MESSENE, an ancient Greek city, capital of Messenia, founded in 369 B.C., after the battle of Leuctra and the first Theban invasion of the Peloponnese, by the combined Theban and Argive armies and exiled Messenians, invited to found a state independent of Sparta. The site, chosen by Epameinondas, lay on the western slope of the mountain which dominates the Mes senian plain. The peak Ithome (2,630 ft.) served as acropolis. Messene remained important under the Romans, but we hear nothing of it in mediaeval times. The hamlet of Mavromati occu pies a small part of the site.
Pausanias describes the city, its temples and statues, its springs, its market-place and gymnasium, its place of sacrifice, the tomb of Aristomenes (q.v.) and the temple of Zeus Ithomatas on the summit of the acropolis. What chiefly excited wonder were the fortifications of Messene, which excelled all others of the Greek world. Of the wall, some 51 m. in extent, considerable portions remain. Almost the entire circuit can still be traced. The wall
is flanked by towers about 31 ft. high: these have two storeys and are entered by doors on a level with the top of the wall reached by flights of steps. Of the gates only two can be located, the eastern or Laconian, and the northern or Arcadian gate. The theatre, the stadium, the council chamber or bouleuterion, and the propylaeum of the market also remain, while on the shoulder of the mountain are the foundations of a small temple, probably that of Artemis Laphria.
See E. Curtius, Peloponnesos, ii. 538 sqq.; W. M. Leake, Travels in the Morea, i. 366 sqq.; J. G. Frazer, Pausanias's Description of Greece, iii. 429 sqq.; W. G. Clark, Peloponnese, 232 sqq.; A. Blouet, Exped. scient. de Mot*: Architecture, i. 37-42, Plates 38-47 ; E. P. Boblaye, Recherches geogr. sur les ruines de la Moree, 507 sqq.; C. Bursian, Geographic von Griechenland, ii. 165 sqq.