Month: June 2026

The Theater of Messene, with an auditorium width of 106.83 m and an orchestra diameter of 23.56 m, is classified among the large theaters of Classical and Hellenistic antiquity and stands alongside that of Epidaurus. These large dimensions were, of course, determined by the economic prosperity of the city and the number of spectators the theater could accommodate. However, one must not overlook the role of the theater in general as the locus par excellence in urban architectural design, as a space for showcasing and displaying the city, where the festive fervor reached its zenith with spectators enchanted by the performances and, as Vitruvius notes, with not only their veins open with delight, but also their souls.

The Theater of Messene served not only as a venue for performances and spectacles in general, but also as a site for mass gatherings of a political nature, as evidenced by the text of an inscription (IG V1, 1432). According to Plutarch’s account (Aratus 50.1–3), the Theater of Messene was the site of the crucial meeting between Philip V of Macedon and the general of the Sympoliteia, Aratus of Sicyon, in the year 214 B.C.

The auditorium of the Theater of Messene is built on an artificial embankment, supported by a strong, horseshoe-shaped retaining wall, which is interrupted around its perimeter, approximately every twenty meters, by pointed gateways. The gateways led through hidden stairwells to the upper tier. The staircases descended from the middle tier, converging radially toward the orchestra, and divided the cavea into eleven sections. The outer face of the massive retaining wall that supports the cavea is constructed using a fortification system, similar to the city’s fortified ramparts. The limestone corbels of the retaining wall’s superstructure are tightly mortared and have an unadorned, convex outer surface. The impression of fortified construction is reinforced by the narrow, tall, and pointed gateways at the stairwells leading upward. These structural elements, combined with the fact that the ramp was entirely visible and accessible from the outside rather than integrated into a hillside, as was the norm, make the Theater of Messene a special case, foreshadowing the prominent and externally accessible theaters, as well as the colossal amphitheaters of the Roman period.

The imposing wall of the eastern aisle was also built with great care and survives in excellent condition to a height of five meters, consisting of ten rows of rectangular stone blocks (corner stones). It did not merely serve as a retaining wall for the cavea, but also formed the northern wall of a large rectangular structure—a stage house—measuring 31.46 × 8.07 m. On the floor of the stage house, three parallel stone grooves were uncovered, along which the wheels of the movable stage from the Hellenistic period rolled as it was drawn toward the orchestra. The movable stage at Messene dates to the late 3rd to early 2nd century B.C. The presence of a movable stage has been confirmed at the theaters of Sparta, Megalopolis, and Thuria. The movable stage (scena ductilis) of the Messene theater remained in use until the 1st century B.C. At that time, the stage house was demolished to make way for the construction of the first permanent stage structure, while the ground around it was raised by approximately 40 centimeters.

 Around the middle of the 2nd century A.D. large-scale repairs and renovations took place at the theater of Messene at the expense of the city’s great benefactor, Tiberius Claudius Saitis, high priest of the Sebastoi and Helladarx, according to the testimony of two lengthy inscriptions engraved on the pedestals of honorary statues. The façade of the stage (scenae frons) was two-story, if not three-story. Each story featured columns, doors, and three niches decorated with statues. The six large columns of the lower story, made of gray granite and reddish-white marble, stood approximately 5 meters tall and featured, in alternating order, Corinthian, Ionic, and Pergamon capitals, which supported the heavy marble Ionic entablature. The smaller columns of the upper floors also featured a similar color scheme with three alternating column capital styles. The proscenium and the walls of the stage were adorned with marble panels featuring carved and engraved decorative motifs, such as actors’ masks and animals. These were set in the lower niches of the three-story stage structure.

From the late 3rd to the early 4th century AD, the theater began to be abandoned and filled in with rubble. Concurrent with the economic decline (a phenomenon that characterized the entire Roman Empire), there was also a drastic reduction in the population of Messene. The colossal theater no longer served any purpose and very quickly was turned into a “quarry,” a source of building materials for the remaining Christianized inhabitants of the Messinian capital.

Architectural remains belonging to luxurious residences from the Roman period (3rd–4th centuries CE), which replaced earlier houses from the Hellenistic and early Roman periods, are located immediately to the west, separated from the Theater by an ancient road

2 m wide, from the Theater. Some rooms from the final phase of the 4th century AD, mainly the men’s quarters, have floors paved with multicolored mosaics and bear inscriptions such as “PARAMONOS ANAGNOSTIS EPOIEI” and “THEODULOS EPISKOPOS (E)POIEI, which relate to their use as a “house of prayer,” or “house church,” for the gatherings of the community’s early Christians. The 3rd-century AD house of prayer was renovated and expanded in the early decades of the 4th century, and the local bishop, Theodoulos, was responsible for this project. The mosaic floor of the men’s chamber in the southernmost house features a dominant motif of cubes, scrollwork, and daisies in various combinations. In the mosaic of the second, northernmost house, the dominant motif is the meander pattern.

The Eukterios House in Ancient Messene is the oldest Christian assembly hall in Greece and one of the oldest in the entire Mediterranean region, making it a discovery of global significance that sheds unique light on both early Christianity and the city’s transition from Greco-Roman antiquity to the early Christian period.

To the west of the market arcade stands a large fountain structure, a nymphaeum, that is over 40 meters long. It was supplied with water from the Klepsydra spring, located within the village of Mavrommati. Its location next to the large northern arcade of the market allows us to identify it with the Arsinoe Fountain mentioned by Pausanias (fig.). It consists of an elongated reservoir approximately 40 m long which is situated a short distance in front of a tall, pseudo-isodomic abutment featuring an opening on its right side with a water conduit for filling the reservoir. Between the cistern and the abutment was a shallow colonnade of Ionic half-columns. A semicircular pedestal (platform) located exactly in the center of the upper cistern supported a group of bronze statues. Two additional basins are located on a slightly lower level than the first, symmetrically arranged on either side of a paved atrium. The façade of the fountain’s first construction phase (3rd century BCE) was topped by a Doric colonnade, which was removed during the second phase in the 1st century CE.

The second phase of restoration and modification of the fountain’s form is dated to the reign of Emperor Nero, and the theme of the composition (bronze statues of the Augustan family) displayed on the semicircular platform. The third and final phase of repairs and alterations to the Fountain, which included the addition of the two square projections protruding symmetrically from the ends of the front side, dates to the late 3rd century AD. The dating is based on a bronze coin of Emperor Diocletian (284–305 AD), found beneath the paving of the west wing.

The fountain shared the fate of the city’s other buildings, which were abandoned around 365–370 A.D. This was a consequence of the broader economic collapse of the Roman Empire, which had begun earlier, and the final disintegration accelerated by barbarian raids and earthquakes. The eastern section of the Fountain remained standing and was used through the early Christian period, as evidenced by the structures in the upper reservoir and the building (watermill) on the lower level in front of the Fountain, constructed entirely of spolia.

The North Peioschimi Stoa

The northern portico of the market, which rests on a three-tiered plinth, is 196 m long. Its rear wall is constructed of tightly jointed corbels using the pseudo-isodom system and survives to a height of approximately 5.00 m at its eastern end. There are no shops opening onto the interior of the stoa, but rather seven rectangular niches (podia) that once housed statues. The outer colonnade was Doric, while the two inner ones were Corinthian and divided the space into three aisles. The presence of a second floor is certain. In its northeast corner, three stone benches—used for measuring liquids and solid goods—were uncovered. The activities of the market merchants were regulated by the market officials, some of whom, upon completing their terms of office, dedicated stone benches to the gods and to the city. Judging by the variety of measures, weights, coins, calendars, and other similar institutionalized Greek standards, one concludes that there were an equally large number of local variations in measurement systems. At the western end of the stoa is the orators’ “Podium,” with a stone seat in front of it.

In the vast rectangular area of 33,000 m², formed between the market’s colonnades, there is ample space for the construction of civic, commercial, and religious buildings. In the marketplace of Messene, Pausanias saw the statue of Zeus the Savior, the sanctuaries of Poseidon and Aphrodite, as well as the statue of the Mother of the Gods.

The three-aisled basilica located southeast of the theater is 38.20 m long and 16.15 m wide. It consists of a semicircular apse with a synthronon and three aisles, defined by colonnades and a narthex at the western end. At the eastern end of the south aisle, a single-aisle church was built in the 13th century, utilizing sections of walls and materials from an earlier structure.

 The narthex connects to the main church through three openings leading to the respective aisles. The central aisle featured a tribe, a three-part entrance flanked by two columns topped by an arch. A side door on the north wall of the narthex provides access to a complex of annexes, where the baptistery was likely located. The central nave is paved with limestone slabs originating from buildings of the Roman and Hellenistic periods. At the corners of the triumphal arch that once rose in front of the sanctuary’s apse, two pedestals have been used, each bearing the engraved names of great military figures of antiquity, Aristomenes and Alexander, respectively. Evidently, their selection and placement in this specific location cannot be coincidental.

Three carelessly constructed buttresses, dating from a later period, support the apse of the sanctuary from the outside. The colonnades that supported the aisles consisted of ten unfluted limestone columns with marble Ionic bases that originated from the proscenium of the theater. The marble capitals featured arch motifs.

 The basilica had no gallery above the side aisles; the central aisle was covered by a gabled wooden roof, while lower single-pitched roofs covered the two side aisles. Approximately in the middle of the central aisle, between the fifth and sixth columns of the northern colonnade, the foundations of the pulpit and the staircase leading up to it from the north aisle were discovered. To the east of the central aisle, a platform for the sanctuary was formed, defined by a step and separated from the rest of the church by a low barrier. The stone threshold, small columns, and sections of marble friezes have been preserved. On the paved floor of the raised platform of the sanctuary, one can see indentations from the four legs of the Holy Table, as well as from the four bases of the small columns that supported the ciborium above the Holy Table.

Inscriptions were used as building material, primarily in the floor of the central nave and in the bases of the colonnades, with the inscribed surface visible and exposed to the footsteps of the faithful.

Isis Temple

The location of the sanctuary dedicated to the goddess Isis and Sarapis, next to the theater, has been known to us since Pausanias. Excavations at the site of the sanctuary have brought to light a large, vaulted, P-shaped underground gallery, immediately south of the theater’s stage. Its northern wing is 46.50 m long, while the eastern and western wings are 35.50 m long. Its width is 3.25 m, and its depth exceeds 5 meters. After it was abandoned and its roof collapsed in the late 4th century CE, the stoa was used as a dumping ground for all sorts of materials, including numerous fragments of marble sculptures, many of which originated from the adjacent theater. Among these, the seated statue of Isis nursing Horus and the hand of the hero Perseus holding the severed head of the monstrous Medusa stand out. During the excavation of the western wing of the vaulted portico, a large number of fragments of mosaic floors were uncovered, as well as numerous glass tesserae, of various colors, originating from mosaic depictions that adorned the floors and walls of the rooms in the Isieion and the Great Baths. On the northern inner side of the underground crypt, a complex of rooms from the late Roman period (4th–5th centuries AD) with built-in seats and interconnected water reservoirs, most likely associated with initiatory rituals.

Thermes

The large public bath complex from the Roman period, located adjacent to the southern side of the Sanctuary of Isis, covers an area of 3,000 square meters and consists of 23 rooms that have been partially or fully excavated. It comprises a variety of rooms with mosaic floors, marble inlays, atria, and auxiliary spaces (such as the luxurious marble-inlaid frigidarium with its two pools, the tepidarium, the caldurium, the prefurnium, a peristyle courtyard paved with terracotta, etc.). The rooms, whose walls are preserved to a great height (4.5 m), are connected to one another through arched doorways, some of which were blocked off during a second phase of repairs in the late Roman period. On the southern side of the complex, a section of a monumental, straight road 2.70 m wide was uncovered, running from east to west with a maximum surviving length of 35 m. The road was flanked on both sides by colonnaded porticoes, as evidenced by the surviving walls, which bear fluted column bases at regular intervals along their upper sections.
In addition, clusters of box-shaped and tiled-roof tombs from the early Christian period were uncovered and excavated, similar to those found in the side streets of the theater. It is evident that the monument served as a source of building materials during the Middle Ages. Many of its architectural elements had been dismantled long before the looted rooms of the monument were covered by its gradual backfilling.

Pausanias describes the Asclepieion as a museum of works of art—primarily statues—rather than as a typical sanctuary for the treatment of patients. It was the most prominent site in Messene, the center of the city’s public life, operating alongside the adjacent marketplace. More than 140 pedestals for bronze statues—primarily of political figures—and five platforms surround the Doric temple and the altar, while many are also situated along the colonnades. An almost square open-air space (71.91 × 66.67 m) is framed on the inside by four colonnades, open toward the central open-air space. Each colonnade on the north and south sides had 23 Corinthian columns on its façade supporting an entablature, consisting of an Ionic entablature and a frieze with relief bucrania alternately adorned with floral garlands and rosettes. The porticoes on the east and west sides were similar, but each had 21 columns. Each colonnade contained a second interior colonnade with 14 columns on the north and south sides and 13 on the east and west sides.

In the eastern wing of the peristyle courtyard stands a complex of three structures: the small, covered, theater-like Ecclesiasterion, the Propylon, the Synedrium or Bouleuterion, and the Archive Chamber of the Secretary of the Synedrium. Along the western wing is a row of rooms—Houses—which, according to Pausanias’s description, contained statues of the following deities in order from south to north: Apollo and the Muses, Heracles of Thebes and Epaminondas (House N), Tyche (House M), and Artemis Phosphorus (House K).

The northern wing of the Asclepieion is enclosed by a large two-part structure built on a high podium, accessible via a central, monumental staircase that terminates at its northern end in a propylon with a pediment. The building’s two halls, to the right and left of the northern staircase, which are identically divided into five rooms, have been identified as the Sebasteion or Caesareion mentioned in the inscriptions. They were dedicated to the worship of the goddess Roma and the emperors. At the eastern end of the north wing, at the level of the portico, stands the meticulously constructed House H with a statue pedestal. The construction of the Asclepieion complex, which must have taken place immediately after the events of 215/14 B.C., appears to have been part of a grand architectural program, modeled after the Athenian Acropolis, aimed at presenting the Messenians as a distinct nation in the Peloponnese with deep roots in the country’s pre-Doric and Doric past. Almost all of the sculptures in the Asclepieion complex were the work of the sculptor Damophon, with the exception of the chrysolite statue of Messene and the iron statue of Epaminondas (Paus. 4.31.10).

Most of the central open-air area of the Asclepieion is occupied by the imposing Doric peripteral temple and its large altar. The temple was a Doric peripteral structure (6 × 12 columns) with a pronaos and an opisthodomos, each of which featured two columns between the pilasters. The monument’s external dimensions are 13.67 × 27.94 m, while its total height was approximately 9 m. It rests on a three-tiered base. On its eastern side, where the entrance is located, there is a ramp. The cella, the pronaos, and the opistodomos are built of local limestone, while the pteron is made of plastered sandstone. The adyton was separated from the rest of the temple by a partition, and at its rear there was a sculpted cult composition. No votive offerings associated with the worship of Asclepius, the god of healing, were found. This confirms the view that the Asclepius of Messene was not primarily known for his healing powers, but rather for his political role as the “citizen of Messene” (Pausanias 4.26.7). He held his place within the genealogical tree of the mythical kings of Messenia, both those who reigned before and after the Heracleids’ descent into the Peloponnese. His mother was Arsinoe, daughter of Leucippus, after whom the Arsinoe Fountain in the marketplace was named.

The Ecclesiasterion

It is a small theatrical structure with a cavea inscribed within a rectangular shell and a circular orchestra, with a stage diameter of 9.70 m and a width of 21 m. It had a proscenium with three openings at the front and an exit staircase at its eastern end. The auditorium, shaped like a semicircle, is divided by a diazoma into upper and lower sections. The lower cavea consisted of eleven rows of stone seats and was divided into three tiers by two staircases. Two additional staircases leading upward are located at the ends of the cavea near the side aisles. Two entrances on the side of the ascending road to the east lead, one to the orchestra via a descending staircase and the other directly to the diazoma between the lower and upper auditoriums. The cavea is surrounded by a sturdy retaining wall, the lower part of which on the eastern and northern sides is built with smooth upright stones, while at the top it features a false-isodome vaulted system, which is also found in Priene in Asia Minor. A covered staircase in the northwest corner of the retaining wall led to the upper tier of the cavea from the north side. At the eastern end of the orchestra, in front of the staircase leading to the building’s eastern entrance, a a large bronze equestrian statue was erected in honor of the Hellenarch Saitides.

The Propylaea

leads from the ascending eastern road to the lower-lying Asclepieion. Approximately halfway along its length, it featured a transverse wall with three doorways, a larger central one and two smaller ones at the ends, of which the thresholds are preserved, complete with notches for the bolts and latches, as well as for securing the wooden jambs. To the east of this wall was a portico supported by four square pillars that held up Ionic columns. Between the outer row of pillars and the transverse wall with the three-arched doorway, the floor—consisting of large square stone blocks—has been preserved. The portico, which faced the Asclepieion, featured two Corinthian columns. In late antiquity (3rd/4th centuries AD), this western portico had been provisionally repaired. The two mismatched Corinthian column bases that remain in place date from this later repair.

The Bouleuterion

It is the primary assembly hall for delegates representing the cities of autonomous Messenia. It is nearly square in shape, measuring 20.80 × 21.60 m, and has a four-gabled roof supported internally by four pillars. The three sides (north, east, and south) were enclosed by a 1.20-meter-thick wall, while the entrance was located only on the west side, consisting of two large three-door openings.Along the three enclosed sides, a continuous stone bench has been preserved, featuring an integral backrest and carved lion’s paws at both ends. The total length of the seating area (56 m) allowed 76 delegates—the number of members of the sacred senate—to sit comfortably.

The Archive Hall

Measuring 16.45 × 19.75 m, it consists entirely of structures from the Early Byzantine period. Given the public and political nature of the spaces in the eastern wing of the Asclepieion and the proximity of this hall to the city’s Bouleuterion, it is almost certain that it served a similar public function. Moreover, according to an inscription found in front of the hall’s eastern entrance, it must have housed the Archives of the Secretary of the Assemblies.

The First Sanctuary of Orthia

To the northwest of the Asclepieion, a columned temple was uncovered, measuring 8.42 × 5.62 with an almost square cella, a shallow, wider narthex, and a ramp in the center of the four-columned façade. Around the temple’s façade, votive pedestals and inscribed columns were uncovered. Along the northern side, two coin hoards were found, consisting of bronze coins from Messene and silver coins from the Achaean League, dating to the mid-2nd century B.C., as well as a large number of clay figurines depicting primarily Artemis the Huntress and Phosphorus. The fragments found north of the temple must have belonged to a marble cult statue of Orthia. After the construction of the Asclepieion, the sanctuary of Orthia ceased to function, and the worship of the goddess was transferred to House K in the western wing of the complex—that is, to the newer Artemision.

The Artemision K

The most important House in the western wing of the Asclepieion is House K, which housed the sanctuary of Artemis. It is rectangular and divided into three naves by two rows of two columns arranged transversely. Access to the central, wider aisle is through a three-part entrance with two amphikion columns between piers in the middle of the eastern long side. At the rear stands the pedestal of the colossal cult statue, which depicted Artemis Orthia as Phosphorus, holding a torch in her hand and wearing a short tunic with a nevrida in the style of a huntress. From this statue, the work of Damophon, the goddess’s left hand—which held the torch—has been found, as well as parts of her colossal head and feet. In front of the cult statue stood an offering table (the base survives), while eleven pedestals are arranged in a circle, three for statues of priestesses and eight for statues of young girls. Mature women served as priestesses, performing secret rituals on behalf of women who sought the goddess’s help. Sculpted images of these priestesses (after their successful term of service) were commissioned inside the temple by the elders of Uphesia. Parents dedicated statues of their daughters to the sanctuary; these daughters took part in the initiation rites that marked their passage into womanhood. The goddess’s altar, with a special pedestal next to it for the temporary display of her statue, is located in the open courtyard outside the portico and aligned with the temple’s entrance.

The Sebasteion

The two large rectangular halls along the north wing of the Asclepieion have been identified as the Sebasteion or Caesareion. In these halls, which were internally divided into five identical spaces, were accessed from the side of the northern stoa of the Asclepieion by two small, curved, hidden staircases. The monumental central staircase, 7 m wide, between the two halls leads via ten steps to a propylon with two columns between pilasters. Lower down, toward the side of the portico, the staircase ends at two Corinthian columns between pilasters. This northern wing was constructed at the same time as the entire Asclepieion complex in the late 3rd century B.C., and its original use had no connection to the cult of the emperors. The two identically laid-out halls, before they came to house the cult of the emperors and Rome, were used as banquet halls (houses with couches) for city officials during the festivals in honor of Asclepius.

The Hellenistic Baths

The rectangular building outside the south side of the Asclepieion has at times been considered a prytaneion or a priests’ house. However, it should be recognized as a Hellenistic-period bath complex. It features two furnaces for heating water and paved rooms that served the needs of bathers. To the northwest of the baths stands a separate structure that was used as a latrine. The early phase (Late Classical–Hellenistic) of the baths consists of a separate rectangular structure founded on an artificial platform supported by tall, evenly spaced walls to the west and south. Along the western wall, which has a drainage channel at its southern end, runs a narrow passageway that leads at its northern end to an entrance with a threshold and a door. The presence of corridors is one of the building’s distinctive features. Another distinctive feature is the presence of four paved halls where baths were located. The most ceremonial space occupies the BA section of the building and functioned as a shallow pool. The building is an interesting example of a public bath complex, which can be compared—though not identical—to the baths of Olympia, Arcadian Gortyna, and Eretria. Its earliest phase began in the late 4th century BCE and lasted until the 2nd century BCE. During the second phase (the Augustan period), the furnace was built, the entrance was sealed off, and a new access point was created.

In its first construction phase, the building was part of a spacious early Byzantine-era church with a large semicircular apse (chord length 6.35 m) and side annexes. It was part of the early Byzantine settlement of the Asclepieion, but it remains unclear at this time whether it was the city’s oldest church following the earthquake of 365 AD. The site remained in use for approximately half a millennium. The building appears to have been destroyed before the 11th/12th century A.D., and a small cemetery chapel was built on its ruins. In addition to the numerous box-shaped tombs, the site also reveals remnants of agricultural and other activities.

The excavation along the eastern side of the Asclepieion revealed a wide, north-south road approximately 80 m long. The street, 12 m wide, features a built drainage channel covered by massive limestone slabs; it is bounded on the east by the Asklepieion, and to the west by a new building block that has not yet been excavated. At its intersection with the east-west street, which runs between the north side of the Asclepieion and the south side of the Agora, a rectangular limestone base was uncovered in situ, 6.50 m from the northeast corner of the Ecclesiasterion, a rectangular limestone base with a circular notch in the center of its upper edge for the insertion of a column, which was found nearby and erected on the base. It is 1.358 m high, has a lower diameter of 0.48 m, and bears the following four-line inscription on its upper part:

Artemiti
Dionysios
of Dorias
, Dionysodoros.

A stone hekataios, 0.73 m high, depicting Artemis in three different forms around a small column, was found next to the inscribed column, on top of which it had apparently been mounted with the addition of a capital.

The Christian Settlement

to the northeast and east of the Asklepieion, along the road, a densely built residential complex came to light, which forms part of a settlement dating to the 5th–7th centuries CE, which extended into the Archive Hall of the Asclepieion. The settlement continues southward along the entire length of the eastern road, as well as northward into the Agora area, where, based on scattered architectural fragments, at least two early Christian basilicas must have stood. This settlement includes the more than forty Christian tombs that have been uncovered over time to the northwest and north of the Asclepieion, along with vases and bronze brooches characteristic of the period as grave goods. Scattered Christian tombs were also found among the buildings, where fragments of marble Christian tomb inscriptions were discovered. The walls of the Christian dwellings were roughly constructed with various types of stones, fragments of architectural elements (originating from the west wing of the Asclepieion and the surrounding Hellenistic structures), and fragments of inscriptions and sculptures. Among these, the limestone torsos of two female statues dating to the mid-2nd century B.C. stand out.

The Burial Enclosure

On the eastern edge of the street, opposite the Asclepieion, an elongated burial enclosure was identified, defined by a row of ten upright stones set on a three-tiered stepped base. Inside the enclosure, a series of box-shaped tombs with walls made of monolithic slabs was uncovered. Above the upright columns, a row of epistylia survives without their capitals, which are thought to have taken the form of cornices. The epistylia bear inscriptions on their facades listing the names of the deceased buried inside the monument, which was constructed in the first half of the 2nd century B.C. by the city of Messene in honor of twelve initially prominent deceased individuals, seven men and five women. Their names were inscribed simultaneously in a row with carefully crafted letters on the two central epistylia: “Neon, Thrasylocchus, Antisthenes, Polystratus, Polyander, Polycrates, Theba, Thelxippa, Gorgoi, Lysoi, Arestrata, Nicotelis.” Neon and Thrasylocchus were members of the well-known pro-Macedonian family of the Philiaids. Antisthenes and Polystratus are related to the family of the Messinian Olympic champion wrestler Antisthenes Polystratus of the 3rd/2nd century BC. The deceased, who were honored with the erection of a funerary monument within the city walls, in a prominent location across from the entrance to the Asclepieion, likely fell in battle against Demetrius Pharius, who attempted to capture Messene in 214 B.C.; women also participated in that battle. Alternatively, they may have fallen during the attempt by Navi of Sparta to capture Messene in 201 B.C. The names of later deceased individuals, both men and women, are inscribed in no particular order at various points on the monument’s façade.

The graves contained the skeletons of the interred, accompanied by quite rich grave goods: clay and glass vessels, metal objects, gold jewelry, and bone pins, some of which are shaped like theatrical masks, a lyre, and a pinecone. Three lead urns from the 1st century B.C. contained the cremated remains of the dead.

Hall with Marble Inlays

About 80 m east of the Asclepieion, two rooms of a large building from the late Roman period were uncovered; its northern wall, 0.90 m thick, was uncovered over a length of 20 m, while the eastern wall, 0.60 m thick, was uncovered over a length of 15 m. The interior walls are faced with marble. The floor of the northernmost hall is paved with large rectangular limestone slabs, which frame a marbles-inlaid floor (opus sectile) made of multicolored marbles and stones arranged in geometric patterns. The floor of the southernmost room is paved with multicolored mosaics from the 2nd/3rd century AD.

A thick layer of debris containing stones, lime mortar, bricks, roof tiles, marble fragments (many of which belong to shattered statues), hundreds of iron nails from the roof beams, charred pieces of wood, and ashes covered the floor of the northern hall. The coins date the building’s destruction to the last decades of the 4th century AD, shortly after 360 AD. A fallen marble statue of Artemis was found within the destruction layer, broken into ten related fragments lying around the torso. The absence of a pedestal and the circumstances of the statue’s fall, as well as the absence of any trace of a base on the floor and the great thickness of the northern wall, combined with the small dimensions of the work (height 1.34 m), lead to the conclusion that it was most likely set in a wall niche along with two other statues, one of Hermes and one depicting an emperor. The statue of Artemis is the most complete surviving copy of the Lafria type.

The Ierothysio is a large, multifaceted architectural complex of a civil and religious nature dating from the 3rd century B.C., which remained in continuous use until late antiquity. It is characterized by an open-air peristyle courtyard surrounded by spacious halls and is located south of the Asclepieion.

It is associated with the Hierothytes, officials responsible for providing hospitality to distinguished citizens from other cities, for rituals, sacrifices, and sacred meals offered to the gods, as well as the distribution of sacrificial meat to pilgrims. It was also a kind of Pantheon, housing statues of the twelve gods, “ancient” tripods— that is, trophies from the Ithomaic Games, and a statue of the god-like hero and founder of Messene, Epaminondas, “a man renowned for his education and philosophy.”

A musical couplet engraved on a stone column with symbols of ancient music, which was discovered at Hierothysion, has been transcribed onto a European staff and set to music. The solemn, ceremonial grandeur of the melody may be related to the ritual of the sacrifice in honor of the god-like Epaminondas.