Argos, one of the major cities of ancient Greece , held power of an impressive standing army equipped as hoplites during Greek Archaic era, before the rise of Sparta In fact Argos might have introduced the phalanx formation with 512 members of which 128 members, who formed an elite group at its core, and an elite cavalry corps known as the 300 Knights of Hippobotai as well
Argos has not had the reputation of military might to this day as its power faded when Sparta defeated and weakened it to such extent that Argos remained as a secondary military state