The iron age population of the community was likely Dorian, but other elements may have been present, too. When describing one of Halieis' nearby neighbors, for example, Herodotus (8.43.1) describes the people of Hermione as "...Dryopians, driven out of the country now called Doris by Herakles and the Malians." Fragments of Bakchylides and of the Hellenistic poet Kallimachos seem to support such a tradition at Halieis, too.

Halieis was peripheral to the course of historical events in antiquity as was, for the most part, most of the Argolid peninsula and its other small cities. No great events took place here as far as we can tell, although Halieis does receive brief mention in accounts of the hostilities between Athens and Sparta in the 5th c. BC. At times probably independent, it was at other times subject to the control of powerful states like Athens, Sparta and Argos.

Although prior to the 5th c. BC Halieis as an ancient town is little documented, if at all, there is ample physical evidence for the pre-Classical occupation of the site. The acropolis was fortified perhaps as early as the 7th c. BC and suffered destruction c. 590-580 BC. A sanctuary of Apollo, now under water in the bay of Halieis, was apparently established at least as early as the Archaic period. These and other signs point to a well-established community on the site by this time.

Next to nothing is known of any role Halieis may have played in Greek affairs in the Archaic period. Its strategic position at the mouth of the Gulf of Argos and its well protected harbor, however, must have been viewed as a valuable asset. The fortunes of the community would therefore have moved with the tides of political and military power in the region. At the conclusion of the Persian Wars men of nearby Hermione and Troizen fought with the combined Greek forces at the Battle of Plataea in 479 BC, as recorded on the famous serpent column set up at Delphi. As independent city-states these cities were duly recognized, but if men of Halieis served too there is no record.

A population of Tirynthians settled at Halieis, perhaps in the second quarter of the 5th century BC, in circumstances that will always remain unclear. During this same quarter-century Athens attacked Halieis (c. 460 BC). Of the event Thucydides (1.105.1) merely reports, "...the Athenians, making a descent from their fleet upon Haliai, were engaged by a force of Corinthians and Epidaurians; and the Corinthians were victorious." The inference is that the Peloponnesian forces must already have been at Halieis or nearby. As Michael Jameson has pointed out, it is unlikely that the Peloponnesian forces would have been assembled and dispatched upon learning of the Athenian raid. The notion that these events had to do with establishing a population of Tirynthians at Halieis and a resulting Athenian reaction is worth considering.

What happened in the immediately succeeding years is not recorded, but some time before 446 BC the Spartan commander Aneristos captured Halieis. In a parenthetical remark, Herodotus (7.137) identifies him as "…that Aneristos who landed a merchant ship’s crew at the Tirynthian settlement of Halia and took it…" The implication is that Sparta felt the need to wrest Halieis from the control of Athens or a regime friendly to Athens. Resolving this with the events of c. 460 BC in light of the surviving descriptions is difficult.

The outbreak of the Peloponnesian War in 431 BC brought troubles to Halieis, her territory and to other parts of the southern Argolid peninsula. Thucydides (2.56.5) reports that the Athenians raided the territory of Halieis in 430 BC:

"Arriving at Epidaurus in Peloponnesos they ravaged most of the territory, and even had hopes of taking the town by an assault: in this however they were not successful. Putting out from Epidauros, they laid waste the territory of Troizen, Halieis, and Hermione, all towns on the coast of Peloponnese, and thence sailing to Prasiai, a maritime town in Laconia, ravaged part of its territory, and took and sacked the place itself; after which they returned home, but found the Peloponnesians gone and no longer in Attica."

“Weighing from the islands, the Athenians sailed the same day to Krommyon in the Corinthian territory, about thirteen miles from the city, and coming to anchor laid waste the country, and passed the night there. The next day, after first coasting along to the territory of Epidaurus and making a descent there, they came to Methana between Epidauros and Troizen, and drew a wall across and fortified the isthmus of the peninsula, and left a post there from which incursions were henceforth made upon the country of Troizen, Haliai, and Epidauros. After walling off this spot the fleet sailed off home.“

Ironically, the historical record offers more information about Halieis in the second half of the 5th c. BC than for any other period, despite the archaeological inference that the city's physical extent was more restricted in the second half of the 5th c. BC. The archaeological record indicates that the eastern portion of the city was inhabited from at least the Archaic period to about 460 BC., followed by a gap in the material sequence until about 400 BC. Habitation in the eastern half then resumes, the town flourishing until its abandonment, probably in the early 3rd c. BC. In contrast, the western portion of the city appears to have been occupied continuously, with no gap in the material sequence.

Materially, Halieis appears to have flourished as much in the 4th c. BC as in any other period. Houses, although never more than modest, are well enough appointed and compare favorably with their counterparts in larger cities of the time. That it had achieved a reasonable degree of prosperity may be detected in the city's ability or authority to issue its own coinage in the 4th c. BC, although only in bronze. A good number of these coins carry a palm tree on the reverse, symbolic of the arrival of the Tirynthians in the previous century. The palm tree is the same symbol found on coins of Tiryns itself, and would appear to affirm the Tirynthian connection to Halieis.

It is in this century that Halieis at last begins to receive recognition for its contribution to regional Greek affairs. For example, in the Hellenica, Xenophon enumerates the hoplite participants on the side of Sparta at the Battle of the Nemea River in 394 BC: "... of the Epidaurians, Troizenians, Hermionians, and Halians there were not less than three thousand." (4.2.16); he credits Halieis as a contributor to a fleet of ships organized by Sparta in 374 (6.2.3) and in 370, along with these same neighbors, with aiding Sparta at Prasiai (7.2.2). In the 4th c., too, the names of persons from Halieis are recorded in the epigraphical record of cures at the Asklepieion at Epidauros, but these records appear to represent the last notice of the city's population. By mid-century Halieis may have been caught up in the struggle between Athens and Thebes, although again the record is difficult to parse. As Macedon suddenly rose to power, Halieis, by then possibly allied with Athens, may have capitulated to Philip II along with the neighboring towns.

The archaeological record shows quite clearly that the town was abandoned in the early 3rd c. BC. The acropolis fortifications were destroyed around 300, perhaps by one or other of the Macedonian successors in order to deny it to a rival. In these uncertain times perhaps the population was assimilated into that of its neighbors. Some studies point to a general economic depression at this time; whatever the specific causes, Halieis as a thriving town disappears from the ancient landscape and the site became all but forgotten.

As he passed through the southern Argolid in the 2nd c. AD, Pausanias (2.36.1) describes his route upon leaving Hermione thus:

"Proceeding about seven stades along the straight road to Mases, you reach, upon turning to the left, a road to Halike. At the present day Halike is deserted, but once it, too, had inhabitants, and there is mention made of citizens of Halike on the Epidaurian slabs on which are inscribed the cures of Asklepios. I know, however, no other authentic document in which mention is made either of the city Halike or of its citizens."