Ancient Argos, located in the Peloponnese in Greece, was a major Mycenaean settlement in the Late Bronze Age (1700-1100 BCE) and remained important throughout the Greek, Hellenistic, and Roman periods until its destruction by the Visigoths in 395 CE. The site's best-preserved example of ancient architecture is the theatre, once the largest in Greece, and the remains of the 2nd-century CE Roman baths.
Bronze Age Period
Argos lies on the west side of the fertile Argolid plain in the eastern Peloponnese in Greece. The plain, which measures some 250 square kilometres (95 square miles), was well-watered thanks to rivers running down from the nearby western mountains. The Charadros river (today called the Xerias) ran past two sides of Argos. The site has been inhabited from prehistoric times (3000 BCE) up to the present day. Ancient Argos was built in the Late Bronze Age on two hills: Aspis and Larissa, 80 m (262 ft.) and 289 m (948 ft.) in height respectively. It prospered as a Mycenaean centre but was at that time smaller than its neighbours Mycenae and Tiryns. A cemetery, which includes tholos chamber-tombs, dates to this period, and the city seems to have been at its Bronze Age peak in the 14th and 13th century BCE.
Archaic Period
In ancient Greek mythology, the city gained its name from Argos (aka Argus), the son of Zeus and Niobe who reigned as the city's king and was famous for being covered in eyes or being 'all-seeing.' Homer's Iliad tells of Argos the city sending men to fight in the Trojan War, as being ruled by Diomedes who served as a vassal of King Agamemnon of Mycenae, and as a place celebrated for its horse rearing. The city is also described by Homer as being especially dear to the goddess Hera, and she did indeed end up with a protective sanctuary some 10 km (6 mi) distant from the city which hosted a major annual festival, the Panhellenic Heraia from the 7th century BCE onwards.
The city had declined after the fall of the Mycenaean civilization c. 1100 BCE but was still settled on and around the Larissa hill throughout the so-called Dark Ages of the 10th to 8th century BCE. Argos then perhaps reached its greatest dominance in the 7th century BCE under King Pheidon of Argos, who is credited by some ancient writers with devising a standard system of measures and weights, introducing to mainland Greece such military innovations as hoplite tactics and double grip shields, and being the first ruler to mint