottery has been found around the later temple of Asklepios (see P.G. Themelis, ''A M' PAAH 1987 (1991) 87)
24. close to the Klepsydra fountain in the modern village of Mavromati (Themelis, PAAH 1988 (1991) 45) and to the naiskos of Artemis Orthia (Themelis, PAAH 1991 (1994) 95). To this has to be added the fragment of a leg of a Geometric bronze tripod, found on Mount Ithome itself (M. Maaß, Die geometrischen Dreifüße von Olympia (Olympische Forschungen 10, Berlin 1978) 33-4 n.57 and pl. 67).
25. See R. Hope Simpson, 'The seven cities offered by Agamemnon to Achilles', BSA 61 (1966) 113-31.
26. Unsurprisingly, the absence of Messenia from the Catalogue has often been connected with Spartan expansion west of the Taygetos at the time of the composition of the Catalogue itself; see A. Giovannini, Étude historique sur les origines du Catalogue des vaisseaux (Bern 1969) 28.
27. I am very grateful to Olga Levaniouk for discussing this point with me. See O. Levaniouk, Odyssean Usages of Local Traditions (Diss., Harvard 2000)
28. and the recent and detailed discussion by E. Visser, Homers Katalog der Schiffe (Stuttgart and Leipzig 1997) 522-30; even if one prefers to keep the identification of Homeric Pylos and the Mycenaean settlement at Ano Englianos, the other places mentioned in the Pylian section of the Catalogue are scattered between Triphylia and the Soulima valley, mostly north of later Messenia. The Pamisos valley, the Messenian heartland, is absent from the Catalogue.
29. Pindar calls Nestor 'the Messenian elder' in Pyth. 6.32-6, composed for Xenokrates of Akragas' victory in the Pythiads of 490 BC. In Pyth. 5.69-72 (462 BC, for Arkesilas IV of Kyrene), where the division of the Peloponnese among Herakles' descendants is mentioned for the first time in Greek literature, Messenia appears under the name of 'holy Pylos'.
30. F. Versakis, 'Tο K 'A', AD 2 (1916) 65-118.
31. C. Weickert, Typen der archaischen Architectur in Griechenland und Kleinasien (Augsburg 1929) 151-3;
32. see also N. Bookidis, A Study of the Use and Geographical Distribution of Architectural Sculpture in the Archaic Period (Greece, East Greece and Magna Graecia) (Diss., Bryn Mawr 1967) 399-403. The southern sector of Versakis' excavation (see his map at p. 71) is currently covered; a large fluted column drum on the side of the road from the coast to Longà might indicate its south-eastern corner. In the northern part of the excavation, only the remains of temple A are still visible. Architectural remains (two bases of Ionic columns, some portions of rather thin column shafts) are also to be seen in the courtyard of the church of Ayios Andreas, further east on the road.
33. See G. Weicker, RE 11.2 (1922), s.v. Korythos, 1466-7.
34. The inscription apparently accompanied the dedication of a helmet. See Versakis (n.25) 115, and the hardly legible photograph on pl. 7 fig. 63, and cf. L.H. Jeffery, The Local Scripts of Archaic Greece (revised edition with a supplement by A.W. Johnston, Oxford 1990) 204 and n.2.
35. See M. Herfort-Koch, Archaische Bronzeplastik Lakoniens (Boreas Beiheft 4, Münster 1986) 104, k 78, and 117, k 135. Also from Longà are k 88 and k 90 (106-7).
36. For the aryballoi, Versakis (n.25) 101-3, mentions parallels from the sanctuary of Artemis Orthia. Furthermore, compare e.g. Versakis' no. 9 in pl. 3, fig.51, with C.M. Stibbe, Lakonische Vasenmaler des 6. Jhs. v. Chr. (Amsterdam and London 1972) 18-19;
37. no. 5 of the same plate with C.M. Stibbe, Laconian Drinking Vessels and Other Open Shapes (Amsterdam 1994) 234 no. 10.
38. The capital is currently in the courtyard of the Benaki Museum in Kalamata. The best published photograph known to me is in K. Herrmann, 'Zum Dekor dorischer Kapitelle', Architectura 13 (1983) pl. 5.
39. See now A. Faustoferri, Il trono di Amyklai a Sparta. Bathykles al servizio del potere (Naples 1996) 344-57 and pls. 22-3. Contrary to what Faustoferri says (349), the capital of Longà is by no means a simplified version of those of Amyklai and it does have triangular leaves in the background of the main crown of leaves.
40. Currently on display in the Archaeological Museum at Sparta. First published by P. Steryiannopoulos, AE 1936, 1-2, where it is shown in its original location. For a better photograph, see D. Mertens, Der alte Heratempel in Paestum und die archaische Baukunst in Unteritalien (Mainz 1993) pl. 65,4. Mertens' overview of Doric capitals (pls. 64-5) gives a very clear idea of how similar the capital from Longà is to those from Lakonia and how different from anything else.
41. M.N. Valmin, The Swedish Messenia Expedition (Acta reg. societatis litterarum Lundensis 26, Lund 1938) 420-65.
42. Already mentioned by Jeffery (n.30) 202, but first published by D.G. Mitten and S.F. Doeringer, Master Bronzes from the Classical World (Mainz 1967) 62-3. Cf. Herfort-Koch (n.33) 52, and k 118 (113).
43. Volimos was located on an ancient itinerary connecting Lakonia and Messenia, obviously not by way of the Langada Pass, whose picturesque cliffs on the Spartan side must have been anything but appealing to ancient travellers. For ancient ways across the Taygetos, see now J. Christien, 'Les liaisons entre Sparte et son territoire malgré l'encadrement montagneux', in J.-F. Bergier (ed.), Montagnes, fleuves, forêts dans l'histoire. Barrières ou lignes de convergence? (St. Katharinen 1989) 30-4
44. and G.A. Pikoulas, ''H', in T M (Athens 1991) 279-88, both showing, in part against previous opinions, the importance of the direct connections between Sparta and the southern Messenian plain across the Taygetos.
45. IG v.1 1373-8 and SEG 39.388bis. Three of them mention agonothetai, showing that at least in the Imperial period games were held in honour of Artemis Limnatis. For the minimal architectural remains, mostly of Roman times, see E. Papakostantinou, AD 37 (1982) 2, 136.
46. See Herfort-Koch (n.33) k 156. For the provenance, see BCH 83 (1959) 640.
47. First published by G.P. Papathanasopoulos, AD 17 (1961/2) 2, 96 fig. 4. For the chronology, see P. Oberländer, Griechische Handspiegel (Diss. Hamburg 1967) 32-5
48. and C.M. Stibbe, Das andere Sparta (Mainz 1996) 151-2, who favours a slightly higher date, around 570-560.
49. The mirror is published by L. Parlama, AD 29 (1973-4) 2, 315 and pl. 198a. The transcription in SEG 29.395 should be slightly corrected: given the presence of must be a dative, as in IG v.1 226 and 1497, and o- could be the first part of the dedicant's name. It is extremely tempting to connect some further Archaic bronzes with the sanctuary in Volimos: the cym-bals IG v.1 225, 226 and 1497, inscribed in the Lakonian alphabet and dialect and dedicated to Limnatis, and a mirror now in Munich, also inscribed (see Oberländer (n.48) 44 and Stibbe (n.48) additional pl. 12), all the more so since a bronze cymbal has been found in Volimos and is now (August 2001) on display in the Kalamata Museum (inv. 39, unpublished). Two of the inscribed cymbals were bought in Mistra, the third is unprovenanced, as is also the mirror. Pace Jeffery (n.30) 194 n.3, the three cymbals cannot be interpreted as phialai, cf. e.g. the objects held by the small female figures in Herfort-Koch (n.33) 97 k 56 and 99 k 61, and 37 for their interpretation (an unpublished example was found in Kalamata, 103 k 74).
50. IG v.1 1376. On Artemis Limnatis, see C. Calame, Choruses of Young Women in Ancient Greece (Lanham, MD 1997) 142-9, and now Zunino (n.7) 48-55, who shows the fundamental identity of Artemis Limnatis and Artemis Orthia. Further sanctuaries of Artemis Limnatis were at Messene (IG v.1 1442, 1458, 1470; SEG 39.384; see Zunino (n.7) 61-5), on the Choireios river, not far from Gerenia (IG v.1 1431.37-9), at Epidauros Limera, in Lakonia (Paus. 3.23.10), in the territory of Tegea on the road to Sparta (Paus. 8.53.11), at Sikyon (Paus. 2.7.6, epithet Limnaia), and at Patrai (7.20.7-8; the cult statue was said to have been stolen from Sparta). A dedication to Artemis Limnatis, in the Lakonian alphabet and dialect, has been found in the sanctuary of Artemis at Kombothekra in Triphylia; see U. Sinn, 'Das Heiligtum der Artemis Limnatis bei Kombothekra, II', MDAIA 96 (1981) 31-3, and SEG 31.356. Strabo's assertion that the Limnaion in Sparta took its name from Limnai on the Taygetos (8.4.9) is an obvious attempt to reverse the relationship between the sanctuary of Volimos and the sanctuary of Artemis Orthia at Sparta.
51. Notice in BCH 83 (1959) 639-40.
52. The bronzes are listed by C. Leon, 'Statuette eines Kuros aus Messenien', MDAIA 83 (1968) 175, who publishes one of them; see also Herfort-Koch (n.33) 104 k 80.
53. P.G. Themelis, ''I 'A K', AAA 2 (1969) 352-7.
54. On the three campaigns devoted to this complex, see the preliminary publication by P.G. Themelis, ''A M', PAAH 1992 (1995) 74-9, 1993 (1996) 40-55 and 1994 (1997) 81-6.
55. On the terracotta plaques, see id., 'The sanctuary of Demeter and the Dioscouri at Messene', in R. Hägg (ed.), Ancient Greek Cult Practice from the Archaeological Evidence (Stockholm 1998) 157-86.
56. Both are included in G. Salapata, Lakonian Votive Plaques with Particular Reference to the Sanctuary of Alexandra at Amyklai (Diss., University of Pennsylvania 1992) pls. 38a and 48a.
57. I am very grateful to Gina Salapata for allowing me to make use of her unpublished dissertation. For more accessible reproductions, see G. Salapata, 'The Laconian hero reliefs in the light of the terracotta plaques', in O. Palagia and W. Coulson (eds), Sculpture from Arcadia and Laconia (Oxford 1993) 190-1 and fig. 3
58. and C. Stibbe, 'Dionysos in Sparta', BABesch 66 (1991) pls. 28-30.
59. The terracotta from Messene has been published by Themelis (n.58, 1998) 175 fig. 41. The one from Sparta is shown in Stibbe (n.48) 248 figs. 131-2; it comes from the sanctuary of Agamemnon at Amyklai, but it is not included in Salapata's catalogue because it is not a plaque stricto sensu. Three fragmentary examples have been found recently in a sanctuary close to the perioikic town of Aigeiai (on which see G. Shipley, '"The other Lakedaimonians": the dependent perioikic poleis of Laconia and Messenia', in M.H. Hansen (ed.), The Polis as an Urban Centre and as a Political Community (Acts of the Copenhagen Polis Centre 4, Copenhagen 1997) 251-2), and are published in Z. Bonias, ''E A (Athens 1998) 199-200 and pl. 54. By far the best preserved example of this type was found in the Dimiova cave, immediately east of Eleochorion (ancient Kalamai), and is now on display in the Kalamata Museum; see P. Themelis, AD 20 (1965) 2, 207, with a scarcely decipherable picture, pl. 217.
60. The plastic group is in Themelis (n.58, 1998) 182. The connection with Eileithyia has been advanced by Stibbe (n.48), 247-53 for the terracotta from Sparta, and is independently suggested by M. Torelli, 'L'Asklepieion di Messene, lo scultore Damofonte e Pausania', in G. Capecchi (ed.), In memoria di Enrico Paribeni (Rome 1998), 468-9, for those found in Messene.
61. According to Bonias (n.62) 109-14, in the sanctuary at Aigeiai Artemis and the previously unknown hero Timagenes were worshipped; the votives present interesting analogies to those from the omega-omega complex. On Artemis and Eileithyia, see S. Pingiatoglou, Eileithyia (Würzburg 1981) 98-119. For a discussion of the deities worshipped in the sanctuary omega-omega, see Themelis (n.58, 1998) 182-6 and Torelli, 469-71. On the fourth-century temple of Artemis at Messene, see below and n.105.
62. R. Parker, 'Spartan religion', in A. Powell (ed.), Classical Sparta (London 1989) 142-72; 145 about the religion of the perioikoi.
63. On the cult of Pamisos, see M. Breuillot, 'L'eau et les dieux de Messénie', DHA 11 (1985) 797-9.
64. For reasons of space, a detailed treatment of the evidence of cult at Bronze Age tombs from the Geometric to the Hellenistic age, particularly rich in Messenia, can-not be given here. See C. Antonaccio, An Archaeology of Ancestors (Lanham, MD 1995) 70-102.
65. By far the most thorough collection of the evidence available to date is to be found in D. Boehringer, Heroenkulte in Griechenland von der geometrischen bis zur klassischen Zeit: Attika, Argolis, Messenien (Klio Beiheft 3, Berlin 2001). I am very grateful to David Boehringer for allowing me to use his excellent work before its publication. To his list, add now the Protogeometric and Hellenistic pottery from a Mycenaean chamber tomb on the Ellinikà ridge, just outside the wall circuit of ancient Thouria: G. Chatzi-Spiliopoulou, ''O 6 E A M', in V. Mitsopoulos-Leon (ed.), Forschungen in der Peloponnes. Akten des Symposions anläßlich der Feier "100 Jahre Österreichisches Archäologisches Institut Athen". Athen 5.3-7.3.1998 (Österreichisches Archäologisches Institut, Sonderschriften 38, Athens 2001) 293-8. For my argument, it is sufficient to point out that the topographical distribution of Archaic and Early Classical evidence for this form of cult shows clearly that it cannot be associated exclusively with the Helots, if at all.
66. See Roebuck (n.2) 28-31, and J.F. Lazenby and R. Hope Simpson, 'Greco-Roman times: literary tradition and topographical commentary', in W.A. McDonald and G.R. Rapp, Jr. (eds), The Minnesota Messenia Expedition: Reconstructing a Bronze Age Environment (Minneapolis 1972) 86. The evidence from literary sources and inscriptions has been recently collected by Shipley (n.62) 226-81; see the index at pp. 190-1.
67. The Koryphasion that was stormed by the Arkadians in 365/4 (Diod. 15.77.4) must have been a perioikic settlement. Since Thucydides appears to imply that there was no settlement on Koryphasion (i.e. Paliokastro) when Demosthenes landed there (4.3.2), it is possible that a settlement was established after the Athenians finally evacuated their stronghold. Archaeological investigations in the castle by S. Marinatos (report in Ergon 1958, 149-50) brought to light pottery from roughly the mid fifth century onwards, and a considerable quantity of pottery from the sixth to the fourth centuries has been collected in the area south of the castle, towards the entrance of the Navarino bay; see W.M. McDonald and R. Hope Simpson, 'Prehistoric habitation in southwestern Peloponnese', AJA 65 (1961) 243.
68. See W.K. Pritchett, Studies in Ancient Greek Topography 5 (Berkeley 1985) 39-46
69. and G.A. Pikoulas, 'Tο ''A', in B' T M (Athens 1988) 479-85.
70. On the extension and location of Spartiate land in Messenia, see, among others, C.A. Roebuck, 'A note on Messenian economy and population', CPh 40 (1945) 151 and 157-8;
71. Lotze, 'Zu einigen Aspekten des spartanischen Agrarsystems', Jahrbuch für Wirtschaftsgeschichte (1971(2)) 64-5;
72. T.J. Figueira, 'Mess contributions and substistence at Sparta', TAPhA 114 (1984) 100-4;
73. S. Hodkinson, Property and Wealth in Classical Sparta (London 2000) 142-5, who in my opinion overestimates the extension of the land directly controlled by the Spartiates.
74. R. Hope Simpson, 'Identifying a Mycenaean state', BSA 52 (1957) 249, mentioned five Early Classical Doric capitals from the site of Petalidi, but later Lazenby (in Lazenby and Hope Simpson (n.70) 89) based on Paus. 4.34.5 called Korone a new foundation of the 360s. N. Valmin, Études topographiques sur la Messénie ancienne (Lund 1930) 177-9, seems to consider the remains of ancient fortifications to antedate the age of Epameinondas and tantalizingly alludes to the richness of ancient remains in Petalidi.
75. See P.G. Themelis, ''A M', PAAH 1993 (1996) 57-9; 1994 (1997) 86-8; 1995 (1998) 60-3 (soundings in the southern part of the Asklepieion court).
76. See J. Christien, 'L'étranger à Lacédémoine', in R. Lonis (ed.), L'étranger dans le monde grec 2 (Nancy 1992) 33. For different locations of Homeric Aipeia, see Strab. 8.4.5.
77. That the Spartans consistently called Koryphasion the place that the Messenians and the Athenians called Pylos is stated clearly by Thucydides (4.3.2, and cf. 4.118.4 and 5.18.7, and Xen. Hell. 1.2.18); on the implications, see S. Hornblower, A Commentary on Thucydides (Oxford 1996) 2.154-5. But if Aithaia was the name of the settlement at the foot of Mount Ithome, Thucydides does not seem to have realized it, cf. 1.101.2.
78. The beginning and duration of the revolt are highly controversial. The position assumed here is defended in 'Der Erdbebenaufstand und die Entstehung der messenischen Identität', in V.-M. Strocka (ed.), Gab es das griechische Wunder? Griechenland zwischen dem Ende des 6. und der Mitte des 5. Jhs. v. Chr. (Mainz 2001) 280-90.
79. IνO 259 and SEG 32.550 respectively. To them, a further, unpublished inscription should be added, in which also Messenians and Naupaktians appear as two separate groups; the inscription, apparently an agreement between Messenians and Naupaktians, was found about forty years ago in Naupaktos and is mentioned by E. Mastrokostas, AD 19 (1964) 2, 295; cf. W.K. Pritchett, Thucydides' Pentekontaetia and Other Essays (Amsterdam 1995) 69-71.
80. The monuments from which the inscriptions in Olympia and Delphi come are discussed by T. Hölscher, 'Die Nike der Messenier und Naupaktier in Olympia', JDAI 89 (1974) 70-111
81. and A. Jacquemin and D. Laroche, 'Notes sur trois piliers delphiques', BCH 106 (1982) 191-207.
82. Both monuments seem to date to the years of the Peloponnesian War. The assertive value of these two dedications, in Panhellenic sanctuaries where the Spartan presence would be very intense, can hardly be overestimated. A further Messenian dedication in Delphi (SEG 19.391) should be mentioned, a base c. 8 m by 2.5 m with two inscriptions, one clearly Hellenistic, the other written in archaizing letters but possibly also Hellenistic. It is difficult to say whether we are dealing here with a fifth-century monument, later refurbished, or with an altogether later dedication, executed in an archaizing style; see Jeffery (n.30) 205, and J. Pouilloux, La région Nord du sanctuaire (FD II, Architecture, Paris 1960) 142-51, who offers by far the most detailed discussion of this monument.
83. R.A. Bauslaugh, 'Messenian dialect and dedications of the "Methanioi"', Hesperia 59 (1990) 661-8. I am very grateful to Calvert Watkins for advice on this point.
84. On the military role of the perioikoi, see e.g. D. Lotze, 'Bürger zweiter Klasse: Spartas Periöken. Ihre Stellung und Funktion im Staat der Lakedaimonier', in Sitzungsberichte der Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Erfurt. Geisteswissenschaftliche Klasse 2 (1993/94) 40
85. and J. Ducat, 'La société Spartiate et la guerre', in F. Prost (ed.), Armées et sociétés de la Grèce classique (Paris 1999) 41-2.
86. Note that Herodotos was obviously thinking of a pitched battle, not of some sort of guerrilla warfare. The military role of the Helots has possibly been underestimated, cf. e.g. K.-W. Welwei, Unfreie im antiken Kriegsdienst 1: Athen und Sparta (Wiesbaden 1974) 108-81.
87. P. Hunt, 'Helots at the battle of Plataea', Historia 46 (1997) 129-44
88. and Slaves, Warfare, and Ideology in the Greek Historians (Cambridge 1998) 23-78, argues against this reductive view, but seems to fall into the other extreme. For a more balanced view, see Ducat (n.90) 43.
89. See e.g. P. Cartledge, Agesilaos and the Crisis of Sparta (Baltimore and London 1987) 385: 'In Messenia it seems that the Perioikoi had remained uniformly loyal to Sparta. The Helots, it is almost superfluous to record, had revolted to a man, woman and child.' But cf. Hamilton (n.2) 224 and 227.
90. 3, 665', in S. Alessandrì (ed.), 'I. Studi offerti dagli allievi a Giuseppe Nenci in occasione del suo settantesimo compleanno (Galatina 1994) 283-308.
91. It is tempting to connect these hints with a debate between Agesilaos and Epameinondas referred to by Plutarch (Ages. 27.4-28.2), during the peace conference at Sparta in 371. Epameinondas allegedly replied to Agesilaos' request to allow the Boiotians to be autonomous by asking Sparta to do the same with the Lakoniké, i.e. with the perioikoi; the same information, in slightly different form, is preserved also by Paus. 9.13.2. See Cartledge (n.92) 379-80, and M. Jehne, Koine eirene. Untersuchungen zu den Befriedungs- und Stabilisierungsbemühungen in der griechischen Poliswelt des 4. Jhs. v. Chr. (Stuttgart 1994) 71-4.
92. See the detailed discussion by G. Dipersia, 'La nuova popolazione di Messene al tempo di Epaminonda', in M. Sordi (ed.), Propaganda e persuasione occulta nell'antichità (CISA 2, Milan 1974) 54-61.
93. There is some disagreement among scholars as to whether Isokrates' Archidamos should be taken as a mere rhetorical exercise or given a proper political meaning; see e.g. K. Bringmann, Studien zu den politischen Ideen des Isokrates (Göttingen 1965) 55-6
94. and R.A. Moysey, 'Isokrates' On the peace: rhetorical exercise or political advice?', AJAH 7 (1982) 118-27. However, the speech was composed in the years immediately following the liberation of Messenia, when the Spartans were trying to challenge the recognition of Messene by the other Greeks, and certainly an Athenian audience knew which arguments the Spartans were deploying; see the judicious discussion by Jehne (n.97) 11 n.21, with further bibliography.
95. See I.A.F. Bruce, An Historical Commentary on the 'Hellenica Oxyrhynchia' (Cambridge 1967) 129.
96. This is at least the record for the only region where archaeological evidence has been collected at all: the area investigated by the Pylos Regional Archaeological Project. See J.L. Davis, S.E. Alcock, J. Bennet, Y.G. Lolos, C.W. Shelmerdine, 'The Pylos Regional Archaeological Project. Part I: overview and the archaeological survey', Hesperia 66 (1997) 483: the end of the Spartan domination 'is marked by a notable growth in the number and size of settlements'. In this connection, it is interesting to observe that, while four of the five tribes in which the citizen-body of the new Messenian polity was divided were named after Kresphontes and his three direct ancestors, the fifth was named after the Argive Heraklid Daiphontes;
97. see N.F. Jones, Public Organization in Ancient Greece: A Documentary Study (Philadelphia 1987) 146-8. This is normally, and surely correctly, connected with the role of the Argives in the foundation, but it is tempting to think that this new tribe might have been composed of settlers from outside Messenia.
98. See the excavation report by P.G. Themelis, ''A M', PAAH 1991 (1994) 86-96
99. whose interpretation of this monument seems to me more convincing than the one proposed by Y. Morizot, 'Le hiéron de Messéné', BCH 118 (1994) 399-405.
100. On the cult of Artemis Orthia in Messene, see id., 'Artemis Ortheia at Messene: the epigraphical and archaeological evidence', in R. Hägg (ed.), Ancient Greek Cult Practice from the Epigraphical Evidence (Stockholm 1994) 101-22.
101. In this connection it is not superfluous to recall that the new city founded by the Messenians in Sicily in 396/5 was called Tyndaris, and its coins show Helen on one side and the Dioskouroi or their symbols on the other; see S. Consolo Langher, 'Documentazione numismatica e storia di Tyndaris nel sec. IV a.C.', Helikon 5 (1965) 66-7.
102. For an introduction, see K.-H. Kohl, 'Ethnizität und Tradition aus ethnologischer Sicht', in A. Assmann and H. Friese (eds), Identitäten (Frankfurt am Main 1998) 269-87. A great deal of modern research on ethnicity is discussed in Hall (n.5) 17-33.
103. The importance of the construction of boundaries and the definition of ethnicity as a process of exclusion go back to the Norwegian anthropologist F. Barth; see e.g. his introduction to F. Barth (ed.), Ethnic Groups and Boundaries: The Social Organization of Culture Difference (Bergen, Oslo and London 1969) parts 15-16.
104. Barth's approach has been discussed and further refined in later scholarship. For a recent definition of the ethnic boundary as the founding element of ethnicity, see E. Orywal and K. Hackstein, 'Ethnizität: Die Konstruktion ethnischer Wirklichkeit', in T. Schweizer, M. Schweizer and W. Kokot (eds), Handbuch der Ethnologie (Berlin 1993) 598-600; see also 593-5 on the reception of Barth's theories. Similar results had been reached by R. Wenksus, in his pioneer research on the origins of early mediaeval gentes;
105. For an updated version of Wenskus' approach, see now W. Pohl and H. Reimitz (ed.), Strategies of Distinction: The Construction of Ethnic Communities, 300-800 (Leiden 1998).
106. W. Pohl, 'Tradition, Ethnogenese und literarische Gestaltung: eine Zwischenbilanz', in K. Brunner and B. Merta (eds), Ethnogenese und Überlieferung. Angewandte Methode der Frühmittelalterforschung (Vienna 1994) 9-19, discusses the reception and further development of Wenskus' ideas by later scholars.
107. On notional kinship as the foundation of an ethnic group, see already M. Weber, Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft. Grundriß der verstehenden Soziologie (5th edn, Tübingen 1972) 235-42.
108. The conclusion that a common name and a myth of common descent are the only absolute preconditions for the existence of an ethnic group is probably not shared by all scholars. It is implicit in Weber's definition and has been stated explicitly by scholars developing Wenskus' approach; see e.g. F. Daim, 'Gedanken zum Ethnosbegriff', Mitteilungen der Anthropologischen Gesellschaft in Wien 112 (1982) 63. A similar position in Hall (n.5) 25.
109. See e.g. W. Pohl, 'Telling the difference: signs of ethnic identity', in Pohl and Reimitz (n.109) 22-7.
110. On the cultural rules that control manipulation of the past, see A. Appadurai, 'The past as a scarce resource', Man 16 (1981) 201-19
111. and J.D.Y. Peel, 'Making history: the past in the Ijesha present', Man 19 (1984) 111-32.
112. For a correct approach to the problem of local styles in ancient art, see J. Raeder, 'Kunstlandschaft und Landschaftsstil. Begriffe, Anschauungen und deren methodische Grundlagen', in K. Zimmermann (ed.), Der Stilbegriff in den Altertumswissenschaften (Rostock 1993) 105-9.
113. On this point, and in general on the problem of archaeology and ethnicity, see the discussion of Jonathan Hall's book (n.5) in CAJ 8 (1998) 265-83, in particular 270 (I. Morris), 271-3 (S. Jones), and 279-80 (Hall's reply). The problem has a long - and not consistently honourable - history among Early Mediaevalists, but Classical archaeologists might learn something from the methodological level of that debate; cf. Daim (n.110) 69-71.
114. See Strab. 8.6.11 (the last sentence also seems to belong to Theop. 115 F383), and Paus. 4.24.4 and 35.2, with J. Hall, 'How Argive was the "Argive" Heraion: the political and cultic geography of the Argive Plain', AJA 99 (1995) 583-4.
115. and P.J. Heather, 'Disappearing and reappearing tribes', in Pohl and Reimitz (n.109) 95-111.
116. th Birthday (London 1985)
117. Cf. J.A. Armstrong, Nations before Nationalism (Chapel Hill 1982) 6-7: 'Emergence of such a counterelite is especially difficult in sedentary agricultural societies where dominant elites monopolize communication by symbols and supervise the socialization of all members of the polity by inculcation of myths legitimizing the elite's dominance.' I quote this passage because it so nicely fits what we know about the Spartiates and their treatment of the Helots. Among the factors which could favour the emergence of ethnic consciousness within a lower class, Armstrong lists the presence of very different linguistic patterns between élite and lower class; however, the Helots were apparently indistinguishable from the Spartiates in this respect: Thuc. 4.41.2 and Figueira (n.6) 213.
118. J. Ducat, Les Hilotes (Athens and Paris 1990) 177-8
119. discusses cautiously the existence of a specifically Helotic culture, and notices the absence of any traces of it in the sources. D. Placido, 'Los lugares sagrados de los hilotas', in J. Annequin and M. Garrido-Hory (eds), Religion et anthropologie de l'esclavage et des formes de dépendance (Paris 1994) 127-35, is mostly a discussion of Helotic presence in Spartan sanctuaries.
120. As mentioned above (n.69), cult at Bronze Age tombs was not specifically linked with the Helots. Needless to say, ethnic consciousness and genealogical tradition among the Helots become more plausible, the more one likens the Helots to a dependent population with a complex social structure, and the less plausible, the more one likens them to slaves. For my position, see 'Helotic slavery reconsidered', in S. Hodkinson and A. Powell (eds), Sparta: Beyond the Mirage (London 2002), forthcoming.
121. See J. Ducat, 'Le mépris des Hilotes', Annales (ESC) 30 (1974) 1451-64, and id. (n.121) 105-27, and now Figueira (n.6) 221-5, with further astute observations.
122. On the fifth century, see J. Bremmer, 'Myth as propaganda: Athens and Sparta', ZPE 117 (1997) 13-16.
123. The predominance of Lakedaimonian cults and myths in the pantheon of the new Messenians has been noted since B. Niese, 'Die ältere Geschichte Messeniens', Hermes 26 (1891) 13-14.