Argos

A titular see of Peloponnesian Greece, from the fifth to the twelfth century, about twenty miles southwest of Corinth. It was considered the oldest city of Greece and was once the head of the Doric League, and in its time one of the largest and most populous of the Greek cities. Argos was famous in Greek antiquity for the worship of Hera (Juno), and her great temple, the Heræum (fully excavated in 1831), was considered one of the most magnificent monuments of Greek architecture. In the fifth century, B.C., the city was also famous for its temple of Apollo, the chief Doric sanctuary, and as the seat of celebrated schools of sculpture and music, especially the flute. Its medieval history is told by Carl Hopf (Chroniques gréco-romanes, Paris, 1873, XXIX-XXX, 236-242), and by Gregorovius (Gesch. der Stadt. Athen., Stuttgart, 1889, I, 364, and II passim). In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries it was the seat of a diocese, being then held successively by the French Dukes of Athens and the Byzantines; in 1463 it passed under Ottoman rule.