Description of Greece

​When the prophets had offered the preliminary sacrifices for both sides—for the Lacedaemonians, Hekas, a descendant and namesake of the Hekas who had come to Sparta with the sons of Aristodemus, and for the Messenians, Theoklos (this Theoklos was descended from Eumantis, and Kresphontes had brought Eumantis, who was an Elean of the Iamidae, to Messene)—then, with the prophets also present and full of spirit, both sides hastened more eagerly to the battle.

​And the enthusiasm of the others also was high, according to the age and strength that each possessed, but especially that of Anaxander, the king of the Lacedaemonians, and the Spartans around him; while on the side of the Messenians, Phintas and Androkles, the descendants of Androkles, and those stationed with them, strove to show themselves brave men. Tyrtaeus and the hierophants of the Great Goddesses took no part in the fighting itself, but each encouraged the rear ranks of their own army.

​As for Aristomenes himself, the situation was as follows. Around him were eighty chosen Messenians, who were of the same age as he and each of whom thought himself highly honored because he had been deemed worthy to be stationed with Aristomenes; they were also quick to perceive in a moment the signals of one another and especially of him, both when he was beginning to do something and while he was still intending it. These men first, and Aristomenes himself with them, had a hard struggle, being stationed against Anaxander and the best of the Lacedaemonians; but receiving wounds without sparing themselves and going to the extreme of desperation, in time and by their daring deeds they routed those around Anaxander.

​As these fled, Aristomenes ordered another company of the Messenians to pursue them; he himself, rushing to where the resistance was strongest, when he had forced these also to yield, turned again upon others. Quickly pushing these back too, he then fell with greater readiness upon those who still stood their ground, until he threw the whole line of the Lacedaemonians, both themselves and their allies, into confusion; and since they were fleeing without shame and were no longer willing to wait for one another, he pressed upon them, more fearsome than could be attributed to the madness of a single man.

​It was then that near a wild pear tree growing somewhere in the plain, the prophet Theoklos did not allow Aristomenes to pass past it; for he said that the Dioskouroi were seated upon the pear tree. But Aristomenes, yielding to his passion and not listening to the prophet in everything, when he came near the pear tree, lost his shield; and this mistake of Aristomenes gave some of the Lacedaemonians the opportunity to escape safe from their flight, for he spent time trying to find the shield.

​When the Lacedaemonians were disheartened after the defeat and were eager to put an end to the war, Tyrtaeus, by singing his elegiac poems, changed their minds, and enrolled men from the Helots into the companies in place of the dead. But for Aristomenes, when he returned to Andania, the women threw ribbons and seasonal flowers upon him, singing a song which is still sung even to our day: “To the midst of the Stenyclerian plain and to the mountain top Aristomenes followed the Lacedaemonians.” And he also recovered that shield, going to Delphi and ​acting as the Pythia commanded him, by going down into the inner shrine of Trophonios at Lebadeia. Later he dedicated the shield at Lebadeia, bringing it there, where indeed I myself saw it dedicated; its device is an eagle with its wings stretched out on either side to the edge of the rim. At that time, when Aristomenes returned from Boeotia after finding and bringing back his shield from Trophonios, he at once set about greater deeds.

​Having collected other Messenians and keeping the chosen men about himself, he waited for the time after evening and came to a city of Laconia, whose ancient name in Homer’s catalogue is Pharis, but which was called Pharai by the Spartans and the neighbors; having come to this place, he slew those who tried to defend it, and driving off the booty, he marched back to Messene. But when the Lacedaemonian hoplites and King Anaxander attacked them on the way, he routed these also and hastened to pursue Anaxander; but being struck in the thigh by a javelin, he stopped the pursuit, though he was not deprived of the booty which he was driving.

​After waiting only long enough for his wound to heal, he made an expedition by night against Sparta itself, but was turned back by phantoms of Helene and the Dioskouroi; but he lay in wait by day for the maidens dancing at Karyae in honor of Artemis, and captured all those who excelled in wealth and the rank of their fathers. He led them to a village in Messenia and rested for the night, committing the guard of the maidens to men of his company.

​There, under the influence of drink, the young men—as it seems to me, and being otherwise uncontrolled in their reason—turned to violate the maidens; but when Aristomenes tried to prevent them from doing what was not customary for Greeks, they paid no attention, so that he was forced even to kill those of them who were most outrageous in their drunkenness. Having taken the captives, he released them for a large ransom, maidens just as indeed he had captured them.