16. After the fall of Pheidon the old dispute with Lacedæmon still continued.(672) In the 15th Olympiad (720 B.C.) the war concerning the frontier territory of Cynuria broke out afresh;(673) the Argives now maintained it for some time,(674) and secured the possession of this district chiefly by the victory at Hysiæ in Olymp. 27. 4. (669 B.C.(675)) And they kept it until the time of Crœsus (Olymp. 58.), when they lost it by the famous battle of the three hundred, in which Othryadas, though faint with his wounds, erected the trophy of victory for Sparta:(676) a history the more fabulous, since it was celebrated by sacred songs at the Gymnopædia.(677) Inconsiderable in extent as was the territory(678) for which so much blood was shed, yet its possession decided which should be the leading power in Peloponnesus. It was not till after this had taken place that Cleomenes, in whose reign the boundary of Lacedæmon ran near the little river Erasinus, was enabled to attack Argos with success.
The power of Argos in the neighbourhood of the city was very insecure and fluctuating. Towards the end of the second Messenian war Argos had conquered the neighbouring town of Nauplia; the Lacedæmonians gave Methone in Messenia to the expelled inhabitants.(679) The temple of Nemea, in the mountains towards Corinth, was, from its situation, the property of the independent Doric town Cleonæ; the Argives took it from them before Olymp. 53. 1. 568 B.C.,(680) and henceforth celebrated the games of Zeus. The Argives however again lost it; and some time before the 80th Olympiad the Cleonæans again regulated the festival,(681) a privilege which they probably did not long retain. It is likely that about 580 B.C. the town of Orneæ, between Argos and Sicyon, which had anciently carried on wars with the latter city, was rendered subject to the former, from which circumstance the Periœci of Argos obtained the general name of _Orneatans_; to which class the Cynurians also belonged before the battle of Thyrea.(682) But these events properly belong to the period, on the history of which we are now about to enter, and which we will designate in general as _the time of the tyrants_.
§ 1. The Doric principles of government opposed to despotic (or tyrannical) power. § 2. Tyrants of Sicyon. § 3. Of Corinth. § 4. Of Epidaurus and of Megara overthrown by Sparta. § 5. Other tyrants overthrown by Sparta. § 6. Expedition of Cleomenes against Argos. § 7. Internal history of Argos. § 8. Contests between Megara and Athens.