Two early Messenian wars are thought by many modern historians to have occurred: the first, from about  743 BCE to 724 BCE according to the dates given by Pausanias, which historians consider solid) is the Spartan conquest of Messenia; the second, around 660, is precipitated by a Messenian revolt over which the Spartans will ultimately be successful.

The First Messenian War continues the rivalry between the Achaeans and the Dorians that had been initiated by the Return of the Heracleidae (”Dorian Invasion”).

Both sides utilize an explosive incident to settle the rivalry by full-scale war.

Pausanias says that the opening campaign was a surprise attack on Ampheia, a city of unknown location now, but probably on the western flank of Taygetus, by a Spartan force commanded by Alcmenes, Agiad king of Sparta, in the second year of the Ninth Olympiad.

The end of the war was the abandonment of Mount Ithome in the first year of the Fourteenth Olympiad.

The time of the war is so clearly fixed at 743/742 BCE through 724/722 BCE that other events in Greek history are often dated by it.

Pausanias evidently had access to a chronology of events by Olympiad.

The details of the war are not so certain but Pausanias gives an evaluation of his two main sources, the epic poem by Rianos of Bene for the first half and the prose history of Myron of Priene for the second half.

Nothing survives now of the sources except fragments.