Messene

Ancient Messene is a classical Greek city in the Messenia region of the Peloponnese, about 25 kilometers north of Kalamata, built on the site of the earlier Bronze Age settlement of Ithome. It was refounded in 369 BC by the Theban general Epaminondas after Sparta's defeat at the Battle of Leuctra, who fortified it with walls stretching nine kilometers and made it self-sufficient with farmland and water within its defenses. The city remained an important center through the Roman and Byzantine periods, was damaged by a major earthquake in 365 CE, and had become an early Christian center by the 5th century; excavations begun in 1829 have uncovered extensive classical, Hellenistic and Roman remains.