Argos

Argos, city in central Greece, in the Pelopónnisos Region near Corinth. Argos dates from the Bronze Age and is said to be the oldest city in Greece. In the Homeric Age Argos was reputedly ruled by the warrior Diomedes. During the reign of King Pheidon (fl. 7th century bc), Argos was the most powerful city-state in the Peloponnese, but after a disastrous protracted struggle with Sparta in the 5th century bc, its power and influence diminished. In 229 bc it joined the Achaean League, and it became part of the Roman province of Achaea in 146 bc. During the late Middle Ages Argos was part of the Byzantine Empire. The Turks held the city from 1460 until 1830. In the 1820s, during the Greek struggle for independence, the city served briefly as the seat of the Greek National Assembly until it was sacked by the Turkish army in 1825. The present city is an important railway junction, and also has the ruins of a temple dedicated to the Greek goddess Hera. Population 22,289 (1991).