ELIS, or Elea, a province in the north-west of the Peloponnesus, which was comprehended in its greatest extent between the promontory Araxus, where it touched on Achaia, and the river Neda, which separated it from Messenia. In the interior it was separated from Arcadia by the ridges of Mount Phołoë, and farther south by a continuation of the mountains from Arcadia.

In earlier times this tract of country was divided into three distinct principalities independent of each other. The most northern was surrounded by the lofty mountain Pholoë, which, sending out two ridges towards the coast, the one towards the promontory Araxus, the other towards the promontory Chelnatas, inclosed a large extent of champaign country, called from this circumstance the Hollow Elis (⅛ xo∕λ>; Hλ∕ς). The second principality was named Pisatis, and through its territories flowed the river Alpheus; whilst the district to the south was called Triphylia.

Elis was by far the most fertile and populous district of the Peloponnesus, chiefly because its extensive plains enjoyed an almost uninterrupted state of peace. Towards the coast the soil becomes sandy; a broad belt of sand stretches along the sea nearly as tar as the Triphylian Pylos, so often called by Homer “the sandy.” This tract of country is but little raised above the level of the sea, and from that reason a number of small lakes or lagoons have been formed, which extend along the greater part of the coast. It was the only district in Greece which produced flax; but this, though equal in fineness, was far inferior in colour, to that of Palestine. Another extraordinary circumstance[7:8:670] was, that no mules could be here engendered, though they abounded in the adjacent district.

At a very early period we find it under the government of Endymion, and called the kingdom of the Epci. Homer was acquainted with the divine Elis, where the Epei ruled. His son Aetolus having accidentally committed a murder, was obliged to fly, and proceeded to found a kingdom on the opposite coast, called from him Aetolia. He was succeeded by Eleus, the grandson of Endymion, who gave name to the country, and after him came Augeas, who was put to death by Hercules because he refused him the reward he had promised for clearing out his stables. We now lose sight of Elis till the irruption of the Heraclidae into Greece, eighty years after the destruction of Troy, when Oxylus, a descendant of Aetolus, offered to become their guide, on condition of receiving the province of Elis, which he considered as the inheritance of bis family. A numerous body of Aetolians attended him, and uniting cordially with the native inhabitants of Elis, they conquered a great part of Pisatis, and took possession of Olympia about 1190 before Christ. Then it was that the Olympic games were first established on the banks of the river Alpheus, though they were not regularly celebrated till the year 776 before Christ, when Coroebus obtained the prize of victory. In the wars between Messenia and Sparta, they were faithful allies of the latter; and with their assistance they took possession of the whole country belonging to the Caucones and Minyae, to which the name of Triphylia was then given. During the Peloponnesian war, we still find them staunch supporters of Spartan politics; and they continued so till the conclusion of the treaty after the battle of Amphipolis, when the countenance afforded by the Spartans to the independent movements of the people of Lepreum produced a rupture between the two nations. Elis endeavoured to take vengeance on the Spartans, by excluding them from all participation in the Olympic games; but the marauding invasions of the Spartans were soon so severely felt, that the inhabitants of Elis were glad to sue for peace, and to renew their ancient alliance with Sparta. In the year 365 before Christ, a few years after the battle of Leuctra, they were engaged in war with the Arcadians, and were so unsuccessful that they were compelled to cede the greater portion of their southern possessions. During the Social War, the Eleans were staunch allies of the Aetolians, and no reverses could detach them from the cause which they had joined, or induce them to unite with the Achaean League. These seem to have been the last events in which the Eleans took part as an independent people; and we find them finally included in the general decree which annexed the whole of Greece to the Roman empire.

Elis, the chief city of the district of Elis, in the Peloponnesus, situated on the banks of the river Peneus, 120 stadia from the sea, and first formed into a district corporation by the union of several detached villages after the Persian war, about 490 years before Christ. The people of this portion of Greece had for ages been devoted to the pleasures of a country life, and they had been able to indulge this natural desire by the sacred character which had been long attached to their territory. At the time when Oxylus got possession of this fertile province, and became master of the temple of Olympia, he had such influence with the Heraclidae as to obtain from them the sanction of an oath that this district should be considered as under the immediate protection of the god whose festival was there solemnized. This seems to have been so strictly attended to that those who founded the city did not think it necessary to surround it with walls, or to take any steps to ward off the attack of an enemy. In the unsettled times which followed the death of Alexander, Elis was occupied, and probably fortified, by Telesphorus, who commanded the fleet of Antigonus. (Diodor. xix. 87; Strab. viii. 357; Xen. Hall. iii. 2, 20.) It appears, in the time of Pausanias, to have still retained much of its former beauty and magnificence, if we may be allowed to judge from the account he has left us of the public buildings. “Its ruins,” says he, “are found now at a spot called Paleopoli, consisting of several masses of Roman tile and mortar, with many wrought blocks of stone and fragments of sculpture scattered over a space of two or three miles in circumference. The most remarkable of the ruins is that of a square building of about twenty feet on the outside, which is in the form of an octagon with niches. Like most of the other remains, it is built of alternate strata of Roman tile and stone rubble.” (Leake’s j ∖ [orea, vol. i. p. 6.)