ARISTOMENES, THE HERO OF
MESSENTA,

We have told by what means the Spartans grew
to be famous warriors. We have now to tell one
of the ancient stories of how they used their war-
like prowess to extend their dominions. Laconia,
their country, was situated in the southeast section
of the Peloponnesus, that southern peninsula which
is attached to the remainder of Greece by the narrow
neck of land known as the Isthmus of Corinth. Their
capital city was anciently called Lacedemon; it was
later known as Sparta. In consequence they are
called in history both Spartans and Lacedemonians.

In the early history of the Spartans they did not
trouble themselves about Northern Greece. They
had enough to occupy them in the Peloponnesus.
As the Romans, in after-time, spent their early
centuries in conquering the small nations immedi-
ately around them, so did the Spartans. And the
first wars of this nation of soldiers seem to have
been with Messenia, a small country west of Laconia,
and extending like it southward into the blue waters
of the Mediterranean Sea.

There were two wars with the Messenians, both
full of stories of daring and disaster, but it is the
second of these with which we are specially con-

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