In 744 BC, Xenodocus from Amphipolis won the ninth Olympiad and believed he had reached the top of the world. A few months later, everything collapsed when the Spartans invaded his country without warning. Along with the rest of the Messenians, he will rise up against an opponent who seemed invincible from the beginning. For twenty years, the kings, nobles, and people of Messenia will fight to keep their homeland free. This is the story of the First Messenian War through the eyes of the defeated. Those who remained in the shadow of Sparta.