Argos, Or Argolis (Anciently Also Argia And Argolice), the N. E. part of the Peloponnesus, between the bays of Aegina and Nauplia, the Saronic and Argolic gulfs of the ancients. The eastern continuation of the northern mountain range of the peninsula surrounds a part of the inhabited shores, which bear marks of volcanic convulsions, and the plain of Argos, which is fertile, but rendered unhealthy by marshes. The chief mountain group is the Malevo, called by the ancients Artemision, on the Arcadian boundary, which rises above 5,000 feet. The largest plain is situated near the town of Argos, behind the bay of Nauplia, watered by the river Planitza, the classical Inachus. Only a few other spots are fit for agriculture, on account of the want of water, as all the streams except the Planitza and the Kephalari (anc. Erasmus) dry up. But the many bays render Argolis favorable for navigation. In the earlier times of antiquity Argolis was strictly the plain surrounded on the west by the Arcadian mountains, and on the north by those of Phlius, Cleonae, and Corinth. In the Roman epoch Argolis represented the eastern part of the Peloponnesus, bounded, on the land side, N. by the territories of Sicyon and Corinth, W. by Arcadia, and S. by Laconia. Argolis belongs to the earliest cultivated regions in ancient Greece. From the remotest times it was divided into the kingdoms of Argos, Mycenae, Tiryns, Troe-zene, Hermione, and Epidaurus, which all afterward formed republics.

About 750 B. C. the city of Argos, under Phidon, was the leading state of the Peloponnesus. Its power sank in its wars with Sparta, waged for the possession of the district of Cynuria, on their confines. Cynuria was lost about 550, and a defeat near Tiryns in 524 completed the decay of Argos. In the Peloponnesian war it sided with Athens. It early joined the Achaean league, and, on its fall, was included in the Roman province of Achaia. - In the present kingdom of Greece, Argolis is the main portion of a nomarchy called Argolis and Corinth, and embracing besides these territories a part of ancient Achaia and the islands of Spezzia and Hydra: area, about 1,900 sq. m.; pop. 128,000. Nauplia is the capital. - The town of Argos is situated near the head of the gulf of Nauplia, 20 m. S. S. W. of Corinth; pop. about 8.000. It suffered much in its capture by the Venetians in 1686, and its recapture by the Turks in 1706. Remains of its cyclopean walls, as well as of a grand amphitheatre hewn in the rock, are still to be seen.