Note 729 — Chapter VII · FIRST AND SECOND MESSENIAN WARS.

Tyrtæus, Fragm. 6, Gaisford. But Tyrtæus ought not to be understood to affirm distinctly (as Pausanias, Mr. Clinton, and Müller, all think) that Theopompus survived and put a close to the war: his language might consist with the supposition that Theopompus had been slain in the war,—Ὃν δία (Theopompus), Μεσσήνην εἴλομεν εὐρύχορον.

For we surely might be authorized in saying—“It was through Epameinondas that the Spartans were conquered and humbled; or it was through Lord Nelson that the French fleet was destroyed in the last war,” though both of them perished in the accomplishment.

Tyrtæus, therefore, does not contradict the assertion, that Theopompus was slain by Aristomenês, nor can he be cited as a witness to prove that Aristomenês did not live during the first Messenian war; which is the purpose for which Pausanias quotes him (iv. 6).