Besides Sparta there were two other states whose ruling families could claim to be descended from Heracles, namely Argos and Messenia. For a long time Argos would admit no superiority on the part of any other Greek state, and at no time was it reduced to subjection to any; but within two hundred years after the Lycurgean _régime_ had been established at Sparta, Messenia had been virtually annexed to Lacedæmonian territory, and the bulk of its inhabitants reduced to a state of serfdom scarcely distinguishable from that of the helots who had been subjugated at the time of the Dorian invasion. From the first the Dorian conquerors of Messenia seem to have been on more friendly terms with their subjects than was the case with their kindred who settled in Argos and Laconia. Their racial characteristics were thus impaired, while their moral fibre was relaxed by the wealth of the country which fell to their lot; but it was not till after a number of severe struggles that Sparta obtained the mastery. The condition of the Messenians after the first war (743-724) is thus described by Tyrtæus the poet, who took part in the second war (645-628):-- Like asses galled with heavy loads To their masters bringing, by doleful necessity, Half of all the fruit that the tilled land yields, Themselves and their wives alike bewailing their masters Whene’er death’s baneful lot has fallen on any. The reference in the last two lines is to the fact that when Spartan kings or nobles died, men and women had to come from Messenia to attend their funeral, dressed in black. Their greatest warrior was Aristomenes, who is said to have twice offered to Zeus Ithomates the sacrifice called _hekatomphonia_, which could only be offered by any one after slaying a hundred of his enemies in battle. Rather than submit to the loss of their liberty many of the Messenians abandoned [Illustration: INTERIOR OF THE TEMPLE OF APOLLO AT BASSÆ IN ARCADIA On the left of the picture are shown some of the columns of the eastern side of the Temple, together with the attached columns of the _cella_, a peculiar architectural feature of this Temple. The front (north) part of the _cella_ was hypæthral, so the floor below the opening in the roof was slightly hollowed out--as shown in the drawing--to collect the rain-water. Mount Ithome appears between the columns of the southern end of the Temple.]