Argos

City in the northeastern Peloponnese of Greece, just north of the head of the Gulf of Argolis. The name was applied to several districts of ancient Greece but it is most often used to describe the easternmost part of the Peloponnesian peninsula and the city of Argos was its capital. Homer described it as the fertile plain inhabited by Agamemnon, Diomedes, and other heroes in the "Iliad". The site was probably occupied since the Neolithic / Early Bronze Age and was very prominent in Mycenaean times (c 1300-1200 BC). Argos was probably the base of Dorian operations in the Peloponnese c 1100-1000 BC and from then on the dominant city-state of Argolis until it allied itself with Sparta after the Peloponnesian War in 420 BC. In 392 it broke with Sparta to unite with Corinth in the Corinthian War. Argos later joined the Achaean League (229) and Argos became its center after the Roman conquest and destruction of Corinth (146). The city flourished in Byzantine times and did not decline until around 1204 AD. One tyrant Pheidon is thought to have introduced primitive coinage and a weights and measures system. Archaeological excavations began in 1854 on the Argive Heraeum and Argos was famed for its connection with the goddess Hera. There was a natural sanctuary there long before the Dorians came c 1100-1000 BC. The shrine is reported to be of extreme antiquity. The statue of Hera for a new 5th-century temple was done by the celebrated sculptor Polycleitus whose work was said to rival that of Pheidias the sculptor of the Parthenon. There is material evidence of Neolithic Early and Middle Bronze Age a Mycenaean cemetery with chamber tombs Geometric and Archaic features and ruins of the classical and Roman city. The Larisa hill was evidently the Mycenaean acropolis and citadel holding a classical temple. There was also a Roman theater and small odeum. The site is mostly covered by the modern city.

City in the northeast Pelopponese, Greece. Ancient Argos, which is mostly covered by the modem city, lay a few miles inland on the Argive plain, overlooked by two hills, the Larissa and the Aspis, both of which show early traces of use as a fortified centre or acropolis. The city is clearly of central importance in the prehistory of the area, with some evidence of settlement going back to the Neolithic period. Tradition and myth have Argos as a very early Pelasgian foundation, and Homer’s Iliad describes it as the kingdom of Diomedes, who was second only to Achilles in bravery, and gave his allegiance to Agamemnon (whose capital was at nearby Mycenae). Dorian association appears to have brought continued ascendancy, and by the 8th-7th centuries bc Argos is credited with the control of the entire eastern Pelopponese. One tyrant, Pheidon, is mentioned by some sources as introducing a primitive form of coinage and a system of weights and measures. The subsequent classical history of Argos is dominated by a power struggle with Sparta, and Argos hastened to join every kind of antiSpartan conspiracy and alliance. Material evidence gives Neolithic, Early and Middle Bronze Age remains, a Mycenaean cemetery with chamber tombs, geometric and archaic features, and plentiful traces, of the classical and Roman city. Archaic and classical Argos was famed for its connection with the goddess Hera, and for its schools of sculpture. Hera’s shrine (Heraeum) lay some 10 km to the north and some 5 km from Mycenae and, for a time, seems to have been jointly maintained by both. The shrine was reputed to be of extreme antiquity, and this is not improbable. A chryselephantine statue of Hera was contributed to a new 5th-century temple by Argos’s most celebrated sculptor, Polycleitus, the legendary quality of whose work has reckoned to rival that of Pheidias, the sculptor of the Parthenon.