Messene was probably founded in 369 bce after the defeat of Sparta by Athens and the Boeotian League in the Battle of Leuctra (371) for the descendants of exiled Messenians as a fortified city-state independent of Sparta. The site dominates the Messenian plain; with Megalopolis, Mantineia, and Árgos, it formed a strategic barrier, conceived by the Theban Epaminondas, to contain Spartan ambition. The summit of Mount Ithómi, 2,618 ft (798 m) in altitude, served as the acropolis, but apparently it had been fortified earlier as well.
