The writers just quoted, following Helbig, imagine the ancient naukraries pursuing their naval activities as members of the Kalaurian league, and the latter, which lasted on as a religious body through classical times, as gradually taking a back place with the development of the other naval states they mention. Their picture however leaves out of account the chief fact known about the history of the league. Its original members were Hermione, Epidaurus, Aegina, Athens, Prasiae, Nauplia, and the Minyan Orchomenos. Then at the end of the list Strabo adds, “Nauplia used to be represented by Argos, and Prasiae by Sparta[1632].” Strabo is here referring to a later period. It looks as though Argos and Sparta were intruders into the league, who sought membership to secure influence or a recognized position in the Saronic Gulf, just as in later times Philip of Macedon, for political reasons, set such store on recognition by the Delphic Amphictyony[1633]. Is it unreasonable to suppose that the two intruders secured their places in the league each at the time of his aspirations to Peloponnesian hegemony, Sparta in the sixth century, and Argos under Pheidon? All the known circumstances bear out this supposition, at least for Argos which alone at present concerns us. It fits alike the naval power of Athens in the dark ages, the eclipse of that power in the seventh century, and the expansion of Argos just at this period. Nauplia is said by Pausanias[1634] to have fallen to Argos only at the end of the seventh century. But Asine, which lies further from Argos, is said to have been conquered by her a hundred years earlier[1635]. Beloch argues with some reason that the nearer city must have been conquered first. But there is no need to follow him in his passion for lowering dates, and bring down the time of the conquest of Asine. There is more reason for putting back the date of the fall of Nauplia, and thus bringing it into the period of Argive expansion under Pheidon[1636]. Make this not unlikely modification in the picture just quoted from Mitchell and Caspari, and the early war between Athens and Aegina finds a satisfactory historical setting. Before the war Athens, Epidaurus, and Aegina are the leading states in the Saronic Gulf. As a result of it Athens is crippled at sea, and her place, and even more than her place, is taken by Argos. The evidence is admittedly scanty, but as far as it goes it points to the first Aeginetan war as marking the downfall of the naval power that Athens had enjoyed during the dark ages, or, as the legend puts it, after the fall of Minos, when the Kalaurian league and the navy of the naukraries were potent realities. The power that brings about this downfall is that of the Argive tyrant Pheidon. Appendix D (to p. 170). _Early Athenian Dress_