Ancient Messene, Peloponnese, Greece: A City Forged in Liberty

Ancient Messene lies in a broad and fertile valley beneath the imposing slopes of Mount Ithome in the southwestern Peloponnese. Above the archaeological site, the stone houses of the traditional village of Mavrommati cling to the hillside, while below, olive groves and cultivated fields spread across the Messenian landscape.

It is a beautiful setting for one of the most impressive ancient cities in Greece.

Yet Messene is remarkable for more than the scale and preservation of its ruins. Unlike many ancient cities that grew gradually over centuries, Classical Messene was deliberately founded at a particular moment in history. Its creation in 369 BCE was closely bound to the liberation of the Messenian people after centuries of Spartan domination.

Human settlement around Mount Ithome was far older. Archaeological evidence extends back to the Late Neolithic or Early Bronze Age, while sanctuaries associated with Zeus Ithomatas, Artemis, Asklepios, and the local heroine Messene existed long before the Classical city was established. The mountain itself had enormous strategic and religious importance and served as one of the great natural fortresses of Messenia.

For centuries, however, the history of the region was dominated by its struggle with neighbouring Sparta.

Following the Messenian Wars, much of Messenia came under Spartan control. Its fertile agricultural lands became an important foundation of Spartan power, while many Messenians were reduced to the status of helots. Yet Messenian identity was never entirely extinguished. Revolts and resistance continued, and Mount Ithome itself became a powerful symbol of that endurance.

Everything changed in 371 BCE.

At the Battle of Leuctra in central Greece, the great Theban general Epaminondas inflicted a devastating defeat upon the Spartans, breaking the military supremacy they had exercised over much of Greece. Two years later, Epaminondas entered Messenia and helped establish a new, independent Messenian state. At its centre would stand a new capital, Messene.

The founding of the city must have been an extraordinary event.

According to the ancient traveller Pausanias, sacrifices and prayers accompanied the selection and dedication of the site before construction began. Messenians whose families had lived in exile were able to return to the land of their ancestors, while architects, craftsmen and labourers participated in creating a new city beneath Mount Ithome. Ancient tradition records the remarkable speed of the undertaking, with the great fortifications reportedly completed in only 85 days.

Messene was therefore much more than another new Greek city.

Its walls, temples, public buildings, and streets represented the physical restoration of a people who had regained their independence. Even the name carried meaning. The city was named for Messene, the mythical queen and ancestral heroine from whom the Messenians traced their identity.

The city was laid out according to the Hippodamian system of town planning, with streets crossing one another in an organised geometric grid. Rather than allowing buildings to develop haphazardly, residential areas, sanctuaries and public spaces were incorporated into an ordered urban plan adapted to the natural contours of the valley. UNESCO describes Messene as an exceptionally well-preserved example of this approach to ancient Greek city planning.

One of the first impressions of Ancient Messene is its enormous scale.

The fortification walls extended for approximately 9.5 kilometres, enclosing not only the urban centre but part of Mount Ithome itself. Constructed from massive blocks of local limestone, they were strengthened by a succession of square and circular towers. Pausanias, who visited Messene in the second century AD, regarded its fortifications as among the strongest he had encountered.

The magnificent Arcadian Gate remains one of their most memorable surviving sections.

Situated on the western side of the city, it controlled the ancient road towards Megalopolis in Arcadia. The gateway comprised an extraordinary circular inner court flanked by massive defensive towers, with entrances opening both towards the city and the countryside beyond. Even in its ruined state, its enormous stone blocks convey something of the confidence with which the newly independent Messenians fortified their capital.

Inside the walls, the city contained an extraordinary collection of buildings associated with almost every aspect of ancient urban life: religion, politics, commerce, entertainment, education, athletics, and commemoration.

Among the most impressive is the ancient theatre, constructed during the third century BCE. Its great semicircular auditorium rises against the natural slope of the landscape, overlooking an orchestra and stage area that evolved considerably during the theatre’s long history. The theatre remained in use until the fourth century AD and served not only for performances but also for political gatherings and important civic events.

During the Roman period, the theatre was transformed. In the second century AD, an imposing three-storey stone stage building replaced the earlier arrangements, giving the monument the more elaborate appearance associated with Roman theatrical architecture. Six seats of honour for distinguished spectators stood around the orchestra, while inscriptions left on the stonework preserve smaller traces of the lives of those who passed through the building.

The theatre also witnessed moments of political drama that had nothing to do with actors.

In 214 BCE, Philip V of Macedon and the influential statesman Aratus of Sicyon met at Messene following serious political unrest in the city. Aratus urged the Macedonian king towards restraint at a moment when Philip was tempted to take control of the Messenian stronghold. The episode places the theatre within the turbulent politics of the Hellenistic world, when Messene found itself navigating the ambitions of Macedon, the Achaean League, and other competing powers.

Nearby lay the Agora, the great civic centre of Messene.

Established in the third century BCE, it occupied an enormous area surrounded by stoas and contained buildings associated with political, religious, and commercial life. At its centre stood a temple dedicated to the mythical queen Messene. Other buildings included the council house, administrative structures, and spaces connected with the city’s markets.

One particularly dark episode in Messenian history is also connected with this area.

In 183 BCE, Philopoemen of Megalopolis, the celebrated Achaean general and statesman, was captured by the Messenians. He was imprisoned in an underground chamber associated with the Agora and forced to take poison. His death became one of the most famous political episodes of the later Hellenistic Peloponnese.

The religious and political heart of Ancient Messene was the extraordinary Asklepieion.

It is said the city was built in 80 days and it follows the famous Hippodamian system in town planning.

Built principally around 215–214 BCE, the sanctuary was arranged around a large rectangular courtyard bordered by double stoas. At its centre stood the Doric Temple of Asklepios and its altar, surrounded by an extraordinary collection of buildings, statues, and smaller cult spaces.

This was not simply a healing sanctuary like the more famous Asklepieion at Epidaurus.

At Messene, Asklepios was revered as an ancestral figure of the Messenian people, and the sanctuary combined religion with civic identity and political administration. Around its courtyard were spaces associated with the council, archives, and public assembly, as well as shrines dedicated to gods, heroes, and personifications important to the city. UNESCO has described it as an unusual combination of sacred sanctuary and civic agora.

Sculpture also enriched the complex.

Among the artists represented was Damophon of Messene, one of the most significant Greek sculptors of the Hellenistic period and himself a prominent citizen of the city. Monumental figures of gods and heroes once occupied the sanctuary, reinforcing the close relationship between religion, civic pride and Messenian identity.

Further downhill lies perhaps the most visually striking part of Ancient Messene: the magnificent Stadium and Gymnasium complex.

Constructed and developed from the Hellenistic period onwards, the stadium stretches through the valley in a remarkable setting surrounded by long Doric colonnades. Stone seating curves around one end of the running track, while the neighbouring gymnasium and palaestra formed part of a larger complex devoted to physical training, education and the transition of young Messenians into adult civic life.

Statues of gods, heroes, intellectuals, and civic benefactors once lined the colonnades. Nearby stood funerary monuments commemorating prominent citizens and families, including the impressive Mausoleum of the Saithidai. Athletic training, religion, education, and remembrance therefore existed side by side in one carefully planned landscape.

Games were held in the stadium in honour of Asklepios, Zeus Ithomatas and, during the Roman period, the emperors. Young men trained in the gymnasium over a period of years, preparing not simply as athletes but as future citizens of Messene.

The city’s history did not end with the decline of independent Greece.

Messene continued to flourish through the Roman period, when villas, baths, and new architectural additions appeared alongside the older Greek monuments. The city remained occupied into late antiquity. Following destructive Gothic incursions during the fourth century AD, a Christian settlement emerged among the ancient ruins, eventually becoming an episcopal centre. Life in the area continued in various forms for many centuries.

Part of what makes Ancient Messene so remarkable today is that a later modern city was never constructed directly over its centre. Extensive areas of the ancient landscape therefore remained accessible to archaeology rather than disappearing beneath later streets and buildings.

The city’s history is now better understood thanks to modern excavations.

Archaeological investigation began in the nineteenth century and continued through the work of figures including Themistoklis Sofoulis, Georgios Oikonomou and Anastasios Orlandos. From 1986, archaeologist Petros Themelis led an extraordinary programme of excavation, conservation and restoration under the Archaeological Society at Athens. Over the following decades, monuments were painstakingly studied and, where possible, partially reconstructed, allowing the ancient city to become far more comprehensible to visitors.

The result is an archaeological landscape unlike almost any other in Greece.

At many ancient sites, isolated temples or monuments survive while the cities that once surrounded them have almost completely disappeared. At Messene, it is still possible to understand the relationship between the theatre, agora, sanctuaries, public buildings, stadium, gymnasium, streets, tombs and immense fortification walls.

Even in ruins, the place resembles a city.

In 2014, the Archaeological Site of Ancient Messene was placed on Greece’s UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List. Its nomination recognises not only the exceptional preservation of individual monuments but also the survival of an unusually complete ancient urban landscape and its close relationship with the surrounding natural environment.

Yet perhaps the most powerful aspect of Messene lies in the reason the city existed.

The great walls, theatre, sanctuaries and stadium were not created merely to display wealth or architectural ambition. They belonged to a people re-establishing themselves on their ancestral land after generations of Spartan domination.

That history gives the ruins a character quite different from many other ancient Greek cities.

Mount Ithome still rises above them. The valley remains fertile. Olive trees grow between ancient roads and fallen stones, while the long colonnades of the stadium once again define the landscape after centuries of abandonment.

Ancient Messene is impressive because so much of the city survives. But its deeper significance lies in what the city represented.

It was a declaration, built in stone, that the Messenians had returned.

Two thousand years have elapsed, and Mount Ithome continues to watch over their enduring city.

View a selection of images of Ancient Messene

All text, images and content © Steven Sklifas.