If we look at the written sources, between the so-called Second Messenian War and the Pentekontaetia it seems as if nothing was happening in Messenia. The structure of the Messenian vulgata and of Spartan historical memory conspire to make of the sixth century a Dark Age of Messenian history. But in the years after the Persian Wars the Spartans were suddenly compelled to fight for their land west of the Taygetos. Probably around 469 BC, the southern Peloponnese was hit by a devastating earthquake, which destroyed many buildings and claimed a high number of victims. As Sparta was weakened by the catastrophe, a revolt broke out in Messenia. It took the Spartans ten years, hard fighting and the help of their allies, including the Athenians, to recover control of the region and to gain the upper hand on the rebels, who were entrenched on Mount Ithome. What the Spartans could not prevent was the birth of a polity calling itself “the Messenians,” a polity sui generis formed by the rebels, who left the region under a truce and received from the Athenians Naupaktos on the Gulf of Corinth as their provisional dwelling. The origins of this polity and the identity of its members will form the topic of this chapter. Before addressing it, however, it is necessary to review briefly some sources which seem to refer to an earlier Messenian revolt in the very first decades of the fifth century.