Elis and Pisa: Archaic conflict or Classical construction?

Abstract

This paper considers the significance of the report in <i>Pausanias</i> (6.22.2-4) of conflicts between the Eleians and Pisaians in the Archaic period. Scholars, readily converting the Olympiad numbers recorded by Pausanias into dates in the Julian calendar, have often seen this passage as evidence of a conflict between Elis and Pisa over control of Olympia early in the sixth century BC. In 1910, however, Niese argued that this report was most likely a construction of the mid-fourth century BC, when the Arcadian League captured Olympia and a newly-established polity called 'the Pisatans' presided over the Olympic games.