Greece from 650-625BC

Papyrus fragment of
poem by Archilochus

Thou should entrust all things to the Gods; often they raise upright those that be laid low on the black earth through misfortunes, and often they overthrow men and lay them on their backs though they stand firm enough; then comes much trouble, and a man wanders in need of food and distraught in mind.
Archilochus quoted in the Stobaeus Anthology (written 400’s AD)

This post will look at Greece and the wider Greek world from the years 650BC to 625BC. Firstly a word as to our sources. By and large, the closer we move to the present, the better the sources become. Archaeology will shed some light on the period, but not much. Archaeology can give information on settlement patterns and occasional destruction levels, but it cannot tell the stories of the people who lived at this time. For this we are reliant on later writings from the classical world.

Unlike the Mesopotamian and Egyptian sources, at least some of which are near contemporary with the events they describe, we have almost no manuscripts from this era, so most of what we hear will be mediated through the words of later writers. This is not necessarily an issue but it should be remembered.

I must reiterate that I am not a professional historian, or any other type of historian for that matter. There are certainly mistakes and errors in the sources and I may make mistakes in my interpretations of these sources. Mistakes are particularly likely to occur when dealing with years, as the years in the ancient world do not necessarily correspond exactly to our own. Even professional historians have differing opinions on the exact ordering of events at this time, so exact precision is not likely here. Also, a lot of events have only approximate dating anyway, so some historians will place an event in 640, while another might say 630 and the truth is no one truly knows. Also, a lot of writers and poets of the time are writing for periods of time. This it can be correct to speak of Archilochus writing poetry around 660BC, but also it is equally correct to say around 648BC.

Later sculpture of Archilochos

I shall begin with a brief summary of what is happening elsewhere in the world during these years.  In China, the Zhou Dynasty was fading into obscurity as the rising feudal lords began to struggle for power. King Xiang of Zhou was the nominal ruler, but was so powerless that he had to be replaced on the throne by one of his dukes after he had been expelled from it. India was in the Later Vedic Period and the states such as Kuru, Panchala, Kosala and Videha were flourishing along the Ganges Plain. These states would later form what are known as the Mahajanapadas. In the Near East, Ashurbanipal was king of Assyria. Ashurbanipal's kingdom was locked in a vicious struggle with the Babylonian uprising led by Ashurbanipal's brother, Shamash-shuma-ukin. Lydia was ruled by Gyges, who had previously sworn allegiance to the Assyrians, but who was now in revolt and facing the Cimmerian steppe tribes. Egypt was led by Pharaoh Psammetichus I (or Psamtik I) who had manoeuvred the Assyrians out of his country. There were many other developments elsewhere, but they will hopefully be covered in later blogs. This should give an overview of some happenings elsewhere at least.

I find that this period of Greek history is rather poorly treated by historians. So many histories make a brief mention of the Greek Dark Ages, before giving a cursory mention to Homer and Hesiod, maybe a brief nod to some of the developments in Athens and Sparta, and then dive straight into the Persian Wars. It is as if the Greeks of Marathon sprung into being fully-fledged, like the fully-grown and fully-armoured Athena springing to life from the cloven head of Zeus. This is not the case and the classical Greeks owed much of their culture to developments in the Dark Ages or Archaic periods. I think the real reason why this period is so seldom studied is that it has no overarching storyline to it. Each state or city has its business and a chronology of the period can devolve into disconnected stories without a narrative. Bearing this in mind, I will try and describe the period as accurately, but also as engagingly, as I can.

Clay toy from Attica 7th century BC

In Greece at the time Eurycrates was the Agiad king of Sparta and either Anaxandridas I or Zeuxidamus was the Eurypontid king of Sparta. Pheidon II was the tyrant of Argos. Myron was tyrant of the Sicilian city of Syracuse. Cypselus was tyrant of Corinth. Thebes and Athens were controlled by aristocracies, probably. The Second Messenian War had possibly finished by this time but, possibly not. The Lelantine War was finishing. Colonisation of Sicily, southern Italy and northern Turkey continued around this time. In Asia Minor, the Ionian cities had conflicts with the newly established Mermnad Dynasty of Gyges and there were also threats from the Cimmerian nomads. The Ionian League had been organised in previous decades to allow the city states of the western coast of present-day Turkey to combine against these threats, but the city states still fought each other occasionally. Such was the state of the Greek world at the beginning of this twenty-five year period.

Around 650 BC the Lelantine War drew to a close, as described in the previous blog on Greece. It had been fought for over five decades by Chalcis and Eretria on the island of Eubeoa and was won by Chalcis? Or maybe it was won by Eretria? No one is really sure. But the two sides had fought themselves to insignificance. Cleomachus of Thessaly had won glory for himself by fighting on the Chalcidian side, but not much else changed as a result of the war.

Later ruins from Himera in Sicily

649 is the traditional date of the foundation of Himera. Himera was a Greek city midway along the northern coast of Sicily and was quite close to the Phoenician settlements being created by the Carthaginians of North Africa. The Greeks and Carthaginians would later clash over this site. But it showed that Greek colonisation was now beginning to clash with Phoenician colonisation. Presumably the original inhabitants of the colonised lands were not thrilled with either set of colonisers.

In the year 648 some people believe the Second Messenian War started. This has been dealt with in a previous post. The dates of this war are very open to speculation, but we have spoken of it previously so I will not write about it twice. In the Olympic Games that year the pankration was added to the games. This was a kind of wrestling, but allowed boxing as well and, like Greek boxing, was quite a vicious sport that only disallowed biting and eye-gouging.

In this Olympic Games Gyges, or possibly Gylis, of Laconia won the stadion race. Myron, the tyrant of the Sicilian city of Syracuse won the chariot race, meaning that he owned the team, not that he raced himself. Crauxidas the Crannonian won the equestrian race. Lygdamis of Syracuse won the newly instituted Pancratium contest and was supposedly a giant of man. It is unusual that the Gyges and Lygdamis were both Olympic winners this year, as they were the Greek names of the Lydian and Cimmerian rulers at that time. Perhaps there was substantial Asian influence on Greece at the time or perhaps there is major confusion in the sources.

At these games, a pancratium contest was added, and the winner was Lygdamis of Syracuse. Lygdamis was massive; he measured out the stadion with his feet, in only six hundred paces.
Eusebius’ Chronicle, written around 330AD

Image from NASA showing eclipse path in 648BC

During this year there was an eclipse and it is probable that this is the eclipse mentioned by Archilochus and possibly referred to by the slightly later Mimnermus. If so, this makes the solar eclipse of on the 6th of April 648 BC the first astronomical observation of European civilisation. Some writers think that this may be referring to another eclipse in 660 however. The Greek record of the eclipse was hardly a scientific observation, as Archilochus merely writes a poem suggesting that all the world is in flux and that before people know it, dolphins will start coming onto the land, so it is not strictly scientific. But it is an observation of sorts nonetheless.

There is nothing in the world unexpected, nothing to be sworn impossible nor yet marvellous, now that Zeus the Father of the Olympians hath made night of noon by hiding the light of the shining Sun so that sore fear came upon mankind. Henceforth is anything whatsoever to be believed or expected. 
Let not one of you marvel, nay, though he see the beasts of the field exchange pasture with the dolphins of the deep, and the roaring waves of the sea become dearer than the land to such as loved the hill.
Archilochus quoted in Aristotle Rhetoric 95-97 written around 330BC

Solar Eclipse

In 645 Archilochus possibly died, fighting for his home island of Paros against the neighbouring island of Naxos. His killer, Calondas was reviled for slaying poet, even though it was a fair death in battle, and Calondas was later rebuked by the oracle at Delphi.

Around this time, Gyges of Lydia died and his country was attacked once again by the Cimmerian barbarians. These also attacked the Greek cities of the coast and the Ephesian poet Callinus, seeing the unexpected taking of the Lydian capital Sardis, exhorted his countrymen to make their stand against the barbarian invaders and fight. A few fragments of his poetry are all that remain to us.

Purpose ye to sit in peace though the land is full of war? … And let every man cast his javelin once more as he dies. For 'tis an honourable thing and a glorious to a man to fight the foe for land and children and wedded wife; and death shall befall only when the Fates ordain it.
Callinus quoted in the Stobaeus Anthology (written 400’s AD)

In 644 the Olympic Games were held, but by the small city of Pisa, rather than the traditional game organisers from the small city of Elis. The Stadion race was won by Stomas of Athens.

Greek Pottery from c.640BC

In 642 Tullus Hostilius is supposed to have died, struck down by the lightning of Jupiter after having made an error in rites that were supposed to placate the angry gods. After an interrex was appointed to govern the time between the kings, the Romans made Ancus Marcius their king. Ancus Marcius was in some ways a compromise between the previous kings, pious Numa and warlike Tullus. He tried to carry out the sacred rites, while at the same time waging war against the neighbouring Latin tribes. Around this time Demaratus of Corinth is supposed to have migrated to Rome and married into the Roman aristocracy, bringing some measures of Greek culture with him. All of the traditions that I have mentioned are preserved from much later sources and, as mentioned in the previous blog, many historians believe that the period of the kings was slightly later, so that all the items I am describing may more likely be placed around fifty or sixty years later. But these are the traditional dates given by Livy so I will follow them here.

Greek Pottery from c.640BC

Tradition records that the king, whilst examining the commentaries of Numa, found there a description of certain secret sacrificial rites paid to Jupiter Elicius: he withdrew into privacy whilst occupied with these rites, but their performance was marred by omissions or mistakes. Not only was no sign from heaven vouchsafed to him, but the anger of Jupiter was roused by the false worship rendered to him, and he burnt up the king and his house by a stroke of lightning.
Livy Ab Urbe Condita (1.31)

In 640 The Olympic Games were held once more, with Sphaerus the Laconian winning the Stadion race and Cylon of Athens winning the longer Diaulos race. We shall hear more of Cylon soon. I am not sure if the Pisans still held control of the Olympic Games or if the Eleans had taken back control at this point.

In cultural affairs, around this time Peisander of Camirus, a city in Rhodes, wrote an epic poem about the labours of Heracles, fixing their number at twelve and enshrining the story and image of the ultimate Greek hero firmly in the consciousness of the Greeks. Sadly, the epic does not survive.

Around this time we have the record of the earliest Greek explorer, albeit a kind of accidental explorer. Colaeus of Samos was supposedly blown off course around this time and was the first Greek that we know of to pass the Straits of Gibraltar (known to the Greeks as the Pillars of Heracles) and travel the Atlantic Ocean. He did not go very far, merely as far as the city of Tartessos and he brought a large cargo of metal back to the city of Phocaea, where they dedicated a tenth of their huge profits to the gods in thanks for their safe travels. It is important to mention that these lands were very much occupied at the time and the Greeks were also following in the footsteps of the Phoenicians in trading with these lands. So no new lands were found, but it is the first exploration of the Greeks that I am aware of.

Figurine of Astarte from Tartessos in south-western
Spain. Possibly Phoenician in origin

They then put out to sea from the island and would have sailed to Egypt, but an easterly wind drove them from their course, and did not abate until they had passed through the Pillars of Heracles and came providentially to Tartessus.
Herodotus Histories: 4:152, written around 440BC

In 636 the Olympic Games were held and the stadion was won by Phrynon of Athens, who would later go on to be an Athenian general. Alternatively, someone with the same name would later go on to become an Athenian general.

Vase from Tartessus region in south-western
Spain. Possibly Phoenician in origin

In 632 The Olympic Games were again held and the stadion was won by Eurycleidas of Laconia. Polyneices of Elis would win the boys stadion race. The competition for the boys was extended with wrestling added to the list of games for them. Hipposthenes of Laconia would win this and later go on to win more Olympic glory in the men’s competitions of later years. A previous winner of the Olympic Games would become notorious during this particular Olympics.

Cylon of Athens, the winner of the diaulos race in 640, had married a daughter of Theagenes, the tyrant of the nearby city of Megara, and had supposedly received a prophecy from the Oracle at Delphi that he would be able to seize control of the city of Athens during a festival of Zeus. Bolstered by the prophecy, Cylon and his followers seized the Acropolis in Athens, hoping that the city would acknowledge Cylon as a ruler of the city. The attempt to install a tyrant failed however. The Athenian people fought back and besieged the followers of Cylon on the Acropolis. Eventually the besieged ran short of food and water, knowing their cause was lost, hid in the temples, with Cylon and his brother making their escape.

Greek votive figure
from 7th century BC

Having clearly lost in their coup attempt, the followers of Cylon petitioned that they would surrender to the judgement of the city, on the provision that their lives were spared. This was granted to them and they exited the temple sanctuaries, where it was ritually forbidden to shed blood. They left the temples expecting to be exiled from the city. To retain the ritual protection of the temples until they were judged they seem to have tied a rope to the temple and gone to the angry citizenry still holding the rope. The Athenians reneged on their promise and murdered Cylon’s surrendering supporters. Some later traditions hold that the rope that carried their ritual protection broke and that this was a sign from the gods that they should be slain. This is not in all of the sources and later events would tend to suggest that this didn’t happen. The attempted coup, siege of the Acropolis and subsequent betrayal and executions are known as the Cylonian Affair.

The people seem to have executed Cylon’s followers on the advice of Megacles, who held the position of Eponymous Archon (the year was named after him). Megacles was a member of the powerful aristocratic family of the Alcmaeonidae and while the Athenians followed his advice in slaying the suppliants, they afterwards regretted this. The Alcmaeonidae were held to have committed a great sacrilege and to have been cursed by the gods. The entire family was banished from Athens in recognition of their sin and even the tombs of their ancestors were exhumed and placed outside the city limits. The curse of the Alcmaeonidae would return to haunt Athens for generations after, as each generation sought to return and reclaim their ancestral rights.

The Athenians who were charged with the duty of keeping guard, when they saw them at the point of death in the temple, raised them up on the understanding that no harm should be done to them, led them out and slew them. Some who as they passed by took refuge at the altars of the awful goddesses were despatched on the spot. From this deed the men who killed them were called accursed and guilty against the goddess, they and their descendants.
Thucydides 1.126, written around 400BC

Skeletal remains of (possibly) Cylon's supporters
Photo taken from here.

Archaeology provides a tantalising insight into the Cylonian Affair, with a mass grave of around eighty skeletons being discovered at Phaleron (just outside Athens). The skeletons have been dated to this time period and have their hands bound with shackles. The mass grave of these shackled prisoners suggests a mass execution and it has been plausibly suggested that these are the graves of Cylon’s followers. But there are other reasons why the state might execute prisoners and not much else of the period is known. In fact the Cylonian Affair is almost the first certain date in Athenian history. So, it is not proved, but it is an interesting possibility.

Later ruins from Selinus in Sicily

In 631, the city of Sinope was founded on the Black Sea, on the northern coast of Asia Minor, although there was probably a city in the region in times previous. The Greek settlement was founded by settlers from Miletus.

Around 630 the city of Cyrene in Libya was founded by Battus, who led a colony from the island of Thera in the Aegean. There are a number of myths and legends surrounding this first colony of the Greeks on the African continent, but all that we can firmly say is that there was a Greek colony founded there around this time. Around this time the Greek city of Selinus was established on the south-western coast of Sicily, facing across the sea towards Carthage. While new cities were being founded, Trapezus, a city later known as Trebizond or Trebzon, was destroyed by the Cimmerian invaders around this time, but was later rebuilt by the Greek colonists. Around this time, once again, an exact date is not possible, the Bellerophon Painter and Lion Painter were active in producing pottery in Attica. They were beginning to use the technique known as Black-Figure pottery, which would go on to be the predominant style of vase-painting for a number of decades.

Later ruins from Cyrene in Libya

Now in the time of Battus the founder of the colony, who ruled for forty years, and of his son Arcesilaus who ruled for sixteen, the inhabitants of Cyrene were no more in number than when they had first gone out to the colony.
Herodotus Histories 4.159, written around 440BC

In 628 the Olympic Games were held, with Olyntheus of Laconia winning the stadion race and Eutelidas the Lacedemonian winning the boys wrestling and boys pentathlon. There was a boys pancratium held this year but this was probably too violent even for the ancient Greeks so this was discontinued. Deutelidas of Laconia won this first and only competition. Perhaps, as it was never held again and thus his record was never broken, Deutelidas is the most successful athlete ever? Possibly not. There is not much more that can be said about this year.

In 627 Cypselus of Corinth, who had forced his way to becoming tyrant of Corinth, died. His son Periander succeeded him. While the tyrants were by their nature above the rule of law and had no clear traditions about succession, many tyrants did in fact hand over their rule to their sons.

Greek Pottery from c.640BC

In 625 the period that we are looking at draws to a close. The Cimmerian threat was receding, as the Lydian kings fought back against the horse nomads. But the rising power of the kings of Lydia would be a threat to the Greek city states in its own right and soon wars would reoccur between them. In cultural terms, poetry and pottery continued to grow in importance, with the poems of Archilochus and his contemporaries being remembered until the decline of classical civilisation. Black-Figure pottery was developing and would continue to develop. In Lydia Ardys II was king. In Sparta, Anaxander was the Agiad king and Anaxidamus or Archidamus I was the Eurypontid king. Periander was the tyrant of Corinth while Athens had resisted the attempted tyranny of Cylon and also expelled the cursed Alcmaeonidae.

The period may not have seen much happening compared to other twenty-five year periods, but it still saw what is arguably the first named European astronomical observations and exploration, as well as a coup attempt, murder and ritual curses in Athens; a city which now re-emerges into history. Such was the state of affairs in the Greek world in 625BC.

Related Blog Posts:
Greece from 675-650BC
650-625BC in the Near East
Greece from 625-600BC

Greece from 675-650BC

Map of Aegean showing city states:
Image from Historical Atlas

Not so many bows shall be stretched nor slings so many slung when the War-God makes his melee in the plain, but then shall be the woeful work of the sword; for this is the sort of battle the spear-famed lords of Euboea are masters in. Thus they cut their hair short so as not to give their enemies a hold of their heads.
Archilochus, writing around 650BC, quoted in Plutarch Life of Theseus: written about 120AD

This period begins to see more sources appear. Titus Livius gives some insights into the early Rome at the time. Pausanias and other later sources give chronological details about timelines in Greece. Do bear in mind that writers such as Pausanias and Strabo are writing geography rather than history and so are more interested in telling the legends of various places than fitting timelines exactly. Later chronicles give insights on some aspects of the period, such as the winners of the Olympic Games. We also have contemporary poets who were active around this time. Fragments of their writings have been preserved and are sometimes quoted in the works of later authors. However, we have almost no original works of these poets and only know them through quotations or paraphrases, so caution must be used here. As I have stressed in the last post about Greece, we have some sources, but great caution must be used with them. And, as always, the reader should remember that all the opinions in this post are my own and should be treated with the scepticism that this statement deserves. For the general state of Greece and the rest of the world it may be useful to look at the previous post in this series to give context.

In 673 in Rome, according to tradition, Numa Pompilius, the second king of Rome, died. Numa had been instrumental in setting up and stabilising Rome after the heady days of Romulus and had founded much of Roman religion. He was viewed as a philosopher king by later writers such as Livy and Plutarch. There was a curious incident in 181 BC when Lucius Petillius discovered some chests with inscriptions claiming to be from the burial place of Numa. The books were taken out and Quintus Petillius, a tribune of the plebs at the time, read the books and said that they must be destroyed. The Romans trusted the word of their tribune and publicly burned the books rather than treating them with respect. It was guessed at by some that the writings would cast doubts upon certain traditions, so rather than destabilise the state the Romans chose to destroy them. Numa was remembered as wise, but the Romans much preferred him as a memory.

Later painting of Numa Pompilius

Each chest had an inscription, in Latin and Greek letters: … that the books of Numa Pompilius were inside. When, on the advice of his friends, the owner had opened the chests, the one which carried the inscription about the buried king was found empty, with no trace of a human body or anything else, everything having been destroyed by the wasting action of so many years. In the other were two bundles, tied with waxed rope, containing seven books each, not merely whole, but looking absolutely fresh. The seven Latin books dealt with pontifical law, the seven Greek with a system of philosophy which might have been current at that time. Valerius Antias adds that they were Pythagorean, confirmation of the common belief, which says that Numa was a pupil of Pythagoras, being arranged by a plausible invention. The books were at first read by the friends who were present; … When, on reading the important contents, he had observed that much of it was subversive of religion, he told Lucius Petilius that he intended to throw those books into the fire; … The senate voted that it seemed sufficient that the praetor promised the oath; that the books should be burned as soon as possible in the comitium; that compensation for the books, whatever seemed proper to Quintus Petilius the praetor and the majority of the tribunes of the people, should be paid to their owner. This the scribe did not accept. The books were burned in the comitium in sight of the people…
Livy 40:29

Later painting of Tullus Hostilius defeating the Veians

We might castigate the Romans for destroying the knowledge, but the books were probably contemporary forgeries. Numa was succeeded by Tullus Hostilius in 673. According to the history of Livy, Tullus Hostilius fought wars with Alba Longa, the old mother-city of Rome. The Albans supposedly besieged the fledgling city and dug a trench around it before retreating. The conflict was then supposedly settled by three warriors from each side fighting to the death. The Romans were victorious and the Albans were forced to join the Romans. But when Rome fought the neighbouring city of Veii, the Albans defected from the Romans. Tullus Hostilius defeated Veii and then destroyed the town of Alba Longa as punishment for the betrayal. The Latin families of Alba Longa were integrated into Rome and became important in later history. A number of Alban customs were brought into Rome as well, including the Vestal Virgins who guarded the temple of Vesta. Tullus Hostilius built a new senate house, the Curia Hostilia to help house the expanded population.

This monarch (Tullus Hostilius) was not only unlike the last, but was actually more warlike than Romulus had been.
Livy, Ab Urbe Condita 1:22, written around 9BC

Orientalising work of a head from this period

All of the legends of ancient Rome should be treated with a fair amount of scepticism. There likely was a person called Tullus Hostilius and Alba Longa was destroyed and integrated into Rome. But all of these things probably happened around 600BC rather than the traditional dates. It is also rather suspicious that both Romulus and Tullus Hostilius both fight with Fidenae and Veii, move people from Alba Longa to Rome, are brought up in rural circumstances and die vaguely supernatural deaths. It is possible that some of the same stories and legends attached themselves to both kings. I will not go into detail on the affairs of Rome but did want to mention them before continuing on with the affairs of Greece.

On either side the soldiers urged on their champions. They reminded them that their fathers' gods, their native land, their parents, and all their countrymen, whether at home or with the army, had their eye only on their swords and their right hands.
Livy, Ab Urbe Condita 1:25, written around 9BC

Greek pottery from the era showing
the myth of the Centauromachy

At the Olympic Games of 672 Eurybus of Athens won the stadion race. Philombrotus the Lacedemonian won the Pentathlon again. Dahippus of Croton took the crown for boxing. The tethrippon, or chariot race, was won by the town of Dyspontium, which would be destroyed some decades later in a war over the Olympic Games. But for now they had their moment of glory and history remembered them.

Around the years 671 the Assyrians took Egypt from the Nubians. This would affect Greek history in that the future Egyptian monarchs would look to hire in outside mercenaries from Greece and Caria, leading to many Greeks visiting Egypt. But for now the Assyrians controlled much of the eastern Mediterranean seaboard and if the Greeks wished to trade, they would have to trade with the Assyrians.

Vase by the Polyphemus Painter
showing the blinding of Polyphemus

From around 670 to 650 the Polyphemus Painter was active in Attica. He was probably a pupil of the Mesogaia Painter and painted mythological scenes from Homer in the Orientalising style of pottery. 

Around the year 668 the Second Messenian War, where the subjugated Messenians under the leadership of Aristomenes, revolted against their Spartan masters, ended in a Spartan victory. The story of the end of the war is worth telling. After the Messenian defeat at the Battle of the Great Foss, Aristomenes had led the Messenians in raid after raid on the Spartans who nevertheless had summoned allies and pursued a scorched earth policy against the Messenian warriors who were besieged on Mount Eira. There was a prophecy that the Messenians would fail once goats drank from a stream on the mountain so of course the Messenians rigorously stopped any goat from grazing in the vicinity. However there was a tree that was in the area that had grown so much that it dipped its branches in the water, and this was interpreted by the Messenian seer as a fulfilment of the prophecy and that their doom was nigh, but only the Messenian commanders were told of this dire news. Knowing that the fate of Messene was lost they buried sacred objects of the ancient city in a hidden place on the mountain that they hoped would one day allow their city to rise again.

Griffin vase from the Cyclades

They had come to Delphi after the disaster at the Trench and asked concerning safety, receiving this reply from the Pythia: “Whensoever a he-goat drinks of Neda's winding stream, no more do I protect Messene, for destruction is at hand.”
Pausanias, Description of Greece 4:20, written around 180BC

For the Messenians possessed a secret thing. If it were destroyed, Messene would be overwhelmed and lost for ever, but if it were kept, the oracles of Lycus the son of Pandion said that after lapse of time the Messenians would recover their country. Aristomenes, knowing the oracles, took it towards nightfall, and coming to the most deserted part of Ithome, buried it on the mountain, calling on Zeus who keeps Ithome and the gods who had hitherto protected the Messenians to remain guardians of the pledge, and not to put their only hope of return into the power of the Lacedaemonians.
Pausanias, Description of Greece 4:20, written around 180BC

A Spartan deserter who was carrying on an affair with the wife of a herdsmen on the mountain overheard that the Messenians had abandoned their posts during a heavy rainstorm and returned to the Spartan kings to tell them that the Messenians were weak. Based on the word of the deserter, the Spartans attacked with all their forces. The Messenians fought back in a desperate battle for freedom. The Messenian women took up arms alongside the men and a furious battle was fought on the slopes of the mountain in the teeth of the gale. But the Spartans had the upper hand and the weight of numbers and eventually the Messenians had to flee, abandoning their last stronghold.

A painting by Franz Caucig showing Aristomenes being freed
by a priestess

The Messenians, when they heard, were filled with desperate courage, and mustering as they happened to be gathered rushed on the Lacedaemonians. … The women dared to take arms, and they too further inflamed the ardour of the men, when they saw their women preferring to perish with their fatherland rather than be taken as slaves to Lacedaemon…
Pausanias, Description of Greece 4:21, written around 180BC

They tried to flee to Arcadia, where Aristocrates was king. Aristocrates had been bribed to betray them in the Battle of the Trench years earlier, but the Messenians and Arcadians were unaware of his treachery. Aristomenes decided upon a sudden surprise attack upon Sparta itself, hoping to seize the city with Arcadian aid. But Aristocrates wrote a letter to the Spartans betraying the plan. His treachery was discovered by the Arcadians who stoned their king to death while Aristomenes refused to partake in the stoning, but merely wept at the treachery of friends.

When this was declared to all, the Arcadians themselves stoned Aristocrates and urged the Messenians to join them. They looked to Aristomenes. But he was weeping, with his eyes fixed on the ground. So the Arcadians stoned Aristocrates to death and flung him beyond their borders without burial, and set up a tablet in the precinct of Zeus Lycaeus with the words: “Truly time hath declared justice upon an unjust king and with the help of Zeus hath easily declared the betrayer of Messene. Hard it is for a man forsworn to hide from God. Hail, king Zeus, and keep Arcadia safe.”
Pausanias, Description of Greece 4:22, written around 180BC

Lower part of a female
figurine from the era

The Messenian cause was doomed. The survivors of the battle fled across the sea or stayed with the Arcadians: But not Aristomenes. He wished to continue on the war, but knew that he would have to find allies. He spoke to the Oracle of Delphi, but what message he was given is not recorded. So he sailed across the Aegean towards Asia hoping to speak to one of the great kings of Asia and bring back an army to crush the Spartans. But his hope was unfulfilled and Aristomenes would do no more harm to Sparta. He died on the island of Rhodes on his way to Lydia and was given a hero’s funeral. Thus ended an extraordinary life and the freedom of the Messenians, who would be treated as slaves for the next centuries. They would rise again, but until Sparta was truly humbled by another power Messene would be in slavery.

Aristomenes, coming to Rhodes with his daughter, purposed to go up from there to Sardis to Ardys the son of Gyges, and to Ecbatana of the Medes to king Phraortes.
Pausanias, Description of Greece 4:24, written around 180BC

If all of this sounds like epic poetry it is because it is. We have few sources for this war and they are quite late. Pausanias writes about it in his geography of Greece, but his source was probably Rhianus of Crete who wrote an epic poem called the Messeniaca. So in other words, the deeds of Aristomenes should be viewed as mostly fiction, although he probably did exist. Rhianus wrote about 200BC and Pausanias wrote about 170AD. Messene was eventually re-founded in 369BC and the epic poetry about Aristomenes was probably from the myths of the returned Messenians, who needed a strong hero figure for their new state. Even if the tales about him are myths, they are myths that show that freedom is worth fighting for and that the chains that bind will not bind forever. So I have thought them worth recording here.

There is also the tomb of Aristomenes here. They say that it is not a cenotaph, but when I asked whence and in what manner they recovered the bones of Aristomenes, they said that they sent to Rhodes for them, and that it was the god of Delphi who ordered it. They also instructed me in the nature of the rites carried out at the tomb. The bull which is to be offered to the dead man is brought to the tomb and bound to the pillar which stands upon the grave. Being fierce and unused to bonds he will not stand; and if the pillar is moved by his struggles and bounds, it is a good omen to the Messenians, but if the pillar is not moved the sign portends misfortune.
Pausanias, Description of Greece 4:32, written around 180BC

Corinthian Alabaster jar from the period

The people of Messene were enslaved for the next centuries, along with the other conquered regions of the Peloponnese and would form the helot population. Helots were like feudal serfs, but were not free and had few rights. There were regular beatings and ritual humiliations. A Spartan secret society, probably established in later centuries, would murder the most enterprising helots to discourage rebellion and the Spartan state itself would occasionally carry out mass executions if they thought a rebellion was imminent. Sparta has been mythologised by history, but the Spartan state was a brutal slave state that required mass subjugation to function. All the Greek states held slaves, but the Spartan system was particularly heinous.

In the same year as the end of the Second Messenian War, 668BC, the Spartans supposedly fought the Argives at Hysiae. All that is known is that Argos was victorious, possibly the last victory that Argos unaided won against Sparta. It is said that Pheidon was tyrant of Argos at the time. He had been a king of Argos, which was a mostly ceremonial position, before enlisting the support of the people to become a popular ruler unfettered by rules or the powerful aristocrats. He was a good example of the trend towards popular autocratic rulers that was occurring in Greece. With city-states being very small entities (even the larger states only numbered in the tens of thousands), it was possible for a single charismatic individual to overthrow the existing social order, usurp power and rule without the law.

Here are common graves of the Argives who conquered the Lacedaemonians in battle at Hysiae.1 This fight took place, I discovered, when Peisistratus was archon at Athens, in the fourth year of the twenty-seventh Olympiad, in which the Athenian, Eurybotus, won the foot-race. On coming down to a lower level you reach the ruins of Hysiae, which once was a city in Argolis, and here it is that they say the Lacedaemonians suffered their reverse.
Pausanias, Description of Greece 2:24, written around 180BC

The Greek word tyrannos described these rulers and originally had few negative connotations but soon the excesses of these men led to tyrant becoming a word of ill omen. The word itself may not even be Greek and may be of Lydian extraction. Gyges of Lydia, as a usurper of the throne ruling at this time, might have been seen as a tyrant and was referenced by the Greek poets.

Later painting by Jean-Leon Gerome showing
the legend of Candaules, his queen and Gyges

I care not for the wealth of golden Gyges, nor ever have envied him; I am not jealous of the works of gods, and I have no desire for lofty despotism; for such things are far beyond my ken.
Archilochus, writing around 650, referenced in Aristotle’s Rhetoric, written around 330BC

So the Argives led by Pheidon II defeated the Spartans in what was probably a full hoplite battle. The continuing Lelantine War and the Messenian Wars saw the Greeks move from unorganised skirmishing to full hoplite battles, determined by heavily armed infantry pushing at each other with spears until one side broke their formation, threw down their heavy shields and ran.

Some have spoken of the Battle of Hysiae as the first proper hoplite battle and assumed that Pheidon invented hoplite warfare. Others have questioned whether the battle ever took place. Others have speculated that the dates of the Second Messenian War are wrong and that a Spartan defeat by the Argives triggered the Second Messenian War. Pausanias records that the war ended in 668 but if it instead began in 668 it would end in 651 instead. This is quite plausible, as the poet Tyrtaeus is associated with the war and he seems to have been active in the 640’s rather than the 660’s.

So let each man bite his lip and abide firm-set astride upon the ground, covering with the belly of his broad buckler thighs and legs below and breast and shoulders above; let him brandish the massy spear in his right hand, let him wave the dire crest upon his head; let him learn how to fight by doing doughty deeds, and not stand shield in hand beyond the missiles. Nay, let each man close the foe, and with his own long spear, or else with his sword, wound and take an enemy, and setting foot beside foot, resting shield against shield, crest beside crest, helm beside helm, fight his man breast to breast with sword or long spear in hand.
Tyrtaeus, writing around 650BC, quoted in Stobaeus’ Anthology, written around 400AD

Pottery jar from Thera from this period

The Second Messenian War saw Sparta begin to change from a fairly luxurious state (after all they had so many slaves so the Spartans were wealthy) to a society that scorned material goods and kept itself in a constant state of readiness. There were still traces of luxury to be found at the end of the century, but the state of Sparta could be typified by the poems of Tyrtaeus. Tyrtaeus was an Athenian poet who supposedly came to Sparta during the Second Messenian War and wrote poems praising the martial spirit of the victors. While we only have fragments of his work, Tyrtaeus is one of the earliest Greek poets known to us.

Such a man is good in war; he quickly turneth the savage hosts of the enemy, and stemmeth the wave of battle with a will; moreover he that falleth in the van and loseth dear life to the glory of his city and his countrymen and his father, with many a frontwise wound through breast and breastplate and through bossy shield, he is bewailed alike by young and old, and lamented with sore regret by all the city. His grave and his children are conspicuous among men, and his children's and his line after them; nor ever doth his name and good fame perish,…
Tyrtaeus, writing around 650BC, quoted in Stobaeus’ Anthology, written around 400AD

We know almost nothing of the man save the traditions around him and what can be gleaned of his work. It was assumed he came from Athens to fulfil a prophecy that an Athenian would lead Sparta to victory. He is said to have been lame and possibly mad and that he was sent to the Spartans by Athens as an insult. Instead of being useless he is supposed to have composed lyric poetry to stir the martial spirit of the Spartans, bind up their differences and lead them to victory. All of this is later conjecture. We have no complete works of Tyrtaeus and he may simply have been a later Spartan writer who composed poetry about the wars. Regardless of Tyrtaeus’ dates and the influence of his poetry in the formation of Spartan warrior culture he was a poet who was active in this century.

Small terracotta heads from Crete

But in a moment one and all together shall we be wielding the flail, standing up to spearmen; and dire will be the din when both sides clash rounded shield against rounded shield, and awful the shrieks as they fall one upon another, piercing men's breasts with the spear; and no whit will they draw back for the pounding of the missiles, nay, despite the battery of great hurlstones, the helms shall abide the rattle of war unbowed.
Tyrtaeus, writing around 650BC, from a 3rd Century BC papyrus

From myth, war and poetry we turn to sport. Chionis of Laconia won the stadion foot race in 668 beginning a phenomenal winning streak that would become almost mythical itself. But we shall speak more of Chionis later. Philombrotus the Lacedaemonian won the pentathlon for the third Olympiad in a row, finishing a twelve year winning streak and gaining yet more laurels for Sparta. Between the Olympics, the Battle of Hysiae and the end of the Second Messenian War, 668 was an eventful year.

Greek vase from the period showing
the myth of Theseus and the Minotaur

In 667 according to the traditional date some Megarians wished to found a colony. Going to the oracle of Delphi they were told to found a city in “the land opposite the city of the blind”. Sailing towards the Black Sea and passing through the Bosphorus the Megarians found what they were looking for. Byzas, son of King Nisos of Megara, noted that the city of Chalcedon was sited in a bad location, as the currents drove the ships and fish shoals away from their harbour on the Asian side of the straits towards a peninsula that could be easily fortified and that could be an outpost at the mouth of the Black Sea. The Megarians settled across the straits from the “blind” Chalcedonians, Byzas married the daughter of a Thracian king, to make peace with the locals, and the city was named after him: Byzantium. Byzantium would arguably go on to be the greatest of all the cities of Greek civilisation and still stands today as the largest city in Europe (depending on how it is measured of course).

Hence the saying that Apollo, when the men who founded Byzantium at a time subsequent to the founding of Chalcedon by the Megarians consulted the oracle, ordered them to “make their settlement opposite the blind,” thus calling the Chalcedonians “blind”, because, although they sailed the regions in question at an earlier time, they failed to take possession of the country on the far side, with all its wealth, and chose the poorer country.
Strabo Geography 7.6, written around 23AD

In 664 Psamtik I (or Psammetichus) came to the throne in Egypt. He would be an inquisitive and capable Pharaoh. He may have conducted quasi-scientific experiments and would certainly be a friend to the Greeks. Slightly later in his reign he was supposedly counselled to seek the help of “bronze men” to help him fight his wars. Seeing some shipwrecked Greek and Carian pirates on the shores of his lands he noticed their heavy armour and enlisted them as mercenaries, beginning a relationship between the Egyptian Pharaohs and Greek mercenaries that would span for centuries.

Island of Amorgos
where Semonides hailed from

Also in the year 664 in the Olympic Games, the great athlete Chionis of Laconia won the stadion race for the second time, but this time, also won the diaulos race as well.

Around this time the poet Semonides of Amorgos flourished. Only fragments of his work remain and a lot of the stories about him are probably associated with a later poet called Simonides of Ceos. The two names are spelled the same in the original Greek, but modern scholars spell them slightly differently to avoid confusion. He was a Samian who was involved in the colonisation of Amorgos (an island in the southern Aegean). Like his contemporary Archilochus he was a great poet, but could be viciously sarcastic at times. One of the longest fragments of his work is a long diatribe about how women are awful. In a culture that was only beginning to move towards the written word, the spoken word was a powerful tool and the tongue could be sharper than the sword.

In the beginning God made woman's mind apart from man's. One he made a bristly Sow; all that is in her house lies disorderly, defiled with dirt, and rolling upon the floor, and she grows fat sitting among the refuse heaps in garments as unwashed as herself. Another did God make of a knavish Vixen, a woman knowing in all things, who taketh note of all, be it bad or good; for the bad often she calls good and the good bad; and she hath now this mood and now that.
Semonides, writing around 650BC, quoted in Stobaeus’ Anthology, written around 400AD

Later sculpture of Archilochus

Archilochus also flourished around this period. He was a poet from the island of Paros and was involved in the colonisation of Thasos. He is probably the first Greek poet of note after Homer and Hesiod and Semonides and Tyrtaeus were probably his younger contemporaries. He had a sarcastic wit and would happily make fun of himself. One of his most quoted poems has him fighting in a battle, getting scared, dropping his shield and running away.

The shield I left because I must, poor blameless armour! Beside a bush, it gives joy now to some Saian, but myself I have saved. What care I for that shield? It shall go with a curse. I'll get me another just as good.
Archilochus writing around 650BC, quoted in Plutarch’s Spartan Institutions: written around AD110

He wrote a poem describing the beginnings of the Trojan War, the fragments of which were only discovered in modern times. He was revered by the Greeks, but his invectives were feared, as he was reputed to have fallen in love with a woman and when her father broke his word and gave his daughter in marriage to another that Archilochus began to write poems against them. His poems were apparently so vicious that the father and his daughters (and possibly the suitor) all hung themselves. This is probably a later tale based on some scurrilous poem that is no longer preserved.

It should be noted that literature has many cases of self-hanging for grief, and this was the death, according to the old story, of the daughters of Lycambes, who could not withstand the onslaught of the satire of Archilochus.
Eustathius, On the Odyssey, written around 1190AD

Papyrus fragment of
poem by Archilochus

He happily wrote about sex and used kingfishers as a loosely veiled sexual metaphor. This connection is preserved by having the genus of the hummingbird named after Archilochus. He was supposedly killed by a Naxian when he returned to Paros sometime after 648. Even though the death had been a fair one in battle, Calondas, the slayer, was refused entry to the oracle at Delphi, for having slain the servant of the Muses. Such was Archilochus.

Stand and look at Archilochus, the old maker of iambic verse, whose infinite renown hath spread both to utmost East and furthest West. Sure the Muses and Delian Apollo liked him well, such taste and skill had he to bring both to the framing of the words and to the singing of them to the lyre.
Palatine Anthology, written around 600AD

In 660 Corcyra, a Corinthian colony on the island now known as Corfu, defeated Corinth in a sea battle. The dates are sketchy and this may have happened in 665 instead. But it is worth remembering, as this is probably the first recorded sea battle of the Greeks.

Again, the earliest sea-fight in history was between the Corinthians and Corcyraeans; this was about two hundred and sixty years ago, dating from the same time.
Thucydides, The Peloponnesian War 1:13

Around the year 660, the city of Magnesia was attacked and destroyed by the Cimmerians. Possibly they had been fighting Gyges the Lydian previously and had moved on, or possibly were working in league with the Lydian king. However, it was a sign that the Greek colonisation of the coastlands of Asia was not to be without conflict from the more powerful tribes and kingdoms of the interior. Gyges himself had fought with the Greeks, attacking Miletus and Smyrna and taking Colophon.

Around this time the tyrant Pheidon II of Argos standardised weights and measures and some of these were adopted in other city states as well. The later writer Ephorus says that he invented coinage as well, but that is almost certainly untrue.

Painting by Jacques Louis David showing the wooing
of Helen by Paris

Also around this time other Greek poets began to try and fill in the gaps in Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey by writing epic poems of their own to describe other parts of the Trojan War. Lesches may have written the “Little Iliad” around this time, describing the contest between Odysseus and Aias for the armour of Achilles and the building of the Wooden Horse. Stasinus is said to have written the “Cypria” around this time as well, which described Paris’ abduction of Helen and other events leading up to the war. Other items in the Epic Cycle should probably be dated to around this time as well, such as the Aethiopis, Iliupersis, Nostoi and Telegony. But little can be said of these works save that they once existed, as we have only summaries and fragments.

There was a time when the countless tribes of men, though wide-dispersed, oppressed the surface of the deep-bosomed earth, and Zeus saw it and had pity and in his wise heart resolved to relieve the all-nurturing earth of men by causing the great struggle of the Ilian war, that the load of death might empty the world. And so the heroes were slain in Troy, and the plan of Zeus came to pass.
Scholiast on Homer (from the Cypria), Il. i. 5

Island of Paros where Archhilochus hailed from

In 657 Cypselus became tyrant of Corinth. In the previous century Corinth had been ruled by kings but these had been overthrown by an aristocratic family called the Bacchiadae. There are legends about Cypselus, that there had been a prophecy that he would overthrow the Bacchiadae and that soldiers had been sent to kill him, but had refused to murder the baby. Instead Cypselus was hidden in a chest and his life preserved. The chest was later devoted to the temple at Olympia and was still shown centuries later. This tale is likely to have been a later myth to explain Cypselus’ name (which means “chest”) and is rather too similar to the stories of Perseus, Sargon of Akkad and Moses. He was more likely a usurper who took advantage of the fact that Corinth was fighting and losing wars at the time to seize power for himself.

When he was a new-born babe, smiled at the men who had been sent to make away with him, and they turned away. And when again they changed their minds, they sought for him and found him not, for he had been put away in a chest by his mother. It was because of this that Cypselus constructed the building at Delphi, firmly believing that the god had at that time stopped his crying so that he might escape the notice of those who were searching for him.
Plutarch, Septem sapientium convivium 21, written about 120AD

Weights used to aid long jumpers in the ancient Olympics

In 656 Chionis of Laconia once again dominated the ancient Olympics winning both the stadion and the diaulos races. He supposedly leaped a long-jump distance that placed him as the world record holder up until 1952 when his record was beaten after an impressive 2,608 years. His records in the Olympics of the ancient world (mainly in the racing) were not equalled until 480 when a another athlete won similar glory, as well as winning the hoplite race. But the Spartans then erected a stela in Olympia to note that the only reason Chionis had not also won the hoplite race was because it was not invented yet. Whatever the truth of the measurements attributed to him, Chionis of Laconia must have been an incredible athlete.

29th Olympiad [664 B.C.] - Chionis of Laconia, stadion race. Chionis could leap a distance of 22 feet.
Eusebius’ Chronicle, written around 330AD

In 652 Cratinus of Megara won the stadion footrace, finally ending the dominance of Chionis, and Comaeus of Megara won the boxing competition. There is not much else to say of this year.

Corinthian alabaster jar from the period

Around this time the first proper temple of Apollo was erected at Delphi. Also, around this time period a noble of Megara called Theagenes asked the people of Megara for a bodyguard to protect him against his aristocratic enemies. He was granted one, whereupon he promptly and predictably used it to take over the city and make himself tyrant. He then took the wealth of the rich and distributed it to the poor, including using their livestock for feasts.

For example, to prove that Dionysius is aiming at a tyranny, because he asks for a bodyguard, one might say that Pisistratus before him and Theagenes of Megara did the same, and when they obtained what they asked for made themselves tyrants. … All these examples are contained under the same universal proposition; that one who is aiming at a tyranny asks for a bodyguard.
Aristotle Rhetoric 1.2 written around 330BC

Around 650 the long Lelantine War finally came to a close. The two sides were fighting over the Lelantine Plain, a small plain between Chalcis and Eretria. The war had apparently gone on for over fifty years and was either fought in a ritual manner or have seen many truces and ceasefires over that time. The small town of Lefkandi in the plain was abandoned during this time, as the Eretrians must have moved away from it. While both sides apparently abstained from using javelins and arrows during the war, they did use cavalry and the Chalcidians thought that the Eretrian cavalry was better. Both sides had allies so the Chalcidians called a nobleman called Cleomachus of Pharsalus to aid them. Cleomachus was from Thessaly and brought some cavalry warriors with him. The two sides met in battle and the Thessalian cavalry prevailed, although their leader Cleomachus died. Cleomachus was homosexual and had his lover with him in the battle. When Cleomachus died he was given a hero’s funeral and it is possible that the memory of his heroism helped shape positive Greek attitudes towards homosexuality.

In the heat of the war between the Chalcidians and the Eretrians, Cleomachus went with the Thessalian force to aid the Chalcidians; at what time it was evident that the Chalcidians were the stronger in foot, but they found it a difficult thing to withstand the force of the enemies' horse. Thereupon they requested Cleomachus, being their confederate and a man signalized for his courage, to give the first onset upon the enemies' cavalry. Presently the youth whom he most entirely loved being present, he asked him whether he would stay and be a spectator of the combat.
Plutarch Amatorius 17, written around 120AD

This Chalcidian victory is supposed to have ended the war but it is not clear exactly who won. Chalcis and Eretria were by now unimportant cities among the Greek states. Other cities such as Sparta, Corinth and Miletus were now far more influential and powerful. So the long war trailed off to an end, with both sides the losers.

Greek pottery from this period

However, Cleomachus was there slain, and the Chalcidians show his monument erected in the market-place, with a fair pillar standing upon it to this day
Plutarch Amatorius 17, written around 120AD

So the twenty-five year period that we were looking at comes to a close. The Second Messenian War was over and Sparta was shaken but strong. The Lelantine War had brought ruin to its participants in exchange for fleeting glory and a footnote in the history books. There was glory in the contests of Olympia and scattered outbreaks of poetry. The founding of new cities continued, while many of the old cities began to ditch their traditional government in favour of the rule of tyrants. Such is the record of the period.

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