
Messenia is a region in the southwestern Peloponnese, Greece, with Kalamata serving as its capital. Messenia borders Elis to the north, Arcadia to the northeast, and Laconia to the southeast, as well as the Ionian Sea to the west and the Messenian Gulf to the south. During the Bronze Age, the region was inhabited by the Pelasgians, but, following the arrival of the Greek tribes in Greece, the Aeolians colonized Messenia. By the 14th century BC, a tribal lord (anax) ruled over Messenia from Pylos. Following the Dorian invasion, the Dorians established Stenyclarus as their capital and conquered the rest of the region. During the Archaic period, the Messenians defended their fertile soil and favorable climate from the expansionist Spartans, but Sparta subjugated Messenia in 720 BC. From 685 to 668 BC, the Messenians revolted and briefly won their independence from Sparta, but the Messenian stronghold of Eira fell after an 11-year siege, and the Spartans reduced the Messenians to servitude as helots. In 464 BC, the Messenians once again revolted after a severe earthquake destroyed Sparta, defending themselves on the rock-citadel of Ithome. The Athenians mediated a truce whereby the Messenians would be settled at Naupactus in Ozolian Locris. Following the 371 BC Battle of Leuctra, however, the Theban general Epaminondas invaded Messenia and liberated it from Spartan rule, inviting the exiled Messenians scattered in Italy, Sicily, Africa, and elsewhere to return to their country. The capital city of Messene was founded in 369 BC, becoming a powerful check on Sparta. Messenia allied with Philip II of Macedon following the collapse of the Theban hegemony, and it later joined the Achaean League. In 146 BC, Messenia and the rest of Greece was brought under Roman rule. During the Middle Ages, Messenia was part of the Byzantine Empire before falling to the Ottoman Turks and then to the Republic of Venice, before the Ottomans reconquered the Peloponnese in 1715. The 1827 Battle of Navarino, the decisive battle of the Greek War of Independence, occurred off Messenia. By 2011, Messenia had a population of 159,954 people.