=56.= FIRST MESSENIAN WAR. B. C. 743-724. The Messenians had adopted a more liberal policy toward their Achæan subjects than prevailed at Sparta, and the jealousy of the two nations had led to frequent mutual insults, when, at length, a slight occasion plunged them into open war. A distinguished Messenian, who had been crowned at the Olympic Games, pastured his cattle by agreement upon the lands of a certain Spartan. But the Spartan, seizing the opportunity for a fraud, sold both the cattle and the Messenian herdsmen who tended them, and crowned his iniquity by murdering the son of the owner, who came to demand the price. The unhappy father went to Sparta to demand justice from the kings, but his grief was disregarded and his claims unpaid. He then took revenge into his own hands, and murdered every Lacedæmonian who came in his way. The Spartans called upon the Messenians to surrender their countryman, but they refused to give him up, and war broke out. [Sidenote: B. C. 738.] [Sidenote: B. C. 730.] [Sidenote: B. C. 724.] =57.= For the first four years the Messenians made effectual resistance, and their invaders gained nothing; but in the fifth a partial reverse compelled them to shut themselves up in the strong fortress of Itho´me. The Spartans took a solemn oath never to return to their families until they had subdued Messenia. In the thirteenth year, Theopompus, king of Sparta, marched against Ithome, and a great battle was fought, in which the king of Messenia was slain. Aristodemus was chosen in his place, and the war went on. In the eighteenth year, Arcadia and Sicyon sent forces to aid the Messenians, while Corinth joined the Spartans. A third great battle was fought, in which the invaders were defeated and driven in disgrace to their own country. But at this time the oracles began to favor the Spartans, while dreams and visions dismayed the soul of Aristodemus. He slew himself, and, with his life, success departed from the Messenians. Ithome was abandoned, the Spartans razed it to the ground, and the Messenians were reduced to slavery. [Sidenote: B. C. 685-668.]