Pausanias, Description of Greece, ed. Friedrich Spiro, 4.15

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[1]
ὡς δὲ τά τε ἄλλα ἐς τὸν πόλεμον ἕτοιμα ἦν αὐτοῖς καὶ τὰ ἀπὸ τῶν συμμάχων προθυμότερα ἢ προσεδόκων—καὶ γὰρ Ἀργείοις ἤδη καὶ Ἀρκάσι λαμπρῶς τὸ ἐς τοὺς Λακεδαιμονίους ἔχθος ἐξῆπτο—οὕτως ἀπέστησαν ἔτει τριακοστῷ μὲν καὶ ἐνάτῳ μετὰ Ἰθώμης 0 ἅλωσιν, τετάρτῳ δὲ τῆς τρίτης Ὀλυμπιάδος καὶ εἰκοστῆς, ἣν Ἴκαρος Ὑπερησιεὺς ἐνίκα στάδιον· Ἀθήνῃσι δὲ οἱ κατʼ ἐνιαυτὸν ἦσαν ἤδη τότε ἄρχοντες, καὶ Ἀθηναίοις Τλησίας ἦρχεν.

[2] ἐν δὲ Λακεδαίμονι οἵ τινες τηνικαῦτα ἔτυχον βασιλεύοντες, Τυρταῖος μὲν τὰ ὀνόματα οὐκ ἔγραψε, Ῥιανὸς δʼ ἐποίησεν ἐν τοῖς ἔπεσι Λεωτυχίδην βασιλέα ἐπὶ τοῦδε εἶναι τοῦ πολέμου. Ῥιανῷ μὲν οὖν ἔγωγε οὐδαμῶς κατά γε τοῦτο συνθήσομαι· Τυρταῖον δὲ καὶ οὐ λέγοντα ὅμως εἰρηκέναι τις ἂν ἐν τῷδε ἡγοῖτο. ἐλεγεῖα γὰρ ἐς τὸν πρότερόν ἐστιν αὐτῷ πόλεμον·

ἀμφʼ αὐτῇ δʼ ἐμάχοντʼ ἐννέα καὶ δέκʼ ἔτη

νωλεμέως, αἰεὶ ταλασίφρονα θυμὸν ἔχοντες,

αἰχμηταὶ πατέρων ἡμετέρων πατέρες.

Tyrtaeus, unknown location.

[3] δῆλα οὖν ἐστιν ὡς ὕστερον τρίτῃ γενεᾷ τὸν πόλεμον οἱ Μεσσήνιοι τόνδε ἐπολέμησαν, ἀποδείκνυσί τε τοῦ χρόνου τὸ συνεχὲς βασιλεύοντας τηνικαῦτα ἐν Σπάρτῃ Ἀνάξανδρον Εὐρυκράτους τοῦ Πολυδώρου, τῆς δὲ οἰκίας τῆς ἑτέρας Ἀναξίδαμον Ζευξιδάμου τοῦ Ἀρχιδάμου τοῦ Θεοπόμπου. κατέβην δὲ ἐς ἀπόγονον Θεοπόμπου τέταρτον, ὅτι Ἀρχίδαμος ὁ Θεοπόμπου προαπέθανε τοῦ πατρὸς καὶ ἐς Ζευξίδαμον υἱιδοῦν ὄντα ἡ Θεοπόμπου περιῆλθεν ἀρχή. Λεωτυχίδης δὲ μετὰ Δημάρατον βασιλεύσας φαίνεται τὸν Ἀρίστωνος· Θεοπόμπου δὲ Ἀρίστων ἀπόγονος ἕβδομος.

[4]
τότε δὲ οἱ Μεσσήνιοι Λακεδαιμονίοις συμβάλλουσιν ἐν Δέραις καλουμέναις τῆς σφετέρας, ἔτει πρώτῳ μετὰ 0 τὴν ἀπόστασιν· ἀπῆσαν δὲ ἀμφοτέροις οἱ σύμμαχοι. καὶ νίκη μὲν ἐγένετο οὐδετέρων σαφής, Ἀριστομένην δὲ ἔργα φασὶν ἀποδείξασθαι πλέον τι ἢ ἄνδρα ἕνα εἰκὸς ἦν, ὥστε καὶ βασιλέα μετὰ τὴν μάχην ᾑροῦντο αὐτόν, ἦν γὰρ καὶ γένους τῶν Αἰπυτιδῶν·

[5] παραιτουμένου τε, οὕτω στρατηγὸν αὐτοκράτορα εἵλοντο. Ἀριστομένει δὲ παρίστατο μηδʼ ἂν ἄλλον ἀπαξιῶσαι παθεῖν τι ἐν πολέμῳ δράσαντα ἄξια μνήμης· αὑτῷ μέντοι καὶ πρὸ παντὸς ἐνόμιζεν εἶναι, ἔτι ἀρχομένου τοῦ πολέμου Λακεδαιμονίους καταπλήξαντα φαίνεσθαι καὶ ἐς τὰ μέλλοντά σφισι φοβερώτερον. ἅτε δὲ οὕτως ἔχων, ἀφικόμενος νύκτωρ ἐς τὴν Λακεδαίμονα ἀνατίθησιν ἀσπίδα πρὸς τὸν τῆς Χαλκιοίκου ναόν· ἐπεγέγραπτο δὲ Ἀριστομένην ἀπὸ Σπαρτιατῶν διδόναι τῇ θεῷ.

[6]
ἐγένετο δὲ καὶ Λακεδαιμονίοις μάντευμα ἐκ Δελφῶν τὸν Ἀθηναῖον ἐπάγεσθαι σύμβουλον. ἀποστέλλουσιν οὖν παρὰ τοὺς Ἀθηναίους τόν τε χρησμὸν ἀπαγγελοῦντας καὶ ἄνδρα αἰτοῦντας παραινέσοντα ἃ χρή σφισιν. Ἀθηναῖοι δὲ οὐδέτερα θέλοντες, οὔτε Λακεδαιμονίους ἄνευ μεγάλων κινδύνων προσλαβεῖν μοῖραν τῶν ἐν Πελοποννήσῳ τὴν ἀρίστην οὔτε αὐτοὶ παρακοῦσαι τοῦ θεοῦ, πρὸς ταῦτα ἐξευρίσκουσι· καὶ ἦν γὰρ Τυρταῖος διδάσκαλος γραμμάτων νοῦν τε ἥκιστα ἔχειν δοκῶν καὶ τὸν ἕτερον τῶν ποδῶν χωλός, τοῦτον ἀποστέλλουσιν ἐς Σπάρτην. ὁ δὲ ἀφικόμενος ἰδίᾳ τε τοῖς ἐν τέλει καὶ συνάγων ὁπόσους τύχοι καὶ τὰ
ἐλεγεῖα καὶ τὰ ἔπη σφίσι τὰ ἀνάπαιστα ᾖδεν.

[7] ἐνιαυτῷ δὲ ὕστερον τοῦ περὶ τὰς Δέρας ἀγῶνος, ἡκόντων ἀμφοτέροις καὶ τῶν συμμάχων, παρεσκευάζοντο ὡς μάχην συνάψοντες ἐπὶ τῷ καλουμένῳ Κάπρου σήματι. Μεσσηνίοις μὲν οὖν Ἠλεῖοι καὶ Ἀρκάδες, ἔτι δὲ ἐξ Ἄργους ἀφίκετο καὶ Σικυῶνος βοήθεια. παρῆσαν δὲ καὶ ὅσοι πρότερον τῶν Μεσσηνίων ἔφευγον ἑκουσίως, ἐξ Ἐλευσῖνός τε, οἷς πάτριον δρᾶν τὰ ὄργια τῶν Μεγάλων θεῶν, καὶ οἱ Ἀνδροκλέους ἀπόγονοι· καὶ γὰρ οἱ συσπεύσαντες μάλιστά σφισιν ἦσαν οὗτοι.

[8] Λακεδαιμονίοις δὲ ἦλθον Κορίνθιοι συμμαχήσοντες καὶ Λεπρεατῶν τινες κατὰ ἔχθος τὸ Ἠλείων· Ἀσιναίοις δὲ ὅρκοι πρὸς ἀμφοτέρους ἦσαν. τὸ δὲ χωρίον τοῦτο, Κάπρου σῆμα, ἔστι μὲν ἐν Στενυκλήρῳ τῆς Μεσσηνίας, Ἡρακλέα δὲ αὐτόθι ὅρκον ἐπὶ τομίων κάπρου τοῖς Νηλέως παισὶ δοῦναι καὶ λαβεῖν παρὰ ἐκείνων λέγουσιν.

Description of Greece. Pausanias. ed. Friedrich Spiro. Leipzig. 1903.

Sponsored by Perseus Project, Tufts University.

Funding provided by The Annenberg CPB/Project.

Current edition Perseus

Ἑλλάδος Περιηγήσεως (Greek) (Pausanias. Pausaniae Graeciae descriptio, Volumes 1-3. Spiro, Friedrich, editor. Leipzig: Teubner, 1903.)

Translations (2)

Description of Greece Perseus (Pausanias. Pausanias Description of Greece, Volumes 1-4. Jones, W.H.S. (William Henry Samuel), translator; Ormerod, Henry Arderne, translator. London, New York: W. Heinemann, G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1918-1935.) — 4.15 focus

[1]
When all their preparations were made for the war, the readiness of their allies exceeding expectation (for now the hatred which the Argives and Arcadians felt for the Lacedaemonians had blazed up openly), they revolted in the thirty-ninth year after the capture of Ithome , and in the fourth year of the twenty-third Olympiad,¹ when Icarus of Hyreresia won the short footrace. At Athens the archonship was now of annual tenure, and Tlesias held office.

[2] Tyrtaeus has not recorded the names of the kings then reigning in Lacedaemon , but Rhianos stated in his epic that Leotychides was king at the time of this war. I cannot agree with him at all on this point. Though Tyrtaeus makes no statement, he may be regarded as having done so by the following; there are lines of his which refer to the first war:

Around it they fought unceasingly for nineteen years, ever maintaining a stout heart, the warrior fathers of our fathers.

Tyrtaeus, unknown.

[3] It is obvious then that the Messenians went to war now in the second generation after the first war, and the sequence of time shows that the kings of Sparta at that time were Anaxander the son of Eurycrates, son of Polydorus, and of the other house Anaxidamus the son of Zeuxidamus, son of Archidamus, son of Theopompus. I go as far as the third in descent from Theopompus, because Archidamus the son of Theopompus died before his father, and the kingdom of Theopompus passed to his grandson, Zeuxidamus. But Leotychides clearly succeeded Demaratus the son of Ariston, Ariston being sixth in descent from Theopompus.

[4]
In the first year after the revolt the Messenians engaged the Lacedaemonians at a place called Derae in Messenia , both sides being without their allies. Neither side won a clear victory, but Aristomenes is said to have achieved more than it seemed that one man could, so that, as he was of the race of the Aepytidae, they were for making him king after the battle. As he declined, they appointed him general with absolute power.

[5] It was the view of Aristomenes that any man would be ready to die in battle if he had first done deeds worthy of record, but that it was his own especial task at the very beginning of the war to prove that he had struck terror into the Lacedaemonians and that he would be more terrible to them for the future. With this purpose he came by night to Lacedaemon and fixed on the temple of Athena of the Brazen House a shield inscribed “The Gift of Aristomenes to the Goddess, taken from Spartans.”

[6]
The Spartans received an oracle from Delphi that they should procure the Athenian as counsellor. So they sent messengers to Athens to announce the oracle, asking for a man to advise what they must do. The Athenians, who were not anxious either that the Lacedaemonians should add to their possessions the best part of Peloponnese without great dangers, or that they themselves should disobey the god, made their plans accordingly. There was a man Tyrtaeus, a teacher of letters, who was considered of poor intellect and was lame in one foot. Him they sent to Sparta . On his arrival he recited his poems in elegiacs and anapaests to the nobles in private and to all whom he could collect.

[7] A year after the fight at Derae, both sides being joined by their allies, they prepared to join battle at the Boar's Tomb, as it is called. The Messenians had the Eleians and Arcadians and also succors from Argos and from Sicyon . They were joined by all the Messenians who had previously been in voluntary exile, together with those from Eleusis , whose hereditary task it was to perform the rites of the Great Goddesses, and the descendants of Androcles. These indeed were their most zealous supporters.

[8] The Corinthians came to fight on the side of the Lacedaemonians, and some of the Lepreans owing to their hatred of the Eleians. But the people of Asine were bound by oaths to both sides. This spot, the Boar's Tomb, lies in Stenyclerus of Messenia , and there, as is said, Heracles exchanged oaths with the sons of Neleus over the pieces of a boar.

English (Jones and Ormerod; retranslated Gregory Nagy, CHS, 2018) (OCR draft) Experimental (CHS Pausanias Reader retranslation by Gregory Nagy, based on Jones and Ormerod, with marked Greek terms, notes, quotations, and bibliographic attributions preserved.) — 4.15 focus

[1] When all their preparations were made for the war, the readiness of their allies exceeding expectation (for now the hatred which the Argives and Arcadians felt for the Lacedaemonians had blazed up openly), they revolted in the thirty-ninth year after the capture of Ithome, and in the fourth year of the twenty-third Olympiad, when Icarus of Hyreresia won the short foot-race. In Athens the title of archon [ arkhōn]was now of annual tenure, and Tlesias held office.

[2] Tyrtaeus has not recorded the names of the kings then reigning in Lacedaemon, but Rhianos stated in his epic that Leotykhides was king at the time of this war. I cannot agree with him at all on this point. Though Tyrtaeus makes no statement, he may be regarded as having done so by the following; there are lines of his which refer to the first war:

“Around it they fought unceasingly for nineteen years, ever maintaining a stout heart, the warrior fathers of our fathers.”

Tyrtaeus, unknown.

[3] It is obvious then that the Messenians went to war now in the second generation after the first war, and the sequence of time shows that the kings of Sparta at that time were Anaxandros the son of Eurycrates, son of Polydoros, and of the other house Anaxidamos the son of Zeuxidamos, son of Arkhidamos, son of Theopompos. I go as far as the third in descent from Theopompos, because Arkhidamos the son of Theopompos died before his father, and the kingdom of Theopompos passed to his grandson, Zeuxidamos. But Leotykhides clearly succeeded Demaratos the son of Ariston, Ariston being sixth in descent from Theopompos.

[4] In the first year after the revolt the Messenians engaged the Lacedaemonians at a place called Derae in Messenia, both sides being without their allies. Neither side won a clear victory, but Aristomenes is said to have achieved more than it seemed that one man could, so that, as he was of the lineage of the Aipytidai, they were for making him king after the battle. As he declined, they appointed him general with absolute power.

“The Gift of Aristomenes to the Goddess, taken from Spartans.”

[6] The Spartans received an oracle from Delphi that they should procure the Athenian as counsellor. So they sent messengers to Athens to announce the oracle, asking for a man to advise what they must do. The Athenians, who were not anxious either that the Lacedaemonians should add to their possessions the best part of Peloponnese without great dangers, or that they themselves should disobey the god, made their plans accordingly. There was a man Tyrtaeus, a teacher of letters, who was considered of poor intellect and was lame in one foot. Him they sent to Sparta. On his arrival he recited his poems in elegiacs and anapaests to the nobles in private and to all whom he could collect.

[7] A year after the fight at Derae, both sides being joined by their allies, they prepared to join battle at the Boar’s Tomb, as it is called. The Messenians had the men of Elis and the Arcadians and also allies from Argos and from Sikyon. They were joined by all the Messenians who had previously been in voluntary exile, together with those from Eleusis, whose hereditary task it was to perform the rites of the Great Goddesses, and the descendants of Androkles. These indeed were their most zealous supporters.

[8] The Corinthians came to fight on the side of the Lacedaemonians, and some of the Lepreans owing to their hatred of the people of Elis. But the people of Asine were bound by oaths to both sides. This spot, the Boar’s Tomb, lies in Stenyclerus of Messenia, and there, as is said, Hēraklēs exchanged oaths with the sons of Neleus over the pieces of a boar.

New Alexandria Commentaries

Gregory Nagy, Editors: Angelia Hanhardt and Keith DeStone, Web producer: Noel Spencer, Consultant for images: Jill Curry Robbins, \[\[Noel gives this a separate URN\]\]

Pausanias Description of Greece 4.15

ed. Friedrich Spiro

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