Messenia, where they exercised the rights of citizenship in the newly-founded democracy.(177) 7. In Laconia itself, according to the Rhetra of Agis (which in all probability merely confirmed existing institutions), the territory belonging to Sparta consisted of the inland tract, which was bounded by part of mount Taygetus to the west, by the river Pellene, and by Sellasia to the north, and extended eastward towards Malea,(178) and this was therefore at that time cultivated by Helots. Here it may be asked, who were the inhabitants of the towns situated in this district, for example Amyclæ, Therapne, and Pharis? Certainly not Helots alone, for there were a considerable number of Hoplitæ from Amyclæ in the Lacedæmonian army,(179) who must therefore have been either Spartans or Periœci. But whether the Periœci inhabited small districts in the midst of the territory immediately occupied by the Spartans, or whether some Spartans lived out of the city in country-towns, cannot be completely determined. The former is, however, the more probable, since some Periœci lived in the vicinity of the city,(180) and Amyclæ is reckoned among the towns of Laconia;(181) the Spartans also are mentioned to have had dwellings in the country,(182) but never to have possessed houses in any other town except Sparta, and a few villages in the neighbourhood. This induces us to attempt the solution of the difficult problem, of what is the proper signification of the Phylæ (as the grammarians sometimes call them),(183) of Pitana, Limnæ or Limnæum, Mesoa and Cynosura, which Pausanias also mentions together as divisions of the people.(184) Now Pausanias calls them divisions of the _Spartans_, and it appears that we must follow his statement. For in an Amyclæan inscription,(185) Damatrius, an overseer of the foreigners at Amyclæ, is called a Mesoatan; and in another inscription, a Gymnasiarch of the Roman time is designated as belonging to the Phyle of the Cynosurans;(186) and we cannot suppose these persons to have been Periœci.(187) And if Alcman, according to a credible account, was a Mesoatan,(188) we may understand by this term a citizen of Sparta (although of an inferior grade), without contradicting the authority of Herodotus, who only denies that any _stranger_ besides Tisamenus and Hegias was ever made a Spartan.(189) Further, it is clear from ancient writers that Pitana, Limnæ, Mesoa, and Cynosura, were names of places. We are best informed with respect to Pitana, an ancient town, and without doubt anterior to the Dorians,(190) which was of sufficient importance to have its own gymnastic contests,(191) and to furnish a battalion of its own, called Pitanates.(192) Herodotus, who was there himself, calls it a demus;(193) and we know that it was near the temple and stronghold of Issorium,(194) which, according to Pausanias’ topography of Sparta, must have been situated at the western extremity of the