Successive conquests of the Dorians in the Peloponnese.

1. Before the time of the Dorians, Mycenæ, situated in the higher part of the plain at the extremity of the mountain chain, had doubtless been the most important and distinguished place in Argolis; and Argos, although the seat of the earliest civilization, was dependent upon and inferior to it. At Mycenæ were the Cyclopian hall of Eurystheus, and the sumptuous palace of Agamemnon; and though, as Thucydides correctly says, the fortified town was of inconsiderable extent, yet it abounded with stupendous and richly carved monuments, whose semibarbarous but artificial splendour formed a striking contrast with the unornamented and simple style introduced after the Doric period. The Doric conquerors, on the other hand, did not commence their operations upon fortresses secured alike by nature and art, but advanced into the interior from the coast. For near the sea between Lerna and Nauplia, on the mouth of the Phrixus, there was a fortified place named Temenium, from which Temenus the son of Aristomachus, together with the Dorians, carried on a war with Tisamenus and the Achæans, and probably harassed them by repeated incvirsions, until they were obliged to hazard an open battle. From thence the Dorians, after severe struggles, made themselves masters of the town of Argos.