The eastern slope of Larisa and the flat ground to its east was settled in the Late Bronze Age by the Dorians, and their settlement and temple became the nucleus of Classical Argos.

[2]: 124 Argive history is somewhat sketchy for part of the next century due to unsettled conditions there — according to an Athenian court case of Pseudo-Demosthenes, the Argolic Gulf was full of pirates who sold their stolen goods in the agora at Argos with impunity[2]: 143  — but at some point before 272 B.C.

They surrounded only the important parts of the classical city and did not attempt to reach the sea at Nauplia like the earlier long walls, extending a maximum of only 300 meters east from Larisa before turning north to eventually complete their circuit at Aspis.

After Philip's defeat at the Battle of Cynoscephalae, Flamininus marched his army to link up with the Achaean force at Cleonae, from whence they proceeded to the Argive plain to besiege Argos.

After initial skirmishing, Flamininus waited outside the walls to see if the Argives would rise up against Nabis; when they did not, he was persuaded by his Greek allies to march south to attack Sparta instead, as the Spartans were the ultimate source of the conflict.

In the 14th century it underwent repairs to its foundations, and under its new bailiffs, the brothers Walter and Francis Foucherolles, held fast despite the depredations of the Catalan Company, which had conquered the Duchy of Athens, and were threatening the Argolid as well.

A year later, Argos town was sacked by troops of the Ottoman dynasty fresh from their victory over a Crusader army at the Battle of Nicopolis; these had already temporarily occupied Athens and would go on to defeat Theodore before ravaging the rest of the Peloponnese and then withdrawing.

At one point during the War of Independence the monastery was briefly used as a national mint to strike coins for the provisional government, before this function was transferred to a facility on Aegina.