CHAPTER 19
Messenia, Ethnic Identity,
and Contingency
Alexander Thein
Introduction
In 469/8 or 465/4, Sparta was struck by a devastating earthquake that is said to have left
the city in ruins and killed 20,000 people (Diod. 11.63.1–2, 15.66.4, Plut.Cim. 16.4;
see Lewis 1992a: 110; Luraghi 2001: 280–5). The Spartans then faced an uprising of
their helots andperioeci, some of whom established a stronghold on Mount Ithome in
Messenia. The rebellion lasted 10 years, and it was only with military support from allied
Greek states that Sparta reasserted control over its territories to the west of the Taygetus
Mountains. It was a key moment in the history of Spartan Messenia, not least because the
rebels laid claim to a Messenian ethnic identity that had been dormant or non-existent
during the several centuries of Spartan rule over the region. This ethnic awakening lasted
just over half a century. The Ithome rebels left the Peloponnese under a truce and settled
in Naupactus, where they formed a garrison community of Messenians allied to the Athe-
nians, which flourished until the end of the Peloponnesian War. At this time, there were
also Messenians living on Cephallenia and Zacynthus. However, Sparta dissolved the
Messenian diaspora on the western fringes of the Peloponnese, and the Messenian exiles
soon disappeared from the historical record: only one group is attested, in Sicily in 396,
5 years after their expulsion to various places of exile in 401. Spartan dominance ended
with the Theban victory at Leuctra in 371, and, in the winter of 370/69, Epaminon-
das led an invasion of Spartan territory that resulted in the liberation of Messenia and
the foundation of a new Messenianpolisat the foot of Mount Ithome. It was a forti-
fied city populated by settlers drawn from the Peloponnese and overseas, not all of them
ethnic Messenians. However, an official narrative emerged that allowed all the settlers
to claim Messenian descent, specifically from the overseas diaspora. Thepolisof Messene
prospered, and over time the ethnic identity of its citizens could be taken for granted.
A Companion to Ethnicity in the Ancient Mediterranean, First Edition. Edited by Jeremy McInerney.
© 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Published 2014 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.