Elis was a Greek city-state that was located in the northwestern Peloponnese region. It borders Achaea to the north, to the east by Arcadia, to the south by Messenia, and to the west by the Ionian Sea; Elis served as its capital. Elis participated in the Trojan War, and it was home to the first Olympic games in 776 BC; the city of Elis was amalgamated from multiple smaller villages in 471 BC. Elis was a democracy by 500 BC, and it remained a democracy until 365 BC, when the oligarchs seized power, and democracy was briefly restored in the mid-4th century BC. The classical democracy was ruled by a council of 500-600 people, and it had several other public officials regularly submitted to public audits. Elis was absorbed into the Roman Republic in 146 BC.
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