Antiquity In antiquity,
Argos Orestikon was the main town of the
Orestae, in
Upper Macedonia. It was said to have been founded by
Orestes, the son of
Agamemnon, who fled from
Argos in the
Peloponnese after the murder of his mother
Clytemnestra. The exact location of classical
Argos Orestikon has not been found. Based on
epigraphic evidence, the administrative centre of the Orestae lay near the centre of the present town Argos Orestiko, at a site named "Armenochori". During the campaign of
Alexander the Great to the East, settlers from the town founded another Argos Orestikon to distant Scythian steppes during the 4th century BCE.
Modern period At least since the 16th century, Argos Orestiko has a notable annual
trade fair. Towards the end of the 18th century,
Aromanians from
Moscopole settled in the town; later more followed from the villages of
Gramosta and
Samarina. At the turn of the 20th century, the town of Argos Orestiko was inhabited by Greeks, Aromanians,
Bulgarians, and
Turks. In the late Ottoman period, the town was wealthy, had four mosques and many of its Muslim population were involved in agriculture and trade. During the end of the 19th century, it had a number of Greek schools, but also a Bulgarian and Romanian one; at that time, the Greek language prevailed in the town, even among Aromanians and Bulgarians, The 1920 Greek census recorded 3,603 people in the town and 1,500 inhabitants (200 families) were Muslim in 1923. After the population exchange, the main mosque of the town was replaced with a church built and dedicated to
Saint Paraskevi; the other three mosques were destroyed. In 1945, Greek Foreign Minister Ioannis Politis ordered the compilation of demographic data regarding the Prefecture of Kastoria. The town Argos Orestiko had a total of 4,100 inhabitants, including 1,370
Slavophones. ==Municipality==