Messinia has a long history. The earliest historical findings are Neolithic settlements of early agricultural life dated 7,000 B.C. Leleges, Pelasgians, Aeolians and Minyes were its inhabitants. Messinia was the second most important centre of the Mycenean period. Messinia is mentioned in the Homeric Works, as the ruins of the palace of king Nestor were found near Gargalianoi. Thucydides mentions Messinia and the Messinians repeatedly in his history of the Peloponnesian War. From the 8th to the mid-4th century BC, the Messinians fought against the Spartans and besides the fights they were either helots or they left the country. In 369 BC, Epaminondas and the Messinians fought against the Spartans; they defeated them and he founded the town of Messini. During the Macedonian and the Roman domination, Messinia shared the fortune of the rest of the Peloponnese. In 1205, the Franks went ashore in Methoni. The famous medieval fortresses of Methoni, Koroni and Navarino were in the hands of the Franks until the end of the Frankish domination, in 1245. Since 1498, Messinia was conquered by the Turks but from 1688 to 1715 it was dominated by the Venetians. More recently, in 1821, the flag was first raised against the Ottoman Empire, in Kalamata, spreading the revolution to other parts of the Peloponnese and the rest of modern Greece. In 1825, the Turkish-Egyptian army of Ibrahim went ashore in Methoni. Papaflessas and his brave fighters tried to hold Ibrahim in check at Maniaki and their sacrifice was the milestone in the independence struggle. The naval battle that sealed the independence of the modern Greek state was fought in  Navarino (Navarone), in 1827.