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Elis () or Eleia (; ; Elean: Ϝᾶλις ; ) was an ancient district in the northwestern Peloponnese in Greece, roughly corresponding to modern regional unit of Elis. It was bounded to the northeast by Achaea, east by Arcadia, south by Messenia, and west by the Ionian Sea. The region is a fertile lowland with extensive plains, watered by the Peneus, Alfeios and other rivers that flow down from the Arcadian highlands. The region's name is probably cognate with the English 'valley'.
The Eleans traced their roots back to the mythical Dorian invasion. They united into a single polis ("city-state") centred on the city of Elis in 471 BC. Over the course of the archaic and classical periods, the city gradually gained control of much of the region of Elis, most probably through unequal treaties with other cities; many inhabitants of Elis were Perioeci—autonomous free non-citizens.Roy, J. "The Perioikoi of Elis." The Polis as an Urban Centre and as a Political Community. Ed. M.H. Hansen. Acts of the Copenhagen Polis Centre 4. Copenhagen: Det Kongelige Danske Videnskabernes Selskab, Historisk-filosofiske Meddelelser 75, 1997. 282–232 Elis' main claim to fame was its control over the sanctuary at Olympia and the Olympic games.
Before the end of the 8th century BC, the Eleans had vanquished the Minyans and Epeians. Over the archaic period, they expanded their control of the region through conquest and treaties, reducing many of the surrounding communities to perioeci (non-citizen dependent communities). The Eleans enjoyed the support of Sparta in this process. The sanctuary of Olympia and the Olympic games, which were re-established in 776 BC, were initially controlled by the city of Pisa, but Elis contested this. They gained control of the sanctuary and games around 576 BC and destroyed the city of Pisa in 572 BC. In 570 BC,
When the Peloponesian War broke out between Classical Athens and Sparta in 431 BC, Elis sided at first with Sparta. But the city state joined Argos and Classical Athens in an alliance against Sparta in 421 BC due to Spartan support for the independence of Lepreum. The Eleans banned the Spartans from participating in the Olympic Games of 420 BC and defeated them in battle when they tried to participate anyway. The Eleans did not participate in the Battle of Mantinea in 418 BC, at which the Spartans definitively defeated the alliance. After the Peloponnesian War, Elis and Lepreum fought against Sparta in the Spartan-Elean War (402-400 BC), but they were defeated. As a result, in 399 BC, the Spartans forced the Eleans to rejoin the Peloponnesian League and made them give up Triphylia and the peroecic communities in Acroreia.
The Eleans attempted to re-establish their authority over these places after Thebes ended the Spartan hegemony at the Battle of Leuctra in 371 BC. They successfully retook the old peroecic communities in the north, but the newly established Arcadian League came to the assistance of the Triphylians in the south. After an oligarchic revolution in 365 BC, the Eleans launched a war with the Arcadians for the territory, which lasted until 363 BC. In the course of the war, the city of Elis was very nearly sacked by the Arcadians and the Eleans were forced to give up control of Olympia, but the Spartans came to their rescue and forced the Arcadians to withdraw. The territory of Triphylia was ceded to Arcadia.
According to Polybius, Elis had an unusual agricultural economy for the Peloponnese in this period, which was characterised by large estates. These estates had large numbers of slave labourers and were particularly focussed on animal husbandry. The owners of these estates spent most of their time in residence and rarely visited the city of Elis, as a result of which the Eleans instituted a system of travelling judges to ensure these people had access to justice.
Like other parts of the Peloponnese, the number of rural settlements declined in the Imperial period, as small farms were consolidated into larger estates. The city of Elis and other surviving urban centres probably increased in size. The social elite remained stable until the third century AD. Many Elean elite families in this period had roots going back to the Hellenistic Period or earlier. From the late first cenutry BC onwards, prominent families began to receive Roman citizenship. They often had connections and citizenship in other cities within the province of Achaia. Many Eleans held important positions in the revived Achaian League. A very few elite Elean individuals entered the overall Imperial elite, becoming equites. But this was rare and no Eleans are known to have risen to the status of Roman senator.
The Olympic Games continued in the first stages of the conversion of the Roman Empire to Christianity, but were finally ended by Theodosius I in 394 AD, two years before the utter destruction of the country by the Visigoths invasion under Alaric I. According to Hierocles's Synecdemus, Elis was a bishopric in the 6th century AD, subject to the bishop of Corinth. From the 9th century, the region prospered as part of the theme of the Peloponnese, with bishoprics at Olenus and Moreas.
Koilē Elis, the largest and most northern of the three, was watered by the river Peneus and its tributary, the Ladon. The district was famous during antiquity for its cattle and horses. Pisatis extended south from Koilē Elis to the right bank of the river Alfeios River, and was divided into eight departments named after as many towns. Triphylia stretched south from the Alpheios to the river Neda.
The first excavations in Elis were carried out from 1910 to 1914 by the Austrian Archaeological Institute under the direction of Otto Walter. From 1960 to 1981 the Archaeological Society of Athens carried out further excavations under the direction of Nikolaos Yalouris with Austrian participation. Some of the finds are exhibited in the local archaeological museum founded in 1981, for which a new building was built in 2003.
Nowadays Elis is a small village of 150 citizens located NE of Amaliada, built over the ruins of the ancient town. It has one of the most well-preserved ancient theaters in Greece. Built in the fourth century BC, the theater had a capacity of 8,000 people; below it, Early Helladic, sub-Mycenaean and Protogeometric graves have been found.Eder B. 2001, "Die submykenischen und protogeometrischen Graber von Elis", Athens
In Hesychius (s.v. βαρβαρόφωνοι) and other ancient lexica, Towle, James A. Commentary on Plato: Protagoras, 341c. Eleans are also listed as barbarophones. Indeed, the Doric Greek dialect of Elis is, after the Aeolic dialects, one of the most difficult for the modern reader of epigraphic texts. Sophie Minon. Les Inscriptions Éléennes Dialectales (VI-II siècle avant J.-C.). Volume I: Textes. Volume II: Grammaire et Vocabulaire Institutionnel. École Pratique des Hautes Études Sciences historiques et philogiques III. Hautes Études du Monde Gréco-Romain 38. Genève: Librairie Droz S.A., 2007. .
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