292 Alexander Thein
Messenians are not called colonial settlers, and Naupactus was not renamed Messene
(Figueira 1999: 220; cf. Luraghi 2008: 193–4). Instead, they maintained a strong emo-
tional connection with the Peloponnese. In 425, they are said to have sent troops to the
Athenian garrison at Pylos on the grounds that it was part of their Messenian homeland;
here, they raided Spartan territory, and Thucydides points out that “they did a great deal
of damage since they were men of the same speech as the inhabitants” (4.41.1). The
Messenians had lived in Naupactus for a generation, yet they remained a community of
exiles defined by ethnic nationalism and they are said to have spoken a dialect of Doric
indistinguishable from that of the inhabitants of the Peloponnese. Scholars have aptly
described them as a polity or government in exile (Lewis 1992a: 118; Figueira 1999:
215, 220; Luraghi 2002a: 60, 2008: 194; Raaflaub 2003: 186). Certainly, they fit the
accepted definition of a diaspora community (Hall 2003: 147–8).
The non-assimilation of the Messenians of Naupactus reinforced their identity, but they
were united with the citizens of Naupactus in their allegiance to Athens, and they had a
shared experience of military service and battlefield success, which was commemorated
in their joint dedication of the Nike of Paionios at Olympia. There were also strong
bonds between the Messenians of Naupactus and their Athenian patrons that found
expression in mythopoesis: Eleusis was identified as the origin of the mystery cults of
Messenian Andania, Tyrtaeus was reinvented as an Attic poet, and Euripides produced a
Cresphontes in the 420s. Athens played a key role in providing Messenian ethnic identity
with a narrative (Figueira 1999: 228–31; cf. Pearson 1962: 403–4).
Messenians and Helots of Pylos
The Messenians of Naupactus played a decisive role in the military operations that led
to the Athenian fortification of Pylos, the uninhabited headland in southwest Messenia
that the Spartans called “Coryphasium” (Thuc. 4.3–41). The Messenians of Naupactus
also sent a select body of troops to serve as the core of the Athenian garrison and to
conduct raids into Spartan territory (Thuc. 4.41.1, cf. Diod. 12.63.5, which attests that
other Athenian allies also contributed to the garrison). One result of these incursions was
the desertion of large numbers of helots, most of them no doubt from Messenia (Thuc.
4.41.3). Many of them took refuge in Pylos, as Thucydides attests in his account of the
diplomatic horse-trading after the Peace of Nicias in 421. Athens had promised to hand
back Pylos, along with the island of Cythera, which had been occupied in 424 (Thuc.
5.18.7, cf. 4.53–54). However, there were delays in the implementation of the terms of
the peace, and eventually the Spartans settled for a compromise:
After many and frequent conferences had been held during this summer, they persuaded
the Athenians to withdraw from Pylos the Messenians, the rest of the helots, and all
who had deserted from theLakonike; these the Athenians settled at Crane in Cephallenia
(Thuc. 5.35.7)The Messenians are the Messenians of Naupactus, the helots are deserters who found
refuge in Pylos after 425, while the other deserters seem to beperioeci(Luraghi 2008:
190). Thucydides lays out Spartan demands and gives voice to a Spartan worldview in the