The most famous and important city of the region was, of course, Messene, settled by Epaminondas immediately after Messenia's liberation from Sparta. Such a foundation made excellent sense, establishing a fortified urban center as a check against future Spartan aggression. Indeed, Epaminondas also founded another strong and hostile presence on Sparta's borders, Megalopolis (literally 'Great City') in Arcadia. Yet the creation of Messene was more than just a smart political and military ploy. A description of the foundation ceremony is reported by Pausanias, who travelled and wrote a guide book to Greece in the second century A.D.:
...Epaminondas, as the place where the Messenians now in fact have their city seemed to him right for the settlement, ordered an inquiry by the prophets, whether the divine powers would wish to come there. The prophets said the sacrifical omens were favorable, so he got read to build. He ordered stone to be fetched, and sent for craftsmen who knew how to law out streets and build houses and sanctuaries, and draw the circle of fortifications. When everything was ready then the Arcadians produced victims, and Epaminondas and his Thebans sacrificed to Dionysos and Ismenian Apollo in their traditional style, and the Argives to Hera of Argos and Nemean Zeus, the Messenians to Zeus of Ithome and the Dioskouroi, and the priests to the Great goddesses and to Kaukon. Then they called out together to the divine heroes to return and live with them, particularly to Triopas's daughter Messene, and Eurytos and aphareus and their children, and to Kresphontes and Aipytos of the children of Herakles. But the greatest and most universal cry was to Aristomenes. They spent that day in sacrifices and prayers, and on the following days they erected the encircling way and built houses and sanctuaries inside it.... The Messenians return to the Peloponnese and recovered their inheritance two hundred and eighty-seven years after the fall of Eira, when Dyskinetos was governor of Athens, in the third year after the hundred and second Olympics, when Damon of Thourioi won for the second time (4.27.5-9)
Invoking the gods, summoning the heroes (including a legendary fighter for Messenian freedom, Aristomenes) transformed the creation of Messene into a highly charged symbolic event, marking a stunning reversal of fortune and returning the Messenian people to the political map of Greece.
The site chosen for Messene -- incorporating Mount Ithome -- was also symbolically as well as strategically appropriate, for Ithome, and its mountain-top sanctuary of Zeus Ithomatas, had long served as the refuge and 'heart' of Messenian territory. The walls of Messene embraced not only the acropolis of Ithome and the 'built-up' town, but a considerable area of countryside as well -- the wall line is some nine kilometers long. Such an 'enceinte' walling system became popular in the fourth century B.C., for it allowed natural defenses to be exploited (in this case the heights and ridges of Ithome) as well as protecting agricultural lands which could feed an urban populace in case of siege. The walls of Messene, all stone-built to a height of some 7 to 9 meters, are agreed to be among the sophisticated defences, and certainly the most spectacular to view, in all of Greece. Later documentary sources would claim that the city and its walls were built with incredible rapidity - in only eighty-five days according to one author. Modern day viewers of the immense and carefully constructed wall circuit find this hard to believe, and no doubt there is some exaggeration at work here. On the other hand, it has been found that communal building projects, done to a tight time schedule, can serve as one means to bind a population together, to teach them a sense of common purpose. The rapidity of the creation of Messene was, again, not only strategic, but a way for the Messenians, with the help of their allies, to renew their sense of self and of purpose.
Messene flourished through the Hellenistic period and the subsequent Roman era. One glimpse of the city at this time is, again, provided by Pausanias. A translation of his tour through the city (as abridged by Christian Habicht to exclude historical digressions and explanations) runs as follows:
Messene is surrounded by a wall, the whole circuit of which is built of stone, and there are towers and battlements on it... In the market place...there is an image of Saviour Zeus and a water-basin called Arsinoe... water flows underground from it to a spring called Klepsydra. There is a sanctuary of Poseidon and another of Aphrodite. Most noteworthy of all is an image of the Mother of the Gods, in Parian marble, a work of Damophon... Damophon also made the Laphria... There is also a temple of Eileithyia at Messene with a stone image. Near it is a hall of the Curetes...There is also a holy sanctuary of Demeter at Messene and images of the Dioscuri... But the images in the sanctuary of Asklepios are at once the most numerous and the best worth seeing. For besides images of the god and his sons, and images of Apollo, the Muses and Hercules, the sanctuary contains an image of the city of Thebes, a statue of Epaminondas, son of Cleommis, an image of Fortune, and one of Artemis, Bringer of Light. The marble images are the works of Damophon, the only Messenian sculptor of note that I know of. The statue of Epaminondas is of iron, and is the work of some other artist. There is also a temple of Messene with an image of gold and Parian marble. At the back of the temple are paintings of the kings of Messene... Thre is also a painting of Asklepios... These paintings are by Omphalion, a pupil of Nicias, son of Nicomedes... What the Messenians name the Place of Sacrifice contains images of all the gods recognized by the Greeks. It contains also a bronze statue of Epaminondas and ancient tripods.... The images in the gymnasium are by Egyptians, and represent Hermes, Hercules and Theseus... There is also a tomb of Aristomenes here.... There is a bronze statue of Aristomenes in the stadium at Messene. Not far from the theater is a sanctuary of Sarapis and Isis. On the way to the summit of Ithome, where is the acropolis of Messene, there is a spring called Klepsydra... Every day they carry water from the spring to the sanctuary of Zeus at Ithome. The image of Zeus is a work of Ageladas... They also celebrate an annual festival called Ithomaea...Following the Arcadian road that leads to Meagalpolis, you see at the gate a Hermes of Attic workmanship... (4.31.5-33.3)
This impressive range of civic buildings (walls, market place, theater, gymasium, stadium, public fountains) and sanctuaries (to Poseidon, Demeter, Artemis, Zeus, and many others) testifies to an active and thriving community. A stress on the city's legendary heros and historical founders (Messene, Aristomenes, Epaminondas) is notably very pronounced, with the Messenians clearly turning to their past as a source of local identity and of pride.
Excavations at Messene since the 1950's (under the direction of the Greek archaeologists Anastasios Orlandos and Petros Themelis) have revealed many traces of the city Pausanias visited, most notably a large square complex, probably to be identified as the sanctuary of Asklepios. This has been dated, on various grounds, to the Hellenistic era. The colonnaded complex, which measures 200 x 215 feet, held within it the temple and altar to Asklepios, as well as shrines to Artemis, Fortuna, Epaminondas and the Muses; a small theater was attached to the eastern side of the sanctuary. The Asklepieion is the best explored part of the city, although other features located by archaeologists include a larger theater to the north-west, a stadium and hero shrine to the south-west, the Klepsydra spring to the north (within the present day village of Mavromati), and the high acropolis sanctuary of Zeus Ithomatas. The marketplace, or agora, of the city appears to have been located just to the north of the Asklepieion. Everywhere in the excavations, finds such as statue bases, coins, pottery, fragments of sculpture, and inscriptions add to our impression of a flourishing community in Hellenistic and into Roman times.