Asine
Asine is a Greek city on the coast of ancient Argolis. Homer mentions it in the Catalogue of Ships in the Iliad as one of the places subject to Diomedes, king of Argos. It is said to have been founded by the Dryopes, who originally dwelt on Mount Parnassus. In one of the early wars between the Lacedaemonians and the Argives, the Asinaeans joined the former when they invaded the Argive territory under their king Nicander; but as soon as the Lacedaemonians returned home, the Argives laid siege to Asine and razed it to the ground, sparing only the sanctuary of Pythaëus Apollo. The Asinaeans escaped by sea; and the Lacedaemonians gave to them, after the end of the First Messenian War, a portion of the Messenian territory, where they built a new town. Nearly ten centuries after the destruction of the city its ruins were visited by Pausanias, who found the sanctuary of Apollo still visible.
It is located near the modern Tolon.
Starting in 1922, Swedish archaeologists led by Axel W. Persson found the acropolis of ancient Asine surrounded by a Cyclopean wall and a Mycenaean era necropolis with many Mycenaean chamber tombs containing skeletal remains and grave goods. Excavations have continued since then almost continuously under the Swedish Institute at Athens.
During the Second World War, Italian troops built machine gun nests on the site.