A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

Smith, William

A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. William Smith, LLD, ed. 1890

(Πολυχάρης), a Messenian, and the conqueror in the 4th Olympiad (B. C. 764), is celebrated as the immediate cause of the first Messenian war, B. C. 743. Having been wronged by the Lacedaemonian Euaephnus, he took revenge by aggressions upon other Lacedaemonians ; and as the Messenians would not deliver him up to the Spartans, war was eventually declared by the latter against Messenia. (Paus. 4.4.5, &c.)