In summer 464 BC a violent earthquake destroyed many of the buildings in Sparta and many of its citizens were killed. The helots seized the opportunity and rose in revolt. The Spartans managed to contain the rebels in the region of Mount Ithome, in Messenia, but lacked the strength to defeat them.
The Spartans appealed to their allies, including Athens under the alliance of 481 BC, for help. Not all at Athens were in favour of helping Sparta, but Cimon carried the Assembly and was sent to Messenia with about 4000 hoplites. When the Athenians failed in an attack on Ithome, the Spartans informed them that they were no longer needed. It was clear that the reasons were not military since the Spartans kept the other allies with them. According to Thucydides (c.460-c.395 BC) the Spartans, hearing that Athens was in the process of producing a more radical democracy, feared that the Athenians would switch sides and support the helots. Unable to reduce Ithome, the Spartans eventually allowed the helots to leave the country and the Athenians settled them c.460 BC at the city of Naupactus, on the northwest coast of the Corinthian Gulf, having just captured it from west Locris.
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