Argos: Rival of Sparta

The plain of Argolis is located in the northeastern Peloponnesus.  It is about 500 square miles in area.  Mountains surround it on three sides with the Aegean Sea to the east.  It was a fertile plain, renowned by Homer for its excellent horses.  Two rivers, the Inachus and the Erasinus, as well as a number of smaller streams provided abundant water for agricultural production, necessary to sustain a relatively large population. Archaeological finds show continuous human settlement in the area from about 5000 B.C. beginning with a small settlement at the foot of Aspida Hill.

Argos: The agora with Aspida Hill in background.

The city of Argos grew from the village at the foot of Aspida Hill.  Argos and the surrounding citadels of Mycenae, Tiryns and Midea were important Bronze Age sites that figured greatly in Greek mythology, especially the Trojan War cycle.  Agamemnon was king of Mycenae. Diomedes led the Argives at Troy.  Bronze Age Argos was an important place.  Homer sometimes used the name Argive for all the Greek forces fighting at Troy.

Argos and vicinity

Most Bronze Age sites were destroyed not long after the Trojan War.  Dorians gradually assumed control.  A dynasty of kings claiming descent from Heracles began to reign at Argos about 900. The power of the kings was soon reduced to the benefit of the aristocracy. By the middle of the eighth century Argos had become the leading state in the Peloponnesus, ruling all of the northeastern part of the peninsular and all of the coast down to Cape Malea.  She also controlled the island of Cythera and probably Aegina as well.  

Argolis

Argos was not just a Peloponnesian power at this time, but was also involved in the wider Greek world.  She may have sided with Eretria, Megara and Miletus against Chalcis, Samos and Corinth in the Lelantine War, which likely took place towards the end of the eighth century.  She certainly backed, albeit unsuccessfully, Messenia against the equally aggressive Sparta in the First Messenian War.  Sparta now became Argos’ most determined rival for dominance of the peninsular.

About 675 a new king came to the Argive throne; Pheidon.  Although a Heraclid of the regular line of kings, he was a king like no other before him. Pheidon revived the traditional power of the kings by aligning himself with the common folk against the aristocracy.  He instituted far reaching land reforms which appear to have created a larger citizen base.  This resulted in more men capable of serving as heavy infantry.  He was thus able to field a large army.  At the same time he changed the style of fighting from independent combat favored by the aristocratic army to a linear style called the phalanx.  The Argive phalanx met and devastatingly defeated an aristocratic style Spartan army at Hysiae in 669.  The phalanx was soon adopted by all Greek armies and became the standard fighting style.

Map (in Greek) showing extant of Argos under Pheidon

After Pheidon Argos began to decline.  Large swaths of territory were lost to Sparta, including Cythera.  Argos also lost control of the coastal cities and Aegina. By the middle of the 6^th century Sparta had replaced Argos as the most dominant state in the Peloponnesus.