Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 1.djvu/219

 ABGOS. the farmer nEag at Argos, and the latter at Tuyns. lVraeQs,*tiie mm of Danae, and gracdMii of Acrisios, founded tlie dtj of Mjoenae, which now became the chief cftj in the Argeia. (Pans. ii. 15. § 4, 16. § 5; Apo&od. H. 2.) Eurystheos, the giandaon of Penevs, was saoceeded in the kii^csn of Hjcenae by Ativos, the eon of Pelops. The latter tnma- nutted hia power to his son or gnmdaon Agamemnon, " kii^ of men," who eaerdsed a kind of sorereigntj orar the whole of the Aigoan territory, and a con- aderaUe part of PdoponneeoB. Homer represents If jcenae as the first city in Peloponnesus, and Argos, which was then governed by Diomedes, as a subor- dinste place. Orestes, the son of Agamemnon, mited under his sway both Argos and Mycenae, and sabseqnently Laoedaemon also, by his marriage with HenoMoe, the daughter of Menelaos. Under Orestes Aigos again became the chief city in the Aigeian tenitaxy. In the rdign d his successor Tisamenus, the Dorians invaded Peloponnesus, expelled Tisame- Dfls, and hecame the rulers of Argos. In the three- bid division of Pebponnesus, among the descendants «f Hercules, Argos fell to the lot of Temenus. We now oome to the first really historical event in the history of Aigos. The preceding narrative bekngs to legend, the truth of which we csn neither deay nor affirm. We only know that before the Do- rian invasion the Aigeian territory was inhabited by Adueaas, who, at some period unknown to history, kad iupplanted the original Pelasgic population. [Agbaei.] Acooiding to the common l^end, the Doriaas conquered the Peloponnesus at once, and drove oat the Achaean population; but it is now gene- nlly admitted tbat the Dorians only slowly and padually made themselves masters of the countries IB which we find them subsequently settled; and we know in pazticnlar that in the Argeia, most of the towns, wHh the exception of Axgos, long retained their original Arhacan population. Even after the Dorian conquest, Aigos appears as the first state in Pdoponnesus, Sparta being second, and Messene third. Herodotus states (i. 82), that B andent times the whole eastern coast of Pelo- pHiBWi i a down to Cape Ualea, indnding Cythera and the other islands, belonged to Argos; and the laperiarity of the latter is also indicated t^ the le- IFend, which makes Temenus the eldest of the three The power of Argos, however, was not ezdnsivcly from her own territory, but also fiorn the fact of her being at the head of a league of smxal other important Doric cities. Cleanae, Pbfias, Sicyon, Epidaurus, Troezen, Hermione, and Aqnna were all members of this league, which was QstcnsiUy finnned for religious purposes, though it IB reahty gave Argos a political ascendency. This leprae, Jike others of the same kind, was called an Amphictyeoia (Pans. iv. 5. § 2); and its patron god vas Ap<Ao PythaSus. There was a temple to this 1^ in each of the confederated dtks, while his most holy sBOCtuary was on the Larissa, or acropolis of Argos. This league continned in existence even as bte as B. c 514, when the power of Argos had greatly declined, since we find the Aigives in that year eoodemning ictii Si<7on and Ae^na to pay afine of 300 talents each, because they had furnished the SpBitaa king Ckomeaes with ships to be employed afsainat the Aigeian territory. (Herod. vL 92.) The nfigioaa supremacy ocmtinned till a later time; and m the PdopnnneaJan war the Argives still daxmed ofieriags fran the confederate states to the temple of ApoOa PythaiKus oo the Larissa. (Thuc. v. 53; ABGOS. 203 camp. Hfiller, Dorians, i. 7. § 14.) The great power of Argos at an early period is attested by the history of Pheidon, king of Argos, who is repre- sented as a lineal descendant of Temenus, and who reigned between B.C. 770 and 730. He attempted to establish his sway over the greater part of Pelo- ponnesus, and, in conjunction with the Pisatans, he seized upon the presidency of the Oljrmpic games in the 8th Olympiad (b. g. 747); but he was subse- quently defeated by the Spartans and the Eleans. The details of his history are given elsewhere. {DicL ofBiogr. art. Pheidon.) After the time of Pheidon the power of Argos gra- dually declined, and Sparta eventually became the first power in Peloponnesus. The two states had long contended for the possession of the district Cynuria or Thyreatis, 'vriiich separated the frontiers of Laconia and Argos. Sevend battles between the Lacedae- monians and Argives are recorded at an early period, and particulariy a victory gained by the latter near Hysiae, which is assigned to b. o. 669. (Pans. ii. 24. § 7.) But about b. o. 547 the Spartans ob- tained permanent possession of Cynuria by the memo- rable combat of the 300 champions, in which the Spartan Othryades earned immortal fame. (Herod. L 82; Diet, of Biogr. art. Othryades.) But the great blow, which effectually humbled the power of Argos, and gave Sparta the undisputed pre-oninence in Peloponnesus, was dealt by the Spartan king Gleomenes, who defeated the Argives with such slaughter near Tiryns, that 6000 citizens perished in the battle and the retreat. (Herod, yi. 76, seq.) According to later writers, the dty was only saved by the patriotism of the Aigive women, who, headed by the poetess Telesilla, repulsed the enemy from the walls (Pans. ii. 20. § 8 ; Polyaen. viii. 33; Plut de Virt, Mtd. p. 245; Suid. s. v. TcA^<riAXa); but we know, from the express statement of Herodotus, that Gleomenes never attacked the city. This great defeat occurred a few years before the Persian wars (oomp. Herod, vii. 146), and deprived Argos so completely of men, that the slaves got the govern- ment into their own hands, and retained possession of it till the sons of those who had fallen were grown into manhood. It is further related, that when the young citizens had grown up, they expelled the slaves, who took refuge at Tiryns, where they main- tained themselves for some time, but were eventually subdued. (Herod. vL 83.) These slaves, as Mtiller has remarked (Doriians, iiL 4. § 2), must have been the Gymnesii or bondsmen who dwelt in the inmie- diate neighbourhood of the <dty; since it would be absurd to suppose that slaves bought in foreign countries could have managed a Grecian state. The Aigives took no part in the Persian wars, partly on account of their internal weakness, and partly through the jealousy of the Spartans; and they were even suspected of remaining neutral, in consequence of receiving secret offers im Xerxes. (Herod, vii. 1 50.) But even after the expulsion of the bonds- men, the Dorian citizens found themselves compelled to give the citizenship to many of the Perioeci, and to distribute them in the immediate neighbourhood of the city. (Aristot. Pol v. 2. § 8.) Further, in order to increase their numbers and their power, they also dispeopled nearly all the large cities in the surrounding country, and transplanted the inhabit- ants to Argon, In the Persian wars Tiryns and Mycenae were independent cities, which followed the command of Sparta without the consent of Aigoe The Argives destroyed Mycenae in B. c 468 (Diod.