Elis is in southern Greece on the Peloponnese, bounded on the north by Achaea, east by Arcadia, south by Messenia, and west by the Ionian Sea.

They are mentioned by Homer[8] for the first time in Greek history under the title of Epeians (Epeii), as setting out for the Trojan War, and they are described by him as living in a state of constant hostility with their neighbours the Pylians.

[citation needed] The attempts which the Pisatans made to recover their lost privilege, during a period of nearly two hundred years, ended at length in the total destruction of their city by the Eleans.

At the Battle of Mantinea (418 BC), the Eleans fought against the Spartans, who later took vengeance upon them by depriving them of Triphylia and the towns of the Acroreia.

The Eleans made no attempt to re-establish their authority over these places until Thebes rose in importance after the Battle of Leuctra (371 BC).

[9] Unable to make headway against their opponents, they applied for assistance to the Spartans, who invaded Arcadia and forced the Arcadians to recall their troops from Elis.

The games still continued to attract large numbers of visitors, until they were finally ended by Theodosius in 394 AD, two years before the utter destruction of the country by the Gothic invasion under Alaric I.

[10] Robinson further believes that literary sources imply that Elis continued to be democratic until 365, when an oligarchic faction seems to have taken control (Xen.

[11]: 29–31  At some point in the mid-fourth century, democracy may have been restored; at least, we hear that a particularly narrow oligarchy was replaced by a new constitution designed by Phormio of Elis, a student of Plato (Arist.

Pisatis extended south from Koilē Elis to the right bank of the river Alpheios, and was divided into eight departments named after as many towns.

It was located at the exit of the river Peneios from the mountains into the plain in the area of today's Ilida Municipality north of Kalyvia.

It is said to have been founded in 471 BC by synoecism, however it is unclear what the ancient sources mean by this, the city already existed in the same place before and there were separate communities in the region of Elis before and after.

[15] Nowadays Elis is a small village of 150 citizens located 14 kilometres (8.7 mi) NE of Amaliada, built over the ruins of the ancient town.

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.