The city of ARGOS, as I have already stated, was not founded till after the time of the Doric immigration; but its castle Larissa (Larissa is the Pelasgian name for castle) was older, and was situated on a considerable height; we may even now discern the Cyclopian walls described by Pausanias. The city had a great circumference, and was built around the castle of Larissa, stretching from that hill through a plain, and up another hill. It was not strongly fortified, nor is its natural position of any particular strength. Argos is one of those cities which did not suffer much from the calamities of Greece, if we except the one devastation by the Spartans under Cleomenes before the period of the Persian war. But it decayed, and appears to have suffered particularly during the war of Pyrrhus. Pausanias does not say, whether the Romans, after the destruction of Corinth, visited Argos in the same way, but the verse of Virgil[14] (_Eruet ille Argos_) leads us to believe that they did. Under the Roman emperors, it sank so low as to be obliged to petition the emperor Julian to exempt it from its contribution to the Isthmian games. In the middle ages, during the tenth and eleventh centuries, Argos was a considerable manufacturing town, and was particularly distinguished for the manufacture of silk. Afterwards it was destroyed by Robert Guiscard, and then a second time by the Turks. Subsequently a colony of Albanese established itself there, and last year (1826) it was completely reduced to ashes. MYCENAE, at a distance of forty-three stadia from Argos, was situated on a hill; at the time when Greece was most flourishing, Mycenae was no more than a name, for after the Persian wars, the town, together with Tiryns was completely destroyed by the Argives. The inhabitants of the two towns had availed themselves of the Persian war for the purpose of gaining their independence, by sending a small band to assist the Greeks at Plataeae. The Argives, who took no part in the Persian war, afterwards punished them for it, while the other Greeks, contrary to their promise, did nothing to prevent it; and the two places became the victims of an inconsiderate act. The ruins of Mycenae and Tiryns, which still exist, are about the same as those seen by Pausanias: they are the grandest Cyclopian structures in southern Europe. The lion-gate of Mycenae, constructed of huge blocks of stone, with its pointed arch and the two rudely carved lions above it, may still be seen. These remains, as well as those of Orchomenos are striking proofs, that the greatness of the ante-Doric period, which is immortalised in the works of the poets, is not a mere dream. The circumference of the walls of Mycenae is still considerable, and the city was well suited to be the residence of the king of kings.