What we know from Pausanias and other ancient authors is not only confirmed but often supplemented by the inscriptions. Pausanias notes, among other things, the existence of a sanctuary of Demeter and statues of the Dioscuri, Castor and Polydeuces, located between the marketplace and the sanctuary of Asclepius. Excavations have uncovered the remains of this sanctuary, the identification of which is confirmed by a bronze shield bearing an inscription from the 4th century BC found in a deposit within the sanctuary: “TO POLYDEUCE | WAS DEDICATED | BY KALLIPIDAS | AND HIS FOLLOWERS.”

The architectural complex with its four colonnades, the peristyle courtyard, and the large Doric temple at the center has been identified as the sanctuary of Asclepius mentioned by Pausanias based on the combined information from two inscriptions. The first attests that Marcus Caesius Gallus, who served as treasurer and lieutenant general, INSPECTED | THE FOUR STOAS OF THE ASCLEPIEION AND THE OVERLYING PARETIDES NEAR THE KAISAREION.

The text reveals the topographical relationship between the four-columned Asclepieion and the Caesareion, also known as the Sebasteion, which was a place of worship for Augustus and the Sebastes. The identification of the Sebasteion was made possible by the discovery of a second inscription (a resolution referring to repairs carried out during the first fifteen years of the 1st century CE to important public buildings and sanctuaries in the city, BCH 109, 1985, 597–607), which was erected NEAR THE SEBASTEION under the supervision of the secretary of the assembly, and which was found in its original location in front of the central staircase of the complex’s north wing. Similarly, the discovery in the atrium of votive inscriptions dedicated to Asclepius and Hygieia confirmed the identification of the site with the Asclepieion (PAE 1962, 112c, no. 8, and PAE 1971, 166, no. 6).

The small houses in the west wing of the Asclepieion, as evidenced by their architectural form and the complete absence of storage niches and altars, were not places of worship, but housed statues of Asclepius and his sons, Apollo, the Muses, Heracles, the city of Thebes and the Theban Epaminondas, Tyche, and Artemis Phosphorus. These statues, with the exception of the iron figure of Epaminondas, were the work of the Messenian sculptor Damophon, according to Pausanias (4.31.10). The identification of the niches with the statues was made possible by the discovery of a resolution stele in the northernmost niche (K) —a decision by the delegates in 42 CE to honor their secretary Mnasistratos Philoxenides, which called for the erection of the stele NEAR THE TEMPLE OF ARTAMIS—. The identification of House K with the Artemision was further confirmed by votive inscriptions (2nd century B.C. – 3rd century CE) dedicated to Artemis Orthia, found inside the house.

Finally, the city’s stadium was identified as early as the 19th century based on the surviving visible remains, while the location of the gymnasium, which Pausanias merely mentions, was determined by inscriptions that include lists of adolescents, appointments of gymnasiarchs and adolescents, votive inscriptions to Heracles and Hermes, and finally inscriptions attesting to the construction and repair of the Propylon of the Gymnasium.

The inscribed stones also revealed cults in the city of Messene that Pausanias does not mention, either because they were not active in his time or because he himself did not consider them noteworthy. A dedication to Apollo Agyeus dates to the 3rd century B.C. In the area between the Agora and the Asclepieion, at its northwest corner, archaeological excavations have brought to light a small temple dedicated to Orthia Artemis. The identification as Artemis Orthia was based on the discovery of clay figurines of the goddess and a pillar with an inscription (3rd century B.C.) that once supported a small bronze statuette of Artemis. Northeast of the village of Mavromati, roughly halfway to the summit of Ithomi, at the site of Spelouza, the French archaeologist Philip Le Bas discovered the foundations of an Ionic temple in 1844. An inscription from the 3rd century B.C. (IG V 1, 1442) led him to identify the small temple as the sanctuary of Artemis Limnatis. The inscriptions also contribute to a more complete understanding of the history of Messene, sometimes confirming what we already know from ancient authors, and sometimes offering entirely new insights. Two incomplete inscriptions partially preserve the texts of treaties: The first is a treaty between the Messenians and the Macedonians; the second is a treaty between King Lysimachus and the Messenians (306–281 BCE).

Resolutions from foreign cities (Eretria, Naupactus, Thebes, Smyrna, Demetriada, etc.) honoring Messinian judges, or resolutions by the Messenians honoring foreign judges, attest to Messene’s relations with other cities from the 3rd century B.C. to the 2nd century A.D. As evidenced by two fragmentarily preserved decrees, the Messenians accepted the proposal of the Cephalonians to participate in a sacred contest that the latter had just established. From another partially preserved resolution (IG V 1, 1426), we learn that the Messenians granted full citizenship to thirty foreign horsemen, likely citizens of the neighboring city of Amphia, because they had fought alongside the Messenians, perhaps during the siege of Messene by Demetrius the Besieger (295/4 B.C.). The artistic work of the Messinian sculptor Damophon of Philippi is illuminated by the honorary decrees of seven cities (Lycosura, Lefkada, Krania, Milos, Kythnos, Gerinia, and Oiantheia), inscribed on a tall Doric column erected at his funerary monument in the Asclepieion around the middle of the 2nd century B.C.

We know about Messene during the Roman period from three extensive texts concerning the demarcation of the borders between Messene and Sparta (IG V 1, 1431), the repair of public buildings, and the imposition of the so-called “octavolus” tax (IG V 1, 1432). Many honorary inscriptions carved on the pedestals of statues in honor of Roman emperors and officials have also survived. Athletic activity in the Stadium and the Gymnasium is documented in the lists of competition organizers and adolescents, as well as in the votive inscriptions of gymnasium directors and winners of competitions held in domestic or foreign cities. Finally, the funerary inscriptions contribute primarily to the study of topography (in determining the location of cemeteries) and the biographies of Messene citizens and foreign residents of the city.