CORONE (now Coron) was built, according to an account which appears credible to me, at the time of the Boeotian interference, and named after Coronea in Boeotia, from which town it also appears to have received settlers. ASINE was built by the Spartans at the time of the destruction of Messene, and was peopled by Nauplians.[35] METHONE (Madon) is likewise of late origin. In the Catalogue, all western Messenia belongs to the kingdom of Nestor, and the _Pylos_ in the Odyssey, where Telemachus visits Nestor, cannot be the Triphylian, as Strabo thinks, but must be the Messenian on the sea-coast; we have to look for it in the vicinity of Navarino. _Sphacteria_ formed the harbour of Pylos, and that island has in our days again attracted the eyes of the world.[36] It is remarkable in antiquity from the circumstance that the Spartans, inconsiderately enough, occupied it with 300 of their own citizens, and that these men were cut off and compelled to surrender by the Athenians, who had taken helots into their service, and were thus enabled to bring about negotiations for peace. Pylos is still called Pylo; Navarino is situated on the other side of the splendid gulf, where it is broadest, while ancient Pylos was situated at the point where the passage between the mainland and Sphacteria is quite narrow. We recognise the devastations caused by the Spartans in those districts from the excellent description given by Thucydides of the attack upon Pylos. The boundaries of Messenia, as I have already mentioned, were fixed by Philip of Macedonia. The Spartans for a long time refused to recognise the independence of the country, but such obstinate resistance against actual circumstances ruins a state, and this was the cause of the ever increasing weakness of Sparta. The Messenians themselves likewise acted a sorry part in Peloponnesus, and their continued hostility against Sparta is very singular. They brought much misery upon the peninsula, and they themselves at times had to pay dearly for it; they received the last Philip at Ithome, and were on the point of becoming for ever the slaves of Macedonia. They were always jealous of the ruling power, at first of Sparta, and afterwards of the Achaeans: their constant opposition led to nothing but false steps, for they were too weak to carry out any independent policy. ARCADIA. The frontiers of Arcadia, on the side of Laconia, as I have already observed, were at first contracted, but afterwards extended again; in like manner, the boundary line between Elis was changed on account of the varying possession of Triphylia. The Triphylians regarded themselves as real Arcadians, but were always an object of ambition to the Eleans, by whom they were several times overpowered. They were a remnant of the former state of Pisa, which, if we may express an opinion at all on so obscure a subject, must itself be regarded as originally Arcadian.