The first was dignified by the fate of the Messenian hero Aristodemus, and the fall of the rocky fortress of Ithome; its result was the conquest of Messenia (probably begun 743 B.C., ended 723); the inhabitants were compelled to an oath of submission, and to surrender to Sparta half their agricultural produce.

After the first Messenian war, Tarentum was founded by a Spartan colony, composed, it is said, of youths [147], the offspring of Spartan women and Laconian men, who were dissatisfied with their exclusion from citizenship, and by whom the state was menaced with a formidable conspiracy shared by the Helots.

Meanwhile, the Messenians, if conquered, were not subdued.

Years rolled away, and time had effaced the remembrance of the past sufferings, but not of the ancient [148] liberties.
It was among the youth of Messenia that the hope of the national deliverance was the most intensely cherished.

At length, in Andania, the revolt broke forth.