110 Politics and Geopolitics
had the city of Messene built on the slopes of Mount Ithome, Lacedaemon’s
greatest enemy also encouraged the Arcadians to construct the city of Mega-
lopolis a few miles north of this strategic road. In so doing, he placed this new
pólıs almost squarely in the way of any invading force that the Spartans might
send through Arcadia against Messenia, situating it northwest of the north-
ernmost spur of Taygetus in the center of the great upland plateau through the
southern reaches of which runs the road from Laconia to the Derveni Pass
and into Messenia.^30
That Epaminondas was a visionary cannot be doubted, and reflection on
this should give us pause. For it highlights the importance for Sparta of the
Arcadians and the significance in the eighth century, as in the fourth, of the
alliance that this highland people formed both with the Messenians and with
the Argives, Sparta’s traditional enemy to the northeast. As Aristotle makes
clear, when Herodotus had the Milesian adventurer who visited Cleomenes in
Lacedaemon stress the importance of Sparta’s relations with the Messenians,
the Arcadians, and the Argives, he knew whereof he spoke.^31
The Argives appear to have been a thorn in Sparta’s side from the start.
Early on, they were the dominant power in the Peloponnesus, and communi-
ties such as Sicyon, Aegina, and Epidaurus recognized their hegemony. Hero-
dotus reports that, at this time, Argos controlled the eastern coastline of the
Peloponnesus, including Cynouria, all the way down to Cape Malea—as well
as the island of Cythera, just off Laconia’s southern coast. This claim is consis-
tent with the report of Pausanias the geographer that the Argives helped the
people of Helos in the southernmost reaches of the Eurotas valley resist Al-
camenes’ attack—for, had they not controlled a stronghold nearby, at Epid-
auros Limera or on Cythera, they would not have been in a position to come
to Helos’ aid.^32
There is another report suggesting the importance of Lacedaemon’s ri-
valry with Argos at this time. We are told that, with the help of the people of
Asine on the coast to the southeast of Argos, Alcamenes’ Eurypontid colleague
Nikandros ravaged the Argolid. This report is almost certainly true, for the
archaeological record is consistent with Pausanias’ further claim that Argos
eventually took revenge by destroying Asine at some point in the course of the
First Messenian War and that, in the war’s aftermath, the Spartans relocated
the people of this Dryopian city to a like-named community at a strategic lo-
cation on the east coast of Cape Akritas in southern Messenia.^33
Concerning the Arcadians prior to the Persian Wars, we are less well-