ABSTRACT
The Argive intervention at Helos, and the Spartan attempt to avert the fate of Asine, unsuccessful though they were, mark the beginning of the long-lasting conflict between Argos and Sparta. In the seventh century bc when both states had extended their authority beyond the normal, restrained geographical limits of a Greek city state, the conflict first reached serious proportions. The phraseology is possibly an anachronism; although the struggle extended further over the Peloponnese, there are no real signs that Argos was trying to establish total domination. Argos had already become an ally of the Arcadians who were worried by the aggressive policies of Sparta in the late eighth century, and that Sparta's action against Argos, at Hysiai and, perhaps, earlier in the Thyreatis, was intended to weaken the threat that such a combination posed to her.
