Epidauros sent men to the Trojan War:
"The men of Argos, again, and those who held the walls of Tiryns, with Hermione, and Asine upon the gulf; Troezene, Eionae, and the vineyard lands of Epidaurus; the Achaean youths, moreover, who came from Aegina and Mases; these were led by Diomed of the loud battle-cry, and Sthenelus son of famed Capaneus. With them in command was Euryalus, son of king Mecisteus, son of Talaus; but Diomed was chief over them all. With these there came eighty ships."
Catalogue of Ships Book II Iliad
At the end of the 6th century B.C., Prokles, ruler of Epidauros, married his daughter, Melissa, to the tyrant of Corinth [see Map bC], Periander. Periander then murdered her and annexed her homeland.
"And Pythaenetus, in the third book of his History of Aegina, says that Periander fell violently in love with Melissa, the daughter of Procles of Epidaurus, when he had seen her clothed in the Peloponnesian fashion (for she had on no cloak, but a single tunic only, and was acting as cupbearer to the young men,) and he married her."
Athenaeus Deipnosophist"For after Periander had killed his wife Melissa, it chanced to him to experience another misfortune in addition to that which had happened to him already, and this was as follows:--He had by Melissa two sons, the one of seventeen and the other of eighteen years. These sons their mother's father Procles, who was despot of Epidauros...."
Herodotus III
Epidaurus also fought in the Persian War. Here's a catalogue of ships from Herodotus:
"1. Those of the Hellenes who had been appointed to serve in the fleet were these: -- the Athenians furnished a hundred and twenty-seven ships, and the Plataians moved by valour and zeal for the service, although they had had no practice in seamanship, yet joined with the Athenians in manning their ships. The Corinthians furnished forty ships, the Megarians twenty; the Chalkidians manned twenty ships with which the Athenians furnished them;[1] the Eginetans furnished eighteen ships, the Sikyonians twelve, the Lacedemonians ten, the Epidaurians eight, the Eretrians seven, the Troizenians five, the Styrians two, the Ceans two ships[2] and two fifty-oared galleys, while the Locrians of Opus came also to the assistance of the rest with seven fifty-oared galleys."
Herodotus Book VIII
Later, Epidauros allied with Sparta (the Lacedaemonians).
"[T]he Argives a second time invaded Epidaurus and plundered the country. The Lacedaemonians also marched out to Caryae; but the frontier sacrifices again proving unfavourable, they went back again, and the Argives, after ravaging about a third of the Epidaurian territory, returned home. Meanwhile a thousand Athenian heavy infantry had come to their aid under the command of Alcibiades, but finding that the Lacedaemonian expedition was at an end, and that they were no longer wanted, went back again.So passed the summer. The next winter the Lacedaemonians managed to elude the vigilance of the Athenians, and sent in a garrison of three hundred men to Epidaurus, under the command of Agesippidas. Upon this the Argives went to the Athenians and complained of their having allowed an enemy to pass by sea, in spite of the clause in the treaty by which the allies were not to allow an enemy to pass through their country. Unless, therefore, they now put the Messenians and Helots in Pylos to annoy the Lacedaemonians, they, the Argives, should consider that faith had not been kept with them. The Athenians were persuaded by Alcibiades to inscribe at the bottom of the Laconian pillar that the Lacedaemonians had not kept their oaths, and to convey the Helots at Cranii to Pylos to plunder the country; but for the rest they remained quiet as before. During this winter hostilities went on between the Argives and Epidaurians, without any pitched battle taking place, but only forays and ambuscades, in which the losses were small and fell now on one side and now on the other. At the close of the winter, towards the beginning of spring, the Argives went with scaling ladders to Epidaurus, expecting to find it left unguarded on account of the war and to be able to take it by assault, but returned unsuccessful. And the winter ended, and with it the thirteenth year of the war ended also.
In the middle of the next summer the Lacedaemonians, seeing the Epidaurians, their allies, in distress, and the rest of Peloponnese either in revolt or disaffected, concluded that it was high time for them to interfere if they wished to stop the progress of the evil, and accordingly with their full force, the Helots included, took the field against Argos, under the command of Agis, son of Archidamus, king of the Lacedaemonians."
Thucydides Chapter XVI
In 243, the Epidaurians joined the Achaian (Achaean) League:
"But, in my opinion, this exploit of Aratus is the last which the Greeks have to boast of. Indeed, whether we consider the boldness of the enterprise, or the good fortune which attended it, it equals the greatest upon record. The same appears from its immediate consequences ; 3 the Megarians revolted from Antigonus, and joined Aratus ; the Troezenians and Epidaurians too ranged themselves on the side of the Achaeans."Later, Epidauros became a friend of Rome.
Plutarch Life of Aratus
Epidauros is known as the birthplace of Apollo's son, the healing god Asklepios, and for managing the nearby Asklepieion, sanctuary of the healing god. There were mineral springs and guesthouses at the sanctuary. Asklepios was popular and his sanctuary rich, until Sulla in 87 B.C. and pirates in 67 B.C. plundered it. It was renovated in the second century A.D. and then raided by Alaric's Goths in 395. The healing god was replaced by the healing power of Christ and saints in the 5th century.
Epidauros is also the site of the best-preserved theater from ancient Greece. The circle of orchestra is 20 m across; it has 55 rows of seats in an area 114 m across. Pausanias thought it was especially worth seeing because of its symmetry and beauty. It was built in the 4th century B.C., from the native limestone, by Polykleitos the younger. It is remarkable for exceptional acoustics.
Sources:
Ancient Greece: Art, Architecture, and History, by Marina Belozerskaya, Kenneth D. S. Lapatin
