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THE SANCTUARY OF
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THE See also:SANCTUARY OF APHAEA
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tmery See also: 49 with 94). There are difficulties in this See also:story, of which the following are the See also:principal:—(i.) Herodotus nowhere states or implies that See also:peace was concluded between the two states before 481 B.c., nor does he distinguish between different See also:wars during this See also:period. Hence it would follow that the See also:war lasted from shortly after 507 B.C. down to the See also:congress at the See also:Isthmus of See also:Corinth in 481 B.C. (ii.) It is only for two years (490 and 491) out of the twenty-five that any details are given. It is the more remarkable that no incidents are recorded in the period between See also:Marathon and See also:Salamis, seeing that at the time of the Isthmian Congress the war is described as the most important one then being waged in See also:Greece (Herod. vii. 145). (iii.) It is improbable that Athens would have sent twenty vessels to the aid of the See also:Ionians in 498 B.C. if at the time she was at war with Aegina. (iv.) There is an incidental indication of time, which points to the period after Marathon as the true date for the events which are referred by Herodotus to the See also:year before Marathon, viz. the See also:thirty years that were to elapse between the See also:dedication of the See also:precinct to See also:Aeacus and the final victory of Athens (Herod. v. 8g). As the final victory of Athens over Aegina was in 458 B.C., the thirty years of the See also:oracle would carry us back to the year 488 B.e. as the date of the dedication of the precinct and the outbreak of hostilities. This inference is supported by the date of the See also:building of the 200 triremes " for the war against See also:Regina " on the See also:advice of See also:Themistocles, which is given in the Constitution of Athens as 483–482 B.C. (Herod. vii. 144; See also:Ath. Pol. 22. 7). It 3s probable, therefore, that Herodotus is in See also:error- both in' tracing back the beginning of hostilities to an See also:alliance between See also:Thebes and Aegina (c. 507) and in putting the See also:episode of Nicodromus before Marathon. Overtures were unquestionably made by Thebes for an alliance with Aegina c. 507 B.C., but they came to nothing. The refusal of Aegina was veiled under the See also:diplomatic See also:form of " sending the Aeacidae." The real occasion of the out-break of the war was the refusal of Athens to restore the hostages some twenty years later. There was but one war, and it lasted from 488 to 481. That Athens had the worst of it in this war is certain. Herodotus had no Athenian victories to See also:record after the initial success, and the fact that Themistocles was able to carry his proposal to devote the surplus funds of the See also:state to the building of so large a fleet seems to imply that the Athenians were themselves convinced that a supreme effort was necessary. It may be noted, in See also:confirmation of this view, that the See also:naval supremacy of Aegina is assigned by the See also:ancient writer$ on See also:chronology to precisely this period, i.e. the years 490–480 (See also:Eusebius, Chron. Can. p. 337). In the repulse of See also:Xerxes it is possible that the Aeginetans played a larger See also:part than is conceded to them by Herodotus. The Athenian tradition, which he follows in the See also:main, would naturally seek to obscure their services., It was to Aegina, rather than Athens that the See also:prize of valour at Salamis was awarded, and the destruction of the See also:Persian fleet appears to have been as much the See also:work of the Aeginetan contingent as of the Athenian (Herod. viii. 91). There are other indications, too, of the importance of the Aeginetan fleet in the See also:Greek See also:scheme of See also:defence. In view of these considerations it becomes difficult to See also:credit the number of the vessels that is assigned to them by Herodotus (30 as against 18o Athenian vessels, cf. GREEK See also:HISTORY, See also:sect. Authorities). During the next twenty years the See also:philo-laconian policy of See also:Cimon (q.v.) secured Aegina, as a member of the Spartan See also:league, from attack. The See also:change in Athenian See also:foreign policy, which was consequent upon the See also:ostracism of Cimon in 461, led to what is sometimes called the First Peloponnesian War, in which the brunt of the fighting See also:fell upon Corinth and Aegina. The latter state was forced to surrender to Athens after a See also:siege, and to accept the position of a subject-ally (c. 456 B.c.). The See also:tribute was fixed at 30 talents. By the terms of the Thirty Years' Truce (445 B.C.) Athens covenanted to restore to Aegina her See also:autonomy, but the clause ` remained a dead See also:letter. In the first See also:winter of the Peloponnesian War (431 B.C.) Athens expelled the Aeginetans, and established a See also:cleruchy in their island. The exiles were settled by Sparta in Thyreatis, on the frontiers of See also:Laconia and Argolis. Even in their new See also:home they were not safe from Athenian rancour.' A force landed under See also:Nicias in 424, and put most of them to the See also:sword. At the end of the Peloponnesian War See also:Lysander restored the scattered remnants of the old inhabitants to the island, which was used by the Spartans as a See also:base for operations against Athens in the Corinthian War. Its greatness, however, was . at an end. The part which it plays hence-forward is insignificant. It would be a See also:mistake to attribute the fall of Aegina solely to the development of the Athenian See also:navy. It is probable that the See also:power of Aegina had steadily declined during the twenty years after Salamis, and that it had declined absolutely, as well as relatively, to that of Athens. See also:Commerce was the source of Aegina's greatness, and her See also:trade, which appears to have been principally with the See also:Levant, must have suffered seriously from the war with See also:Persia. Her medism in 491 is to be explained by her commercial relations with the Persian See also:Empire. She was forced into patriotism in spite of herself, and the See also:glory won at Salamis was paid for by the loss of her trade and the decay of her marine. The completeness of the ruin of so powerful a state—we should look in vain for an analogous See also:case in the history of the See also:modern See also:world—finds an explanation in the economic conditions of the island, the prosperity of which rested upon a basis of slave-labour. It is impossible, indeed, to accept See also:Aristotle's (cf. See also:Athenaeus vi. 272) estimate of 470,000 as the ' See also:Pericles called Aegina the "See also:eye-sore" See also:Nun) of the See also:Peiraeus. number of the slave-See also:population; it is clear; however, that the number must have been out of all proportion to that of the See also:free inhabitants. See also:Im this respect the history of Aegina does but anticipate the history of Greece as a whole. The constitutional history of Aegina is unusually See also:simple. So See also:long as the island retained its See also:independence the See also:government was an See also:oligarchy. There is no trace of the heroic See also:monarchy and no tradition of a tyrannis. The story of Nicodromus, while it proves the existence of a democratic party, suggests, at the same time, that it could See also:count upon little support.' (2) Modern.—Aegina passed with the See also:rest of Greece under the successive dominations of Macedon, the Aetolians, Attains of See also:Pergamum and See also:Rome. In 1537 the island, then a prosperous Venetian See also:colony, was overrun and ruined by the pirate See also:Barbarossa (Khair-ed-Din). One of the last Venetian strongholds in the Levant, it was ceded by the treaty of Passarowitz (1718) to the See also:Turks. In 1826–1828 the See also:town became for a time the See also:capital of Greece and the centre of a large commercial population (about 1o,000), which has dwindled to about 4300. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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