 This was due to Spartan support for the independence of Lepreum.As punishment following the surrender of Athens, Elis was forced to surrender Triphylia in 399 BC
Eric W. Robinson has argued that Elis was a democracy by around 500 BC, on the basis of early inscriptions which suggest that the people (the "dāmos") could make and change laws.Robinson further believes that literary sources imply that Elis continued to be democratic until 365, when an oligarchic faction seems to have taken control (Xen.