Location information

By the Spartans, 668 BC

Aristomenes and the soothsayer Theoclus had received a divination which said that the end of the Messenians was not far. This came true when, one stormy night, the Lacedaemonians managed to enter the acropolis of Ira and started fighting the Messenians, who were not prepared for this. The battle lasted several days, and even the Messenian women fought in any way they could. Theoclus and Aristomenes, though, knew that this was the end. Theoclus decided to die in battle but advised Aristomenes to take the Messenian people and lead them out of the acropolis to their saviour.
This extract is from: Pausanias, Description of Greece. Harvard University Press
Cited Aug 2002 from Perseus Project URL below, which contains comments & interesting hyperlinks.

Perseus: Pausanias, Description of Greece, Messenia
• http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=...