Messene, y'all.

Should point out that this will be a THREAD. Messene is one of most breathtaking polis sites I've ever had the privilege to visit. Excavations since 1895 have uncovered an enormous number of structures and objects, which, with a few exceptions, were hitherto buried underground.

I approached the site through the massive Arcadian Gate, which you actually drive through (so cool). Pausanias saw this (4.33.3). A pillar originally separating two doorways has fallen. This was known to early modern travelers. Bits of wall and two forts visible in background.

Excellent ashlar masonry in the walls and forts. The late classical/Hellenistic polis was serious about defenses.

Circuit of the walls, with fort in the background, leading up to the formidable Mt. Ithome. You may know it from the Messenian Wars (cc: @MykeCole). Philip V of Macedon's advisor Demetrius called it and Acrocorinth the "horns of the ox" of the Peloponnese (7.12.3).

This photo was taken from the cella of the temple of the deified Messana, the eponymous heroine of the city, in the agora. These three inscriptions record honors for foreign judges (metapemptoi dikastai) from Messene--an important institution in the Hellenistic period.

Honorific inscription for the Roman emperor Septimius Severus (r. 193-211 CE), contemporary of the historians Cassius Dio and Herodian. Perhaps you can make out "Autokratora Kaisara Loukion Septimion Seoueron Pertinaka" (= Imperator Caesar Lucius Septimius Severus Pertinax).

As the excavators quickly realized, this creepy hole in the ground must be the so-called Treasury (thesaurus), described by Plutarch as a "subterranean chamber that took in neither air nor light...shut up by a great stone" (Phil. 19.3). Here... (cont)

The Messenians detained Philopoimen son of Kraugis, the general of the Achaian koinon or league, and the politician Deinokrates forced him to drink poison (183 BCE). Deinokrates later committed suicide and his partisans were stoned to death in Philopoimen's city, Megale Polis...

His bones were conveyed back to his "fatherland" by the son of the Megalopolitan magistrate Lykortas, the future historian Polybios. Philopoimen was honored as a hero, as we know from Plutarch and from an inscription (Syll3 624).

View through a doorway into the assembly-space or ekklesiasterion of the Messenians, which also functioned as a music hall (Odeion).

Entry-way (propylon) into the gymnasial complex of Messene, with an inscription on the architrave stating that Charteles the son of Philon, the gymnasiarch (gymnasium official), dedicated it to "all the gods and to the polis."

Marvelous stadion (race-course) of Messene with a hero shrine to an important family in the background, beyond which is the valley. This site never ends!

Looking back into the stadion with Ithome in the background, to the north. You can just see the beginning of the exclusive front-row seats to the right, meant for awardees of "proedria" (um...front row seats).

Heroon (hero shrine) of the Saithidai family, the eponymous head of which was Tiberius Claudius Saithidas (note the Roman names and thus the Roman citizenship). He was the first Roman Senator from Messene, under Hadrian, and a major civic benefactor. Note the deep foundation.

Wow, shockingly, it turns out this inscription is not on PHI, but I gather: "When Neikias the son of Kallistos was priest of Zeus Ithomas, the ephebes under the gymnasiarch Claudius Tribunus [dedicated] the sub-gymnasiarch Claudius Lykos, etc", [list of names]

(Cc: @CleanMONEY8 for me "reading inscriptions aloud")

Incredible, reconstructed intramural tomb for an elite family of Messene ("building K3"). Burial for the non-heroized dead within the city walls is unusual in ancient Greece.

Swallows swarming above the ancient site was a surreal and beautiful experience.

Honorific inscription for a philosopher, Roman period: "The polis [dedicates a statue of] Ti[tus] Flavius Isokrates, hero, philosopher, a new Plato, on account of his perfect excellence."

Gorgeous theater, with remains of temple of Isis in the background right, then a basilica center, then the remains of a "meat market."

Looking from the north into the central Asklepieion complex. The excavators thought this must have been the agora (marketplace) itself, it was so huge -- but no, dedicated to Asklepios and other deities.

The whole complex from the slopes of Mt Ithome. Foreground (brown square): the Bouleion building. Rectangular complex back and to the left is the Asklepieion. Stadion is the indent in background culminating in the Heroon. Middle-right is palaistra (wrestling complex).

And now I conclude my evening (after an *excellent* seafood dinner of stuffed sardeles in Kalamata) as the only inhabitant of the Xenodohio Messana in ancient Messene. Thank you all for reading! Also: AMA about my experience in Messene.

I'm exhausted after a long day (and I almost lost it driving back to Ancient Messene from Kalamata in the dark), but I love Greece so much.