More remarkable, inasmuch as the Spartans soon after this time appear as conquerors. Indeed, it could no longer be expected that any durable peace should exist in Greece, while the centre of the country was occupied by a military commonwealth, whose citizens must have been, by the restlessness common to man, impelled to war, since all the occupations of household life and of agriculture were left to the care of slaves. Besides the works mentioned above, p. 119. HEYNE, _De Spartanorum republica Judicium_; inserted in _Commentat. Soc. Gotting._ vol. ix. Intended to correct the partial opinions of DE PAUW. 10. Soon after the time of Lycurgus commenced the war of the Spartans with their neighbours, the Argives, the Arcadians, but more particularly the Messenians. The wars with these last appear to have originated in an old grudge on the part of the Dorian tribe, proceeding from the unequal division of lands at the occupation of Peloponnesus: it is nevertheless evident, that the quarrel between the two nations was mainly fostered by the ambition of the Spartan kings, who wrought upon a superstitious multitude by oracular responses and interpretations. Unimportant wars with Tegea and Argos; and disputes with Messene, 783-745. First Messenian war, 742-722, terminated by the capture of the frontier fortress Ithome, after the voluntary death of the Messenian king, Aristodemus.--The Messenians become tributary to the Spartans, and are obliged to give up one half of the revenues of their lands.--Occurrences during this war: 1. Institution, according to some authorities, of the college of Ephori as vicegerents of the kings in their absence, and arbitrators in the quarrels which might arise between the kings and the senate. 2. The power of the people so far limited as to restrain the popular assemblies from making alterations in the resolutions proposed to them by the senate or the kings, and confining them merely to a vote of approval or rejection. 3. Insurrection of the Parthenii and Helots becomes the motive for sending out colonies; a measure to which Sparta had more than once resorted for the purpose of maintaining domestic tranquillity. Second Messenian war, 682-668, waged by the Messenians under the command of their hero Aristomenes, by the Spartans under that of Tyrtaeus, who fanned the flame of war until the contest was terminated by the capture of the strong town Ira. The Messenian territory is divided among the conquerors, and the conquered inhabitants become, like the helots, agricultural slaves. 11. Although the territory of the Spartans was greatly increased by these Messenian wars, the nation seems to have been a long time before it recovered from the struggle, and to have raised itself by slow steps to the first rank among the Dorian states, extending its boundaries at the expense of the Argives and Arcadians.