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Talk:Aegean civilization

usefulness questioned
I'm questioning the usefulness of this entry...we've come a long way in understanding the Myceneans since 1911, and I think all but the broadest outlines of this have changed. For that matter, I think we've even reversed the switch in nomenclature from "Mycenean civilization" to "Aegean civilization" touted in the first paragraph here. -- Paul Drye

I also question the usefulness of this entry (well, now these three entries). In fact I would say their usefulness is approximately zero, unless they are moved to an article describing the state of knowledge in 1911...but what would be the point of that? Someone needs to rewrite them...I could try, but I only have a very basic knowledge. Adam Bishop 20:38, 12 Sep 2003 (UTC)

Confusion
This article seems a mixture of Minoan civilization and Mycenaean Greece, the distinctiveness of these two cultures being obviated in the course. The earliest entry in the History of Greece series points here, when one would expect a greater discussion of the Minoans. I'll post this query to Talk:History of Greece as well, but I'm wondering, Why is this article needed? Is it a holdover from the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica that has outlived its usefulness? Was it meant to serve as a broader discussion of Minoan [I]and[/I] Mycenaean civilizations? --RJC Talk 6 July 2005 04:16 (UTC)

Legends
Under Evidence | Internal Evidence | Written Documents, the article mentions "legends written with pigment on pottery (rare)", and the word "legends" is linked to the Wikipedia article on 'legend'--an article that talks about legends as being "a narrative of human actions". Surely the "legends" on pottery are not this, but some kind of label, aren't they? You can't write an entire story in pigment on a pot, can you? Mcswell (talk) 21:42, 16 April 2008 (UTC)

Inaccurate date ?
The start of the chronology section describes 1st Dynasty Egypt as being 4000BC - surely that should read 3000BC ? I'm not confident about the actual date these vases were from so will leave it for someone who is. Adamssimon 14:16, 8 March 2006 (UTC)

And indeed the dating of Khyan to 1900 BC and Dyn 11/12 to 2500 BC are inaccurate. However, these dates are used for the chronology of the Minoan civilization and not the Aegean-Myceanean culture. --JFK 13:52, 10 April 2006 (UTC)

Merge request removed
I removed a request from an IP user to merge this page with Minoan civilization. If there is to be an Aegean civilization article, it will have to cover the Minoan, Mycenaean, and Cycladic cultures. Since the current Aegean civilization article appears to be crap, I suggest deleting most of its content and replacing it with a very short description of how the Minoan, Mycenaean, and Cycladic civilizations relate to one another, with pointers to the appropriate main articles. Of course, there doesn't seem to be a Cycladic civilization article yet. --Akhilleus (talk) 04:51, 10 April 2006 (UTC)

Revising the article
Ok, no one seems to be all that interested in this article, but I thought I'd see if anyone objects to my intended direction: to eliminate most of the content of this article. Very little of it is worth retaining, except maybe the history of archaeological discovery at the end. --Akhilleus (talk) 03:07, 15 April 2006 (UTC)
 * I'm interested - busy, but interested. I, for one, have no objections to your deleting the outdated information. --Jpbrenna 21:19, 23 May 2006 (UTC)

Aegean civilization
J. D. Redding 22:37, 1 August 2008 (UTC)
 * This picture, to state it more professionally, creates a slight vacuum by drawing out the air from a small enclosed region. You can't even read it. With all the fine, lucid, attractive drawings and diagrams and maps that have been made on this topic why would anyone want to put this thing in? There seems to be somewhat of a lack of confidence in presenting Aegean civilization. I assure you this is all well known and standard in the field and has been for over a century.Dave (talk) 10:43, 3 June 2011 (UTC)

Cycladic periodization
Have you got something against Middle Cycladic and Late Cycladic? Because, the standard classification is, E, M and L Helladic, Cycladic and Minoan. We don't need to switch to editorial commentary on MC and LC. Use the standard classification. Present your apologetics, if any, under those topics.Dave (talk) 10:37, 3 June 2011 (UTC)

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citation needed
I note the notes don't start until well down in the article, long after they should. I'm having a problem with the scope of the term "Aegean." The last I heard it did not include mainland Greece. From here it looks like WP editorialization. Please give me a reference or two to credible theoreticians; ideally, the origin of this application.Botteville (talk) 12:16, 8 December 2018 (UTC)
 * I don't think so - all these use it in exactly the same sense: rather elderly book, recently reprinted, and this chapter] in the The Oxford Illustrated History of Prehistoric Europe, edited by Barry W. Cunliffe, and just from the title: Troy, Crete, and Mycenae ; Three Aegean Civilizations, by Robert Byrne, Milliken Publishing Company, 1969.
 * Britannica has: "Aegean civilizations, the Stone and Bronze Age civilizations that arose and flourished in the area of the Aegean Sea in the periods, respectively, about 7000–3000 bc and about 3000–1000 bc. The area consists of Crete, the Cyclades and some other islands, and the Greek mainland, including the Peloponnese, central Greece, and Thessaly...." I think this has been the usual definition of the term for a long time, at least in English. Indeed, that it combines Helladic, Cycladic & Cretan/Minoan is rather the point of the term. Johnbod (talk) 14:16, 8 December 2018 (UTC)

Genetics
I believe that a special part of the article should be dedicated to two archeogenetic studies that have been made about this period and area. Can someone creat a place for Genetics ? (Because I do not know how) And I will add information (+ sources) Historyandsciencelearn (talk) 10:12, 14 April 2021 (UTC)

title: Talk:Aegean civilization


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Aegeus

Aegeus (, ; Αἰγεύς) was one of the kings of Athens in Greek mythology, who gave his name to the Aegean Sea, was the father of Theseus, and founded Athenian institutions.

Family
Aegeus was the son of Pandion II, king of Athens and Pylia, daughter of King Pylas of Megara and thus, brother to Pallas, Nysus, Lykos and the wife of Sciron. But, in some accounts, he was regarded as the son of Scyrius or Phemius and was not of the stock of the Erechtheids, since he was only an adopted son of Pandion.

Aegeus' first wife was Meta, daughter of Hoples and his second wife was Chalciope, daughter of Rhexenor, neither of whom bore him any children. He was also credited to be the father of Medus by the witch Medea. In a rare account, Pallas was also said to be the son of Aegeus. The latter was also said to fathered Megareus, eponymous founder of Megara.

Aegeides (Αἰγείδης), was a patronymic from Aegeus and especially used to designate Theseus.

Reign
Aegeus was born in Megara where his father Pandion had settled after being expelled from Athens by the sons of Metion who seized the throne. After the death of Pandion, now king of Megara, Aegeus in conjunction with his three brothers successfully attacked Athens, took control over the government and expelled the usurpers, the Metionids. Then, they divide the power among themselves but Aegeus obtained the sovereignty of Attica, succeeding Pandion to the throne. It has been said that Megara was at the time a part of Attica, and that Nisus received his part when he became king of that city. Lycus became king of Euboea whereas Pallas received the southern part of the territory. Aegeus, being the eldest of the brothers, received what they all regarded as the best part: Athens.

The division of the land was explained further in the following text by the geographer Strabo:

"... when Attica was divided into four parts, Nisus obtained Megaris as his portion and founded Nisaea. Now, according to Philochorus, his rule extended from the Isthmus to the Pythium, but according to Andron, only as far as Eleusis and the Thriasian Plain. Although different writers have stated the division into four parts in different ways, it suffices to take the following from Sophocles: Aegeus says that his father ordered him to depart to the shorelands, assigning to him as the eldest the best portion of this land; then to Lycus he assigns Euboea's garden that lies side by side therewith; and for Nisus he selects the neighboring land of Sceiron's shore; and the southerly part of the land fell to this rugged Pallas, breeder of giants."

Later on, Lycus was driven from the territory by Aegeus himself, and had to seek refuge in Arene, Messenia which was ruled by King Aphareus. Pallas and his fifty sons revolted at a later time, being crushed by Aegeus' son Theseus.

Heirless King
Still without a male heir with his previous marriages, Aegeus asked the oracle at Delphi for advice. According to Pausanias, Aegeus ascribed this misfortune to the anger of Aphrodite and in order to conciliate her introduced her worship as Aphrodite Urania (Heavenly) in Athens.

The cryptic words of the oracle were "Do not loosen the bulging mouth of the wineskin until you have reached the height of Athens, lest you die of grief." Aegeus did not understand the prophecy and was disappointed. This puzzling oracle forced Aegeus to visit Pittheus, king of Troezen, who was famous for his wisdom and skill at expounding oracles. Pittheus understood the prophecy and introduced Aegeus to his daughter, Aethra, when Aegeus was drunk. They lay with each other, and then in some versions, Aethra waded to the island of Sphairia (a.k.a. Calauria) and bedded Poseidon. When Aethra became pregnant, Aegeus decided to return to Athens. Before leaving, he buried his sandal, shield, and sword under a huge rock and told her that, when their son grew up, he should move the rock and bring the weapons to his father, who would acknowledge him. Upon his return to Athens, Aegeus married Medea, who had fled from Corinth and the wrath of Jason. Aegeus and Medea had one son named Medus.

When Theseus grew up, he found his father's belongings left for him and went to Athens to claim his birthright. Aegeus recognized him as his son by his sword, shield, and sandals. Medea, Aegeus' wife perceived Theseus to be a threat for her children's inheritance and first tried to discredit and then to poison Theseus. When Aegeus discovered these schemes, he drove Medea out of Athens.

Conflict with Crete
While visiting in Athens, King Minos' son, Androgeus managed to defeat Aegeus in every contest during the Panathenaic Games. Out of envy, Aegeus sent him to conquer the Marathonian Bull, which killed him. Minos was angry and declared war on Athens. He offered the Athenians peace, however, under the condition that Athens would send seven young men and seven young women every nine years to Crete to be fed to the Minotaur, a vicious monster. This continued until Theseus killed the Minotaur with the help of Ariadne, Minos' daughter.

After his adventures in Crete, Theseus returned by ship to Athens. His father, Aegeus previously had asked him to hang a white sail as a sign that Theseus is alive, but Theseus neglected this request. When Aegeus saw Theseus' ships without a white sail, he assumed the worst and threw himself in his grief into the sea, named after him the Aegean Sea.

Theseus and the Minotaur
In Troezen, Theseus grew up and became a brave young man. He managed to move the rock and took his father's weapons. His mother then told him the identity of his father and that he should take the weapons back to him at Athens and be acknowledged. Theseus decided to go to Athens and had the choice of going by sea, which was the safe way, or by land, following a dangerous path with thieves and bandits all the way. Young, brave and ambitious, Theseus decided to go to Athens by land.

When Theseus arrived, he did not reveal his true identity. He was welcomed by Aegeus, who was suspicious about the stranger who came to Athens. Medea tried to have Theseus killed by encouraging Aegeus to ask him to capture the Marathonian Bull, but Theseus succeeded. She tried to poison him, but at the last second, Aegeus recognized his son and knocked the poisoned cup out of Theseus' hand. Father and son were thus reunited, and Medea was sent away to Asia.

Theseus departed for Crete. Upon his departure, Aegeus told him to put up white sails when returning if he was successful in killing the Minotaur. However, when Theseus returned, he forgot these instructions. When Aegeus saw the black sails coming into Athens, mistaken in his belief that his son had been slain, he killed himself by jumping from a height: according to some, from the Acropolis or another unnamed rock; according to some Latin authors, into the sea which was therefore known as the Aegean Sea.

Sophocles' tragedy Aegeus has been lost, but Aegeus features in Euripides' Medea.

Legacy
At Athens, the traveller Pausanias was informed in the second-century CE that the cult of Aphrodite Urania above the Kerameikos was so ancient that it had been established by Aegeus, whose sisters were barren, and he still childless himself.

There was a heroon of Aigeus in Athens, called Aigeion (Αἰγεῖον).

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title: Aegeus


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Aegina

Aegina (Αίγινα, Aígina; Αἴγῑνα) is one of the Saronic Islands of Greece in the Saronic Gulf, 27 km from Athens. Tradition derives the name from Aegina, the mother of the mythological hero Aeacus, who was born on the island and became its king.

Municipality
The municipality of Aegina consists of the island of Aegina and a few offshore islets. It is part of the Islands regional unit, Attica region. The municipality is subdivided into the following five communities (population in 2021 in parentheses ):
 * Aegina (6,976)
 * Kypseli (2,166)
 * Mesagros (1,473)
 * Perdika (847)
 * Vathy (1,449)

The regional capital is the town of Aegina, situated at the northwestern end of the island. Due to its proximity to Athens, it is a popular vacation place during the summer months, with quite a few Athenians owning second houses on the island. The buildings of the island are examples of Neoclassical architecture with a strong folk element, built in the 19th century

Province
The province of Aegina (Επαρχία Αίγινας) was one of the provinces of the Attica Prefecture and was created in 1833 as part of Attica and Boeotia Prefecture. Its territory corresponded with that of the current municipalities Aegina and Agkistri until its abolishment in 2006.

Geography
Aegina is roughly triangular in shape, approximately 15 km from east to west and 10 km from north to south, with an area of 87.41 km2.

An extinct volcano constitutes two-thirds of Aegina. The northern and western sides consist of stony but fertile plains, which are well cultivated and produce luxuriant crops of grain, with some cotton, vines, almonds, olives and figs, but the most characteristic crop of Aegina today (2000s) is pistachio. Economically, the sponge fisheries are of notable importance. The southern volcanic part of the island is rugged and mountainous, and largely barren. Its highest rise is the conical Mount Oros (531 m) in the south, and the Panhellenian ridge stretches northward with narrow fertile valleys on either side.

The beaches are also a popular tourist attraction. Hydrofoil ferries from Piraeus take only forty minutes to reach Aegina; the regular ferry takes about an hour, with ticket prices for adults within the 4–15 euro range. There are regular bus services from Aegina town to destinations throughout the island such as Agia Marina. Portes is a fishing village on the east coast.

Climate
Aegina island has a hot semi-arid climate (Köppen climate classification: BSh) with an average annual temperature of around 20.0°C and an average annual precipitation of less than 340 mm.

History
Aegina, according to Herodotus, was a colony of Epidaurus, to which state it was originally subject. Its placement between Attica and the Peloponnesus made it a site of trade even earlier, and its earliest inhabitants allegedly came from Asia Minor.

Early Bronze
The most important Early Bronze Age settlement was Kolonna, stone-built fortified site. The main connections were with the Greek mainland, but there were found also influences from Cyclades and Crete.

Another important deposit of Early Bronze Age golden and silver jewellery was discovered by Austrian archaeologists. The excavations on the site, done by the Paris Lodron Universität Salzburg are still ongoing.

Middle Bronze
Minoan ceramics have been found in contexts of c. 2000 BC. The famous Aegina Treasure, now in the British Museum is estimated to date between 1700 and 1500 BC.

Archaeological excavations at Cape Kolonna revealed a purple dye workshop dating back to the 16th century BC.

Late Bronze
The discovery on the island of a number of gold ornaments belonging to the last period of Mycenaean art suggests that Mycenaean culture existed in Aegina for some generations after the Dorian conquest of Argos and Lacedaemon.

At Mount Ellanio, a Mycenaean refuge has been found dating to the end of the Late Bronze Age.

Iron Age
It is probable that the island was not Doricised before the 9th century BC.

One of the earliest historical facts is its membership in the Amphictyony or League of Calauria, attested around the 8th century BC. This ostensibly religious league included, besides Aegina, Athens, the Minyan (Boeotian) Orchomenos, Troezen, Hermione, Nauplia, and Prasiae. It was probably an organisation of city-states that were still Mycenaean, for the purpose of suppressing piracy in the Aegean that began as a result of the decay of the naval supremacy of the Mycenaean princes.

Aegina seems to have belonged to the Eretrian league during the Lelantine War; this, perhaps, may explain the war with Samos, a major member of the rival Chalcidian League during the reign of King Amphicrates (Herod. iii. 59), i.e. not later than the earlier half of the 7th century BC.

Coinage and sea power (7th–5th centuries BC)
Its early history reveals that the maritime importance of the island dates back to pre-Dorian times. It is usually stated on the authority of Ephorus, that Pheidon of Argos established a mint in Aegina, the first city-state to issue coins in Europe, the Aeginetic stater. One stamped stater (having the mark of some authority in the form of a picture or words) can be seen in the Bibliothèque Nationale of Paris. It is an electrum stater of a turtle, an animal sacred to Aphrodite, struck at Aegina that dates from 700 BC. Therefore, it is thought that the Aeginetes, within 30 or 40 years of the invention of coinage in Asia Minor by the Ionian Greeks or the Lydians (c. 630 BC), might have been the ones to introduce coinage to the Western world. The fact that the Aeginetic standard of weights and measures (developed during the mid-7th century) was one of the two standards in general use in the Greek world (the other being the Euboic-Attic) is sufficient evidence of the early commercial importance of the island. The Aeginetic weight standard of about 12.2 grams was widely adopted in the Greek world during the 7th century BC. The Aeginetic stater was divided into two drachmae of 6.1 grams of silver. Staters depicting a sea-turtle were struck up to the end of the 5th century BC. During the First Peloponnesian War, by 456 BC, it was replaced by the land tortoise.

During the naval expansion of Aegina during the Archaic Period, Kydonia was an ideal maritime stop for Aegina's fleet on its way to other Mediterranean ports controlled by the emerging sea-power Aegina. During the next century Aegina was one of the three principal states trading at the emporium of Naucratis in Egypt, and it was the only Greek state near Europe that had a share in this factory. At the beginning of the 5th century BC it seems to have been an entrepôt of the Pontic grain trade, which, at a later date, became an Athenian monopoly.

Unlike the other commercial states of the 7th and 6th centuries BC, such as Corinth, Chalcis, Eretria and Miletus, Aegina did not found any colonies. The settlements to which Strabo refers (viii. 376) cannot be regarded as any real exceptions to this statement.

Rivalry with Athens (5th century BC)
The known history of Aegina is almost exclusively a history of its relations with the neighbouring state of Athens, which began to compete with the thalassocracy (sea power) of Aegina about the beginning of the 6th century BC. Solon passed laws limiting Aeginetan commerce in Attica. The legendary history of these relations, as recorded by Herodotus (v. 79–89; vi. 49–51, 73, 85–94), involves critical problems of some difficulty and interest. He traces the hostility of the two states back to a dispute about the images of the goddesses Damia and Auxesia, which the Aeginetes had carried off from Epidauros, their parent state.

The Epidaurians had been accustomed to make annual offerings to the Athenian deities Athena and Erechtheus in payment for the Athenian olive-wood of which the statues were made. Upon the refusal of the Aeginetes to continue these offerings, the Athenians endeavoured to carry away the images. Their design was frustrated miraculously (according to the Aeginetan version, the statues fell upon their knees) and only a single survivor returned to Athens. There he became victim to the fury of his comrades' widows who pierced him with their peplos brooch-pins. No date is assigned by Herodotus for this "old feud"; writers such as J. B. Bury and R. W. Macan suggest the period between Solon and Peisistratus, c. 570 BC. It is possible that the whole episode is mythical. A critical analysis of the narrative seems to reveal little else than a series of aetiological traditions (explanatory of cults and customs), such as of the kneeling posture of the images of Damia and Auxesia, of the use of native ware instead of Athenian in their worship, and of the change in women's dress at Athens from the Dorian peplos to the Ionian style chiton.

In the early years of the 5th century BC the Thebans, after the defeat by Athens about 507 BC, appealed to Aegina for assistance. The Aeginetans at first contented themselves with sending the images of the Aeacidae, the tutelary heroes of their island. Subsequently, however, they contracted an alliance, and ravaged the seaboard of Attica. The Athenians were preparing to make reprisals, in spite of the advice of the Delphic oracle that they should desist from attacking Aegina for thirty years, and content themselves meanwhile with dedicating a precinct to Aeacus, when their projects were interrupted by the Spartan intrigues for the restoration of Hippias.

In 491 BC Aegina was one of the states which gave the symbols of submission ("earth and water") to Achaemenid Persia. Athens at once appealed to Sparta to punish this act of medism, and Cleomenes I, one of the Spartan kings, crossed over to the island, to arrest those who were responsible for it. His attempt was at first unsuccessful; but, after the deposition of Demaratus, he visited the island a second time, accompanied by his new colleague Leotychides, seized ten of the leading citizens and deposited them at Athens as hostages.

After the death of Cleomenes and the refusal of the Athenians to restore the hostages to Leotychides, the Aeginetes retaliated by seizing a number of Athenians at a festival at Sunium. Thereupon the Athenians concerted a plot with Nicodromus, the leader of the democratic party in the island, for the betrayal of Aegina. He was to seize the old city, and they were to come to his aid on the same day with seventy vessels. The plot failed owing to the late arrival of the Athenian force, when Nicodromus had already fled the island. An engagement followed in which the Aeginetes were defeated. Subsequently, however, they succeeded in winning a victory over the Athenian fleet.

All the incidents subsequent to the appeal of Athens to Sparta are referred expressly by Herodotus to the interval between the sending of the heralds in 491 BC and the invasion of Datis and Artaphernes in 490 BC (cf. Herod. vi. 49 with 94).

There are difficulties with this story, of which the following are the principal elements: It is probable, therefore, that Herodotus is in error both in tracing back the beginning of hostilities to an alliance between Thebes and Aegina (c. 507 BC) and in claiming the episode of Nicodromus occurred prior to the battle of Marathon.
 * Herodotus nowhere states or implies that peace was concluded between the two states before 481 BC, nor does he distinguish between different wars during this period. Hence it would follow that the war lasted from soon after 507 BC until the congress at the Isthmus of Corinth in 481 BC
 * It is only for two years (491 and 490 BC) out of the twenty-five that any details are given. It is the more remarkable that no incidents are recorded in the period between the battles of Marathon and Salamis, since at the time of the Isthmian Congress the war was described as the most important one then being waged in Greece,
 * It is improbable that Athens would have sent twenty vessels to the aid of the Ionians in 499 BC if at the time it was at war with Aegina.
 * There is an incidental indication of time, which indicates the period after Marathon as the true date for the events which are referred by Herodotus to the year before Marathon, viz. the thirty years that were to elapse between the dedication of the precinct to Aeacus and the final victory of Athens. As the final victory of Athens over Aegina was in 458 BC, the thirty years of the oracle would carry us back to the year 488 BC as the date of the dedication of the precinct and the beginning of hostilities. This inference is supported by the date of the building of the 200 triremes "for the war against Aegina" on the advice of Themistocles, which is given in the Constitution of Athens as 483–482 BC.

Overtures were unquestionably made by Thebes for an alliance with Aegina c. 507 BC, but they came to nothing. The refusal of Aegina was in the diplomatic guise of "sending the Aeacidae." The real occasion of the beginning 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 BC. That Athens had the worst of it in this war is certain. Herodotus had no Athenian victories to record after the initial success, and the fact that Themistocles was able to carry his proposal to devote the surplus funds of the 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 confirmation of this opinion, that the naval supremacy of Aegina is assigned by the ancient writers on chronology to precisely this period, i.e. the years 490–480 BC.

Decline
In the repulse of Xerxes I it is possible that the Aeginetes played a larger part than is conceded to them by Herodotus. The Athenian tradition, which he follows in the main, would naturally seek to obscure their services. It was to Aegina rather than Athens that the prize of valour at Salamis was awarded, and the destruction of the Persian fleet appears to have been as much the 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 Greek scheme of defence. In view of these considerations it becomes difficult to credit the number of the vessels that is assigned to them by Herodotus (30 as against 180 Athenian vessels, cf. Greek History, sect. Authorities). During the next twenty years the Philo-Laconian policy of Cimon secured Aegina, as a member of the Spartan league, from attack. The change in Athenian foreign policy, which was consequent upon the ostracism of Cimon in 461 BC, resulted in what is sometimes called the First Peloponnesian War, during which most of the fighting was experienced by Corinth and Aegina. The latter state was forced to surrender to Athens after a siege, and to accept the position of a subject-ally (c. 456 BC). The tribute was fixed at 30 talents.

By the terms of the Thirty Years' Peace (445 BC) Athens promised to restore to Aegina her autonomy, but the clause remained ineffective. During the first winter of the Peloponnesian War (431 BC) Athens expelled the Aeginetans and established a cleruchy in their island. The exiles were settled by Sparta in Thyreatis, on the frontiers of Laconia and Argolis. Even in their new home they were not safe from Athenian rancour. A force commanded by Nicias landed in 424 BC, and killed most of them. At the end of the Peloponnesian War Lysander restored the scattered remnants of the old inhabitants to the island, which was used by the Spartans as a base for operations against Athens during the Corinthian War.

It is probable that the 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. Commerce was the source of Aegina's greatness, and her trade, which seems to have been principally with the Levant, must have suffered seriously from the war with Persia. Aegina's medism in 491 is to be explained by its commercial relations with the Persian Empire. It was forced into patriotism in spite of itself, and the glory won by the Battle of Salamis was paid for by the loss of its trade and the decay of its marine. The loss of the state's power is explained by the conditions of the island, which was based on slave labour; Aristotle's estimated the population of slaves were as much as 470,000.

Hellenistic period and Roman rule

Aegina with the rest of Greece became dominated successively by the Macedonians (322–229 BC), the Achaeans (229–211 BC), Aetolians (211–210 BC), Attalus of Pergamum (210–133 BC) and the Romans (after 133 BC). A sign at the Archaeological Museum of Aegina is reported to say that a Jewish community was established in Aegina "at the end of the second and during the 3rd century AD" by Jews fleeing the barbarian invasions of the time in Greece. However, the first phases of those invasions began in the 4th century. The Romaniote Jewish community erected an elaborate synagogue in rectangle form with an apse on the eastern wall with a magnificent mosaic decorated with geometric motifs, still preserved in the courtyard of the Archaeological Museum of Aegina. The synagogue dates from the 4th century AD and was in use until the 7th century AD. Local Christian tradition has it that a Christian community was established there in the 1st century, having as its bishop Crispus, the ruler of the Corinthian synagogue, who became a Christian, and was baptised by Paul the Apostle. There are written records of participation by later bishops of Aegina, Gabriel and Thomas, in the Councils of Constantinople in 869 and 879. The see was at first a suffragan of the metropolitan see of Corinth, but was later given the rank of archdiocese. No longer a residential bishopric, Aegina is today listed by the Catholic Church as a titular see.

Byzantine period
Aegina belonged to the East Roman (Byzantine) Empire after the division of the Roman Empire in 395. It remained Eastern Roman during the period of crisis of the 7th–8th centuries, when most of the Balkans and the Greek mainland were overrun by Slavic invasions. Indeed, according to the Chronicle of Monemvasia, the island served as a refuge for the Corinthians fleeing these incursions. The island flourished during the early 9th century, as evidenced by church construction activity, but suffered greatly from Arab raids originating from Crete. Various hagiographies, such as those of Athanasia of Aegina or Theodora of Thessalonica, record a large-scale raid c. 830, that resulted in the flight of much of the population to the Greek mainland. During that time, some of the population sought refuge in the island's hinterland, establishing the settlement of Palaia Chora.

According to the 12th-century bishop of Athens, Michael Choniates, by his time the island had become a base for pirates. This is corroborated by Benedict of Peterborough's graphic account of Greece, as it was in 1191; he states that many of the islands were uninhabited for fear of pirates and that Aegina, along with Salamis and Makronisos, were their strongholds.

Frankish rule after 1204
After the dissolution and partition of the Byzantine Empire by the Fourth Crusade in 1204, Aegina was accorded to the Republic of Venice. In the event, it became controlled by the Duchy of Athens. The Catalan Company seized control of Athens, and with it Aegina, in 1317, and in 1425 the island became controlled by the Venetians, when Alioto Caopena, at that time ruler of Aegina, placed himself by treaty under the Republic's protection to escape the danger of a Turkish raid. The island must then have been fruitful, for one of the conditions by which Venice accorded him protection was that he should supply grain to Venetian colonies. He agreed to surrender the island to Venice if his family became extinct. Antonio II Acciaioli opposed the treaty for one of his adopted daughters had married the future lord of Aegina, Antonello Caopena.

Venetians in Aegina (1451–1537)

In 1451, Aegina became Venetian. The islanders welcomed Venetian rule; the claims of Antonello's uncle Arnà, who had lands in Argolis, were satisfied by a pension. A Venetian governor (rettore) was appointed, who was dependent on the authorities of Nauplia. After Arnà's death, his son Alioto renewed his claim to the island but was told that the republic was resolved to keep it. He and his family were pensioned and one of them aided in the defence of Aegina against the Turks in 1537, was captured with his family, and died in a Turkish dungeon.

In 1463 the Turco-Venetian war began, which was destined to cost the Venetians Negroponte (Euboea), the island of Lemnos, most of the Cyclades islands, Scudra and their colonies in the Morea. Peace was concluded in 1479. Venice still retained Aegina, Lepanto (Naupactus), Nauplia, Monemvasia, Modon, Navarino, Coron, and the islands Crete, Mykonos and Tinos. Aegina remained subject to Nauplia.

Administration
Aegina obtained money for its defences by reluctantly sacrificing its cherished relic, the head of St. George, which had been carried there from Livadia by the Catalans. In 1462, the Venetian Senate ordered the relic to be removed to St. Giorgio Maggiore in Venice and on 12 November, it was transported from Aegina by Vettore Cappello, the famous Venetian commander. In return, the Senate gave the Aeginetes 100 ducats apiece towards fortifying the island.

In 1519, the government was reformed. The system of having two rectors was found to result in frequent quarrels and the republic thenceforth sent out a single official styled Bailie and Captain, assisted by two councillors, who performed the duties of camerlengo by turns. The Bailie's authority extended over the rector of Aegina, whereas Kastri (opposite the island Hydra) was granted to two families, the Palaiologoi and the Alberti.

Society at Nauplia was divided into three classes: nobles, citizens and plebeians, and it was customary for nobles alone to possess the much-coveted local offices, such as the judge of the inferior court and inspector of weights and measures. The populace now demanded its share and the home government ordered that at least one of the three inspectors should be a non-noble.

Aegina had always been exposed to the raids of corsairs and had oppressive governors during these last 30 years of Venetian rule. Venetian nobles were not willing to go to this island. In 1533, three rectors of Aegina were punished for their acts of injustice and there is a graphic account of the reception given by the Aeginetans to the captain of Nauplia, who came to command an enquiry into the administration of these delinquents (vid. inscription over the entrance of St. George the Catholic in Paliachora). The rectors had spurned their ancient right to elect an islander to keep one key of the money-chest. They had also threatened to leave the island en masse with the commissioner, unless the captain avenged their wrongs. To spare the economy of the community, it was ordered that appeals from the governor's decision should be made on Crete, instead of in Venice. The republic was to pay a bakshish to the Turkish governor of the Morea and to the voivode who was stationed at the frontier of Thermisi (opposite Hydra). The fortifications too, were allowed to become decrepit and were inadequately guarded.

16th century
After the end of the Duchy of Athens and the principality of Achaia, the only Latin possessions left on the mainland of Greece were the papal city of Monemvasia, the fortress of Vonitsa, the Messenian stations Coron and Modon, Lepanto, Pteleon, Navarino, and the castles of Argos and Nauplia, to which the island of Aegina was subordinate.

In 1502–03, the new peace treaty left Venice with nothing but Cephalonia, Monemvasia and Nauplia, with their appurtenances in the Morea. And against the sack of Megara, it had to endure the temporary capture of the castle of Aegina by Kemal Reis and the abduction of 2000 inhabitants. This treaty was renewed in 1513 and 1521. All supplies of grain from Nauplia and Monemvasia had to be imported from Turkish possessions, while corsairs rendered dangerous all traffic by sea.

In 1537, sultan Suleiman declared war upon Venice and his admiral Hayreddin Barbarossa devastated much of the Ionian Islands, and in October invaded the island of Aegina. On the fourth day Palaiochora was captured, but the Latin church of St George was spared. Hayreddin Barbarossa had the adult male population massacred and took away 6,000 surviving women and children as slaves. Then Barbarossa sailed to Naxos, whence he carried off an immense booty, compelling the Duke of Naxos to purchase his further independence by paying a tribute of 5000 ducats.

With the peace of 1540, Venice ceded Nauplia and Monemvasia. For nearly 150 years afterwards, Venice ruled no part of the mainland of Greece except Parga and Butrinto (subordinate politically to the Ionian Islands), but it still retained its insular dominions Cyprus, Crete, Tenos and six Ionian islands.

First Ottoman period (1540–1687)
Aegina suffered greatly after being attacked by Barbarossa in 1537. In 1579, the island was repopulated partly by Albanians. The Albanians would eventually assimilate into the Greek population.

The island was attacked and left desolate by Francesco Morosini during the Cretan War (1654).

Second Venetian period (1687–1715)

In 1684, the beginning of the Morean War between Venice and the Ottoman Empire resulted in the temporary reconquest of a large part of the country by the Republic. In 1687 the Venetian army arrived in Piraeus and captured Attica. The number of the Athenians at that time exceeded 6,000, the Albanians from the villages of Attica excluded, whilst in 1674 the population of Aegina did not seem to exceed 3,000 inhabitants, two thirds of which were women. The Aeginetans had been reduced to poverty to pay their taxes. The most significant plague epidemic began in Attica during 1688, an occasion that caused the massive migration of Athenians toward the south; most of them settled in Aegina. In 1693 Morosini resumed command, but his only acts were to refortify the castle of Aegina, which he had demolished during the Cretan war in 1655, the cost of upkeep being paid as long as the war lasted by the Athenians, and to place it and Salamis under Malipiero as Governor. This caused the Athenians to send him a request for the renewal of Venetian protection and an offer of an annual tribute. He died in 1694 and Zeno was appointed at his place.

In 1699, thanks to English mediation, the war ended with the peace of Karlowitz by which Venice retained possession of the 7 Ionian islands as well as Butrinto and Parga, the Morea, Spinalonga and Suda, Tenos, Santa Maura and Aegina and ceased to pay a tribute for Zante, but which restored Lepanto to the Ottoman sultan. Cerigo and Aegina were united administratively since the peace with Morea, which not only paid all the expenses of administration but furnished a substantial balance for the naval defence of Venice, in which it was directly interested.

Second Ottoman period (1715–1821)
During the early part of the Ottoman–Venetian War of 1714–1718 the Ottoman Fleet commanded by Canum Hoca captured Aegina. Ottomans rule in Aegina and the Morea was resumed and confirmed by the Treaty of Passarowitz, and they retained control of the island with the exception of a brief Russian occupation Orlov Revolt (early 1770s), until the beginning of the Greek War of Independence in 1821.

Throughout the 19th century, a small minority of Arvanites lived on the island, who were bilingual in Arvanitika and Greek (spoken more by men and less by women), up until the early 20th century. The Greek-speaking population spoke a particular dialect known as Old Athenian, which was also found in neighboring Megara and Athens.

Greek Revolution
During the Greek War of Independence, Aegina became an administrative centre for the Greek revolutionary authorities. Ioannis Kapodistrias was briefly established here.

Landmarks

 * Temple of Aphaea, dating from about 490 BC, it is the oldest surviving temple in Greece. It was dedicated to its namesake, a goddess who was later associated with Athena; the temple was part of an equilateral holy triangle of temples including the Athenian Parthenon and the temple of Poseidon at Sounion.
 * Monastery of Agios Nectarios, dedicated to Nectarios of Aegina, a recent saint of the Greek Orthodox Church.
 * A statue in the principal square commemorates Ioannis Kapodistrias (1776–1831), the first administrator of free modern Greece.
 * The Orphanage of Kapodistrias is a large building, known locally as The Prison (Οι Φυλακές, Oi Filakes), constructed in 1828-29 by Ioannis Kapodistrias as a home for children orphaned as a result of the Greek War of Independence. The building also housed schools, vocational workshops, the National Public Library, the National Archaeological Museum, a military academy, the National Printing Office and the National Conservatory for Choir and Orchestra. From about 1880 it was used as a prison, and housed political prisoners during the Greek Junta (1967-1974) - hence its local name. There are currently plans to restore the building as a museum.
 * The Tower of Markellos was probably built during the second Venetian occupation, 1687–1714, as a watch tower in anticipation of a Turkish siege. A castle, fortified walls and numerous watchtowers were built at this time. The tower was abandoned after the Turkish occupation of 1714, until revolutionary leader Spyros Markellos bought the tower as his residence in around 1802. In 1826-28 it was the headquarters of the temporary government of the embryonic Greek state. It subsequently was used as a police headquarters and housed various government agencies until it was abandoned again in the mid 19th century. It is currently owned by the Municipality of Aegina.
 * Temple of Zeus Hellanios, near the village of Pachia Rachi, is a 13th-century Byzantine church, built on the ruins of the ancient temple to Zeus Hellanios, built in the 4th century BC. The staircase leading up to the church, some of the original walls, and loose stones from the earlier temple remain.
 * Colona, Located to the north of the town of Aegina. Acropolis with the sanctuary of Apollo and Byzantine settlement. The name Colona was given by the Venetian sailors, who used the columns of the pavilion of the Doric temple of Apollo (6x11 columns) as a sign of orientation. The foundations and one column from the rear building are preserved. The temple with the buildings related to the function of the sanctuary dominates the ancient acropolis on the hill. It was built at the end of the 6th century when Aegina, one of the most important commercial centers, emerged as a rival of Athens. Excavations from the 19th century onwards made it clear that the architectural remains of the archaic-Hellenistic acropolis, which are only partially preserved, are based on the impressive buildings of the prehistoric era, with at least ten successive building phases.

Pistachios
In 1896, the physician Nikolaos Peroglou introduced the systematic cultivation of pistachios, which soon became popular among the inhabitants of the island. By 1950, pistachio cultivation had significantly displaced the rest of the agricultural activity due to its high profitability but also due to the phylloxera that threatened the vineyards that time. As a result, in the early 60s, the first pistachio peeling factory was established in the Plakakia area by Grigorios Konidaris. The quality of "Fistiki Aeginis" (Aegina Pistachios), a name that was established as a product of Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) in 1996, is considered internationally excellent and superior to several foreign varieties, due to the special climatic conditions of the island (drought) as well as soil's volcanic characteristics. Pistachios have made Aegina famous all over the world. Today, half of the pistachio growers are members of the Agricultural Cooperative of Aegina's Pistachio Producers. It is estimated that pistachio cultivation covers 29,000 acres of the island while the total production reaches 2,700 tons per year. In recent years, in mid-September, the Pistachio Festival has been organized every year under the name "Fistiki Fest".

Mythology
In Greek mythology, Aegina was a daughter of the river god Asopus and the nymph Metope. She bore at least two children: Menoetius by Actor, and Aeacus by the god Zeus. When Zeus abducted Aegina, he took her to Oenone, an island close to Attica. Here, Aegina gave birth to Aeacus, who would later become king of Oenone; thenceforth, the island's name was Aegina.

Aegina was the gathering place of Myrmidons; in Aegina they gathered and trained. Zeus needed an elite army and at first thought that Aegina, which at the time did not have any villagers, was a good place. So he changed some ants (Μυρμύγια, Myrmigia) into warriors who had six hands and wore black armour. Later, the Myrmidons, commanded by Achilles, were known as the most fearsome fighting unit in Greece.

Famous Aeginetans

 * Aeacus, the first king of Aegina according to mythology, in whose honour the Aeacea were celebrated
 * Smilis (6th century BC), sculptor
 * Sostratus of Aegina (6th century BC), merchant
 * Onatas (5th century BC), sculptor
 * Ptolichus (5th century BC), sculptor
 * Philiscus of Aegina (4th century BC), Cynic philosopher
 * Paul of Aegina (7th century), medical scholar and physician
 * Saint Athanasia of Aegina (9th century), abbess and saint
 * Theodora of Thessaloniki (9th century), nun and saint
 * Cosmas II Atticus (12th century), Patriarch of Constantinople
 * Nectarios of Aegina (1846–1920), bishop and saint
 * Aristeidis Moraitinis (aviator) born 1891, died 1918
 * Gustav Hasford, American military journalist and novelist, moved to Aegina and died there of heart failure on 29 January 1993, aged 45

title: Aegina


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Aegis

The aegis (αἰγίς aigís), as stated in the Iliad, is a device carried by Athena and Zeus, variously interpreted as an animal skin or a shield and sometimes featuring the head of a Gorgon. There may be a connection with a deity named Aex, a daughter of Helios and a nurse of Zeus or alternatively a mistress of Zeus (Hyginus, Astronomica 2. 13).

The modern concept of doing something "under someone's aegis means doing something under the protection of a powerful, knowledgeable, or benevolent source. The word aegis is identified with protection by a strong force with its roots in Greek mythology and adopted by the Romans; there are parallels in Norse mythology and in Egyptian mythology as well, where the Greek word aegis is applied by extension.

Etymology
The Greek αἰγίς aigis has many meanings, including:
 * 1) "violent windstorm", from the verb ἀίσσω aïssō (word stem ἀιγ- aïg-) = "I rush or move violently". Akin to καταιγίς kataigis, "thunderstorm".
 * 2) The shield of a deity as described above.
 * 3) "goatskin coat", from treating the word as meaning "something grammatically feminine pertaining to goat": Greek αἴξ aix (stem αἰγ- aig-) = "goat" + suffix -ίς -is (stem -ίδ- -id-).

The original meaning may have been the first, and Ζεὺς Αἰγίοχος Zeus Aigiokhos = "Zeus who holds the aegis" may have originally meant "Sky/Heaven, who holds the thunderstorm". The transition to the meaning "shield" or "goatskin" may have come by folk etymology among a people familiar with draping an animal skin over the left arm as a shield.

In Greek mythology
The aegis of Athena is referred to in several places in the Iliad. "It produced a sound as from myriad roaring dragons (Iliad, 4.17) and was borne by Athena in battle ... and among them went bright-eyed Athene, holding the precious aegis which is ageless and immortal: a hundred tassels of pure gold hang fluttering from it, tight-woven each of them, and each the worth of a hundred oxen."

Virgil imagines the Cyclopes in Hephaestus' forge, who "busily burnished the aegis Athena wears in her angry moods—a fearsome thing with a surface of gold like scaly snake-skin, and the linked serpents and the Gorgon herself upon the goddess's breast—a severed head rolling its eyes", furnished with golden tassels and bearing the Gorgoneion (Medusa's head) in the central boss. Some of the Attic vase-painters retained an archaic tradition that the tassels had originally been serpents in their representations of the aegis. When the Olympian deities overtook the older deities of Greece and she was born of Metis (inside Zeus who had swallowed the goddess) and "re-born" through the head of Zeus fully clothed, Athena already wore her typical garments.

When the Olympian shakes the aegis, Mount Ida is wrapped in clouds, the thunder rolls and men are struck down with fear. "Aegis-bearing Zeus", as he is in the Iliad, sometimes lends the fearsome aegis to Athena. In the Iliad when Zeus sends Apollo to revive the wounded Hector, Apollo, holding the aegis, charges the Achaeans, pushing them back to their ships drawn up on the shore. According to Edith Hamilton's Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes, the Aegis is the breastplate of Zeus, and was "awful to behold". However, Zeus is normally portrayed in classical sculpture holding a thunderbolt or lightning, bearing neither a shield nor a breastplate.

In some versions, Zeus watched Athena and Triton's daughter, Pallas, compete in a friendly mock battle involving spears. Not wanting his daughter to lose, Zeus flapped his aegis to distract Pallas, whom Athena accidentally impaled. Zeus apologized to Athena by giving her the aegis; Athena then named herself Pallas Athena in tribute to her late friend.

In classical poetry and art

Classical Greece interpreted the Homeric aegis usually as a cover of some kind borne by Athena. It was supposed by Euripides (Ion, 995) that the aegis borne by Athena was the skin of the slain Gorgon, yet the usual understanding is that the Gorgoneion was added to the aegis, a votive offering from a grateful Perseus.

In a similar interpretation, Aex, a daughter of Helios, represented as a great fire-breathing chthonic serpent similar to the Chimera, was slain and flayed by Athena, who afterwards wore its skin, the aegis, as a cuirass (Diodorus Siculus iii. 70), or as a chlamys. The Douris cup shows that the aegis was represented exactly as the skin of the great serpent, with its scales clearly delineated.

John Tzetzes says that aegis was the skin of the monstrous giant Pallas whom Athena overcame and whose name she attached to her own.

In a late rendering by Gaius Julius Hyginus (Poetical Astronomy ii. 13), Zeus is said to have used the skin of a pet goat owned by his nurse Amalthea (aigis "goat-skin") which suckled him in Crete, as a shield when he went forth to do battle against the Titans.

The aegis appears in works of art sometimes as an animal's skin thrown over Athena's shoulders and arms, occasionally with a border of snakes, usually also bearing the Gorgon head, the gorgoneion. In some pottery it appears as a tasselled cover over Athena's dress. It is sometimes represented on the statues of Roman emperors, heroes, and warriors, and on coins, cameos and vases. A vestige of that appears in a portrait of Alexander the Great in a fresco from Pompeii dated to the first century BC, which shows the image of the head of a woman on his armor that resembles the Gorgon.

Interpretations
Herodotus thought he had identified the source of the aegis in ancient Libya, which was always a distant territory of ancient magic for the Greeks. "Athene's garments and aegis were borrowed by the Greeks from the Libyan women, who are dressed in exactly the same way, except that their leather garments are fringed with thongs, not serpents."

Robert Graves in The Greek Myths (1955) asserts that the aegis in its Libyan sense had been a shamanic pouch containing various ritual objects, bearing the device of a monstrous serpent-haired visage with tusk-like teeth and a protruding tongue which was meant to frighten away the uninitiated. In this context, Graves identifies the aegis as clearly belonging first to Athena.

One current interpretation is that the Hittite sacral hieratic hunting bag (kursas), a rough and shaggy goatskin that has been firmly established in literary texts and iconography by H.G. Güterbock, was a source of the aegis.

title: Aegis


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Aegisthus

Aegisthus (Αἴγισθος; also transliterated as Aigisthos, ) was a figure in Greek mythology. Aegisthus is known from two primary sources: the first is Homer's Odyssey, believed to have been first written down by Homer at the end of the 8th century BC, and the second from Aeschylus's Oresteia, written in the 5th century BC. Aegisthus also features heavily in the action of Euripides's 'Electra' (c. 420 BC), although his character remains offstage.

Family
Aegisthus was the son of Thyestes and Thyestes's own daughter Pelopia, an incestuous union motivated by his father's rivalry with the house of Atreus for the throne of Mycenae. Aegisthus murdered Atreus in order to restore his father to power, ruling jointly with him, only to be driven from power by Atreus's son Agamemnon. In another version, Aegisthus was the sole surviving son of Thyestes after Atreus killed his brother's children and served them to Thyestes in a meal.

While Agamemnon laid siege to Troy, his estranged queen Clytemnestra took Aegisthus as a lover. The couple killed Agamemnon upon the king's return, making Aegisthus king of Mycenae once more. Aegisthus ruled for seven more years before his death at the hands of Agamemnon's son Orestes.

Early life
Thyestes felt he had been deprived of the Mycenean throne unfairly by his brother, Atreus. The two battled back and forth several times. In addition, Thyestes had an affair with Atreus's wife, Aerope. In revenge, Atreus killed Thyestes's sons and served them to him unknowingly. After realizing he had eaten his own sons' corpses, Thyestes asked an oracle how best to gain revenge. The advice was to father a son with his own daughter, Pelopia, and that son would kill Atreus.

Thyestes raped Pelopia after she performed a sacrifice, hiding his identity from her. When Aegisthus was born, his mother abandoned him, ashamed of his origin, and he was raised by shepherds and suckled by a goat, hence his name Aegisthus (from αἴξ, male goat). Atreus, not knowing the baby's origin, took Aegisthus in and raised him as his own son.

Death of Atreus
In the night in which Pelopia had been raped by her father, she had taken from him his sword which she afterwards gave to Aegisthus. When she discovered that the sword belonged to her own father, she realised that her son was the product of incestuous rape. In despair, she killed herself. Atreus in his enmity towards his brother sent Aegisthus to kill him; but the sword which Aegisthus carried was the cause of the recognition between Thyestes and his son, and the latter returned and slew his uncle Atreus, while he was offering a sacrifice on the seacoast. Aegisthus and his father now took possession of their lawful inheritance from which they had been expelled by Atreus.

Power struggle over Mycenae
Aegisthus and Thyestes thereafter ruled over Mycenae jointly, exiling Atreus's sons Agamemnon and Menelaus to Sparta, where King Tyndareus gave the pair his daughters, Clytemnestra and Helen, to take as wives. Agamemnon and Clytemnestra had four children: one son, Orestes, and three daughters, Iphigenia, Electra, and Chrysothemis.

After the death of Tyndareus, Meneleaus became king of Sparta. He used the Spartan army to drive out Aegisthus and Thyestes from Mycenae and place Agamemnon on the throne. Agamemnon extended his dominion by conquest and became the most powerful ruler in Greece. After Helen's abduction to Troy, Agamemnon was forced to sacrifice his own daughter Iphigenia in order to appease the gods before setting off for Ilium. While Agamemnon was away fighting in the Trojan War, Clytemnestra turned against her husband and took Aegisthus as a lover. Upon Agamemnon's return to Mycenae, Aegisthus and Clytemnestra worked together to kill Agamemnon with certain accounts recording Aegisthus committing the murder while others record Clytemnestra herself exacting revenge on Agamemnon for his murder of Iphigenia.

Following Agamemnon's death, Aegisthus reigned over Mycenae for seven years. He and Clytemnestra had a son, Aletes, and a daughter, Erigone (sometimes known as Helen ). In the eighth year of his reign Orestes, the son of Agamemnon, returned to Mycenae and avenged the death of his father by killing Aegisthus and Clytemnestra. The impiety of matricide was such that Orestes was forced to flee from Mycenae, pursued by the Furies. Aletes became king until Orestes returned several years later and killed him. Orestes later married Aegisthus's daughter Erigone.

In culture
Homer gives no information about Aegisthus's antecedents. We learn from him only that, after the death of Thyestes, Aegisthus ruled as king at Mycenae and took no part in the Trojan expedition. While Agamemnon was absent on his expedition against Troy, Aegisthus seduced Clytemnestra, and was so wicked as to offer up thanks to the gods for the success with which his criminal exertions were crowned. In order not to be surprised by the return of Agamemnon, he sent out spies, and when Agamemnon came, Aegisthus invited him to a repast at which he had him treacherously murdered.

In Aeschylus's Oresteia, Aegisthus is a minor figure. In the first play, Agamemnon, he appears at the end to claim the throne, after Clytemnestra herself has killed Agamemnon and Cassandra. Clytemnestra wields the axe she has used to quell dissent. In The Libation Bearers he is killed quickly by Orestes, who then struggles over having to kill his mother. Aegisthus is referred to as a "weak lion", plotting the murders but having his lover commit the deeds. According to Johanna Leah Braff, he "takes the traditional female role, as one who devises but is passive and does not act." Christopher Collard describes him as the foil to Clytemnestra, his brief speech in Agamemnon revealing him to be "cowardly, sly, weak, full of noisy threats - a typical 'tyrant figure' in embryo."

Aeschylus's portrayal of Aegisthus as a weak, implicitly feminised figure, influenced later writers and artists who often depict him as an effeminate or decadent individual, either manipulating or dominated by the more powerful Clytemnestra. He appears in Seneca's Agamemnon, enticing her to murder. In Richard Strauss's and Hugo von Hofmannsthal's opera, Elektra his voice is "a decidedly high-pitched tenor, punctuated by irrational upward leaps, that rises to high pitched squeals during his death colloquy with Elektra." In the first production he was depicted as "an epicene...with long curly locks and rouged lips, half-cringing, half-posturing seductively."

An ancient tomb in Mycenae is fancifully known as the "Tomb of Aegisthus". It dates from around 1470 BC.

title: Aegisthus


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Aegospotami

Aegospotami (Αἰγὸς Ποταμοί, Aigos Potamoi) or Aegospotamos (i.e. Goat Streams) is the ancient Greek name for a small river issuing into the Hellespont (Modern Turkish Çanakkale Boğazı), northeast of Sestos.

Aegospotami is located on the Dardanelles, south of the modern Turkish town of Sütlüce, Gelibolu.

At its mouth was the scene of the decisive battle in 405 BC in which Lysander destroyed the Athenian fleet, ending the Peloponnesian War. The ancient Greek township of the same name, whose existence is attested by coins of the 5th and 4th centuries, and the river itself were located in ancient Thrace in the Chersonese.

According to ancient sources including Pliny the Elder and Aristotle, in 467 BC a large meteorite landed near Aegospotami. It was described as brown in colour and the size of a wagon load. A comet, tentatively identified as Halley's Comet, was reported at the time the meteorite landed. This is possibly the first European record of Halley's comet.

title: Aegospotami


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Aelia Capitolina

Aelia Capitolina (full name in Colonia Aelia Capitolina ) was a Roman colony founded during Emperor Hadrian's visit to Judaea in 129/130 AD, centered around Jerusalem, which had been almost totally razed after the siege of 70 AD.

A sanctuary to Roman god Jupiter was built on the Temple Mount, and statues of Roman deities were erected in the city, and Jews were forbidden entrance to the city. The ban on Jews was maintained until the Muslim conquest of Jerusalem in 636. The Aelia part of the name was used in Arabic as Īlyāʾ during the Umayyad Caliphate.

Name
Aelia came from Hadrian's Aelia gens, while Capitolina meant that the new city was dedicated to Jupiter Capitolinus, to whom a temple was built. The Latin name Aelia is the source of the much later term Īlyāʾ (إيليا), a seventh-century early Islamic name for Jerusalem.

Foundation
Jerusalem, once heavily rebuilt by Herod the Great, was still in ruins following the decisive siege of the city in 70 CE as part of the First Jewish–Roman War.

The Roman emperor Hadrian decided to rebuild the city as a colonia that would be inhabited by his legionaries. Hadrian's new city was to be dedicated to himself and certain Roman gods, in particular Capitoline Jupiter.

There is controversy as to whether Hadrian's anti-Jewish decrees followed the Bar Kokhba revolt or preceded it and were the cause of the revolt. The older view is that the Bar Kokhba revolt, which took the Romans three years to suppress, enraged Hadrian, and he became determined to erase Judaism from the province. Circumcision was forbidden and Jews were expelled from the city. Hadrian renamed the province of Judaea to Syria Palaestina, dispensing with the Jewish-associated name.

Jerusalem was renamed Aelia Capitolina and rebuilt in the style of its original Hippodamian plan, although adapted to Roman use. Jews were prohibited from entering the city on pain of death except for one day each year: during the fast day of Tisha B'Av. Taken together, these measures (which also affected Jewish Christians) essentially secularized the city. Historical sources and archaeological evidence indicate that the rebuilt city was now inhabited by veterans of the Roman military and immigrants from the western parts of the empire.

According to Eusebius, the Jerusalem church was scattered twice, in 70 and 135, with the difference that from 70 to 130 the bishops of Jerusalem have evidently Jewish names, whereas after 135 the bishops of Aelia Capitolina appear to be Greeks. Eusebius' evidence for continuation of a church at Aelia Capitolina is confirmed by the Bordeaux Pilgrim.

Byzantine period
The ban against Jews was maintained until the Muslim conquest in 636. Christians had been allowed to visit the city since the 4th century, when the emperor Constantine the Great ordered the construction of Christian holy sites in the city, including the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Burial remains from the Byzantine period are exclusively Christian, suggesting that the population of Jerusalem in Byzantine times probably consisted only of Christians.

In the fifth century the emperor based in Constantinople maintained control of the city, but following Sasanian emperor Khosrow II's early seventh century advance through Syria, his generals Shahrbaraz and Shahin Vahmanzadegan attacked Jerusalem, aided by the Jews of Palaestina Prima, who had risen against the Byzantines. In 614, after 21 days of siege, Jerusalem was captured. Byzantine chronicles relate that the Sasanian and Jewish forces slaughtered tens of thousands of Christians in the city, many at the Mamilla Pool, and destroyed their monuments and churches, including the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. The conquered city would remain in Sasanian hands for some fifteen years. It was reconquered by emperor Heraclius in 629.

Byzantine Jerusalem was conquered by the armies of Umar ibn al-Khattab in 636, which resulted in the removal of the restrictions on Jews living in the city. In this era, it was referred to in Arabic as Madinat Bayt al-Maqdis, 'City of the Temple', a name restricted to the Temple Mount. The rest of the city was called Ilyā, reflecting the Roman name Aelia.

Plan of the city
The city was without walls, protected by a light garrison of the Tenth Legion, during the Late Roman period. The detachment at Jerusalem, which apparently encamped all over the city's western hill, was responsible for preventing Jews from returning to the city. Roman enforcement of this prohibition continued through the 4th century.

Layout and street pattern
The urban plan of Aelia Capitolina was that of a typical Roman town wherein main thoroughfares crisscrossed the urban grid lengthwise and widthwise. The urban grid was based on the usual central north–south road (cardo maximus) and central east–west route (decumanus maximus). However, as the main cardo ran up the western hill, and the Temple Mount blocked the eastward route of the main decumanus, the strict pattern had to be adapted to the local topography; a secondary, eastern cardo, diverged from the western one and ran down the Tyropoeon Valley, while the decumanus had to zigzag around the Temple Mount, passing it on its northern side. The Hadrianic western cardo terminated not far beyond its junction with the decumanus, where it reached the Roman garrison's encampment, but in the Byzantine period it was extended over the former camp to reach the southern, expanded margins of the city.

The two cardines converged near the Damascus Gate, and a semicircular piazza covered the remaining space; in the piazza a columnar monument was constructed, hence the Arabic name for the gate, Bab el-Amud ("Gate of the Column"). Tetrapylones were constructed at the other junctions between the main roads.

This street pattern has been preserved in the Old City of Jerusalem to the present. The original thoroughfare, flanked by rows of columns and shops, was about 73 ft wide, but buildings have extended onto the streets over the centuries, and the modern lanes replacing the ancient grid are now quite narrow. The substantial remains of the western cardo have now been exposed to view near the junction with Suq el-Bazaar, and remnants of one of the tetrapylones are preserved in the 19th century Franciscan chapel at the junction of the Via Dolorosa and Suq Khan ez-Zeit.

Western forum
As was standard for new Roman cities, Hadrian placed the city's main forum at the junction of the main cardo and decumanus, now the location for the (smaller) Muristan. Adjacent to the forum, Hadrian built a large temple to Venus, at a site later used for the construction of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre; several boundary walls of Hadrian's temple have been found among the archaeological remains beneath the church.

Valley cardo and eastern forum
The Struthion Pool lay in the path of the northern decumanus, so Hadrian placed vaulting over it, added a large pavement on top, and turned it into a secondary forum; the pavement can still be seen under the Convent of the Sisters of Zion.

Ecce homo arch
Near the Struthion Pool, Hadrian built a triple-arched gateway as an entrance to the eastern forum of Aelia Capitolina. Traditionally, this was thought to be the gate of Herod's Antonia Fortress, which itself was alleged to be the location of Jesus' trial and Pontius Pilate's Ecce homo speech as described in John 19:13. This was due in part to the 1864 discovery of a game etched on a flagstone of the pool. According to the nuns of the convent, the game was played by Roman soldiers and ended in the execution of a 'mock king'. It is possible that following its destruction, the Antonia Fortress's pavement tiles were brought to the cistern of Hadrian's plaza.

When later constructions narrowed the Via Dolorosa, the two arches on either side of the central arch became incorporated into a succession of more modern buildings. The Basilica of Ecce Homo now preserves the northern arch. The southern arch was incorporated into a zawiya (Sufi monastery) for Uzbek dervishes of the Naqshbandi order in the 16th century, but these were demolished in the 19th century in order to found a mosque.

title: Aelia Capitolina


text:
Aelian

Aelian or Aelianus may refer to:

 * Aelianus Tacticus, 2nd-century Greek military writer in Rome
 * Casperius Aelianus (13–98 AD), Praetorian Prefect, executed by Trajan
 * Claudius Aelianus, Roman writer of De Natura Animalium, teacher and historian of the 3rd century, who wrote in Greek
 * Lucius Aelianus or Laelian (died 269), one of the thirty tyrants under the Roman empire
 * Aelianus Meccius, 2nd-century Greek physician, tutor of Galen
 * Tiberius Plautius Silvanus Aelianus, adopted nephew of Plautia Urgulanilla, first wife of Claudius; consul 45 and 74 AD
 * Aelian (rebel) (fl. 285), leader of the Bagaudae peasant rebels
 * Aelianus (comes), leader of the Roman defensive forces at the Siege of Amida in 359

title: Aelian


text:
Aelianus Tacticus

Aelianus Tacticus (Αἰλιανὸς ὀ Τακτικός; fl. 2nd century AD), also known as Aelian, was a Greek military writer who lived in Rome.

Work
Aelian's military treatise in fifty-three chapters on the tactics of the Greeks, titled On Tactical Arrays of the Greeks (Περὶ Στρατηγικῶν Τάξεων Ἑλληνικῶν), is dedicated to the emperor Hadrian, though this is probably a mistake for Trajan, and the date 106 has been assigned to it. It is a handbook of Greek, i.e. Macedonian, drill and tactics as practiced by the Hellenistic successors of Alexander the Great. The author claims to have consulted all the best authorities, the most important of which was a lost treatise on the subject by Polybius. Perhaps the chief value of Aelian's work lies in his critical account of preceding works on the art of war, and in the fullness of his technical details in matters of drill.

Aelian also gives a brief account of the constitution of a Roman army at that time. The work arose, he says, from a conversation he had with the emperor Nerva at Frontinus's house at Formiae. He promises a work on Naval Tactics also; but this, if it was written, is lost.

Critics of the 18th century — Guichard Folard and the Prince de Ligne — were unanimous in thinking Aelian greatly inferior to Arrian, but Aelian exercised a great influence both on his immediate successors, the Byzantines, and later on the Arabs, (who translated the text for their own use). The author of the Strategikon ascribed to the emperor Maurice selectively used Aelian's work as a conceptional model, especially its preface. Emperor Leo VI the Wise incorporated much of Aelian's text in his own Taktika. The Arabic version of Aelian was made about 1350. It was first translated into Latin by Theodore Gaza, published at Rome in 1487. The Greek editio princeps was edited by Francesco Robortello and published at Venice in 1552.

In spite of its academic nature, the copious details to be found in the treatise rendered it of the highest value to the army organisers of the 16th century, who were engaged in fashioning a regular military system out of the semi-feudal systems of previous generations. The Macedonian phalanx of Aelian had many points of resemblance to the solid masses of pikemen and the squadrons of cavalry of the Spanish and Dutch systems, and the translations made in the 16th century formed the groundwork of numerous books on drill and tactics.

The first significant reference to the influence of Aelian in the 16th century is a letter to Maurice of Nassau, Prince of Orange from his cousin William Louis, Count of Nassau-Dillenburg on December 8, 1594. The letter is influential in supporting the thesis of the early-modern Military Revolution. In the letter, William Louis discusses the use of ranks by soldiers of Imperial Rome as discussed in Aelian's Tactica. Aelian was discussing the use of the counter march in the context of the Roman sword gladius and spear pilum. William Louis in a 'crucial leap' realised that the same technique could work for men with firearms.

title: Aelianus Tacticus


text:
Agarose

Agarose is a heteropolysaccharide, generally extracted from certain red algae. It is a linear polymer made up of the repeating unit of agarobiose, which is a disaccharide made up of D -galactose and 3,6-anhydro- L -galactopyranose. Agarose is one of the two principal components of agar, and is purified from agar by removing agar's other component, agaropectin.

Agarose is frequently used in molecular biology for the separation of large molecules, especially DNA, by electrophoresis. Slabs of agarose gels (usually 0.7 - 2%) for electrophoresis are readily prepared by pouring the warm, liquid solution into a mold. A wide range of different agaroses of varying molecular weights and properties are commercially available for this purpose. Agarose may also be formed into beads and used in a number of chromatographic methods for protein purification.

Structure
Agarose is a linear polymer with a molecular weight of about 120,000, consisting of alternating D -galactose and 3,6-anhydro- L -galactopyranose linked by α-(1→3) and β-(1→4) glycosidic bonds. The 3,6-anhydro- L -galactopyranose is an L -galactose with an anhydro bridge between the 3 and 6 positions, although some L -galactose units in the polymer may not contain the bridge. Some D -galactose and L -galactose units can be methylated, and pyruvate and sulfate are also found in small quantities.

Each agarose chain contains ~800 molecules of galactose, and the agarose polymer chains form helical fibers that aggregate into supercoiled structure with a radius of 20-30 nanometer (nm). The fibers are quasi-rigid, and have a wide range of length depending on the agarose concentration. When solidified, the fibers form a three-dimensional mesh of channels of diameter ranging from 50 nm to >200 nm depending on the concentration of agarose used - higher concentrations yield lower average pore diameters. The 3-D structure is held together with hydrogen bonds and can therefore be disrupted by heating back to a liquid state.

Properties
Agarose is available as a white powder which dissolves in near-boiling water, and forms a gel when it cools. Agarose exhibits the phenomenon of thermal hysteresis in its liquid-to-gel transition, i.e. it gels and melts at different temperatures. The gelling and melting temperatures vary depending on the type of agarose. Standard agaroses derived from Gelidium has a gelling temperature of 34 - 38 C and a melting temperature of 90 - 95 C, while those derived from Gracilaria, due to its higher methoxy substituents, has a gelling temperature of 40 - 52 C and melting temperature of 85 - 90 C. The melting and gelling temperatures may be dependent on the concentration of the gel, particularly at low gel concentration of less than 1%. The gelling and melting temperatures are therefore given at a specified agarose concentration.

Natural agarose contains uncharged methyl groups and the extent of methylation is directly proportional to the gelling temperature. Synthetic methylation however have the reverse effect, whereby increased methylation lowers the gelling temperature. A variety of chemically modified agaroses with different melting and gelling temperatures are available through chemical modifications.

The agarose in the gel forms a meshwork that contains pores, and the size of the pores depends on the concentration of agarose added. On standing, the agarose gels are prone to syneresis (extrusion of water through the gel surface), but the process is slow enough to not interfere with the use of the gel.

Agarose gel can have high gel strength at low concentration, making it suitable as an anti-convection medium for gel electrophoresis. Agarose gels as dilute as 0.15% can form slabs for gel electrophoresis. The agarose polymer contains charged groups, in particular pyruvate and sulfate. These negatively charged groups can slow down the movement of DNA molecules in a process called electroendosmosis (EEO), and low EEO agarose is therefore generally preferred for use in agarose gel electrophoresis of nucleic acids. Zero EEO agaroses are also available but these may be undesirable for some applications as they may be made by adding positively charged groups that can affect subsequent enzyme reactions. Electroendosmosis is a reason agarose is used preferentially over agar as agaropectin in agar contains a significant amount of negatively charged sulphate and carboxyl groups. The removal of agaropectin in agarose substantially reduces the EEO, as well as reducing the non-specific adsorption of biomolecules to the gel matrix. However, for some applications such as the electrophoresis of serum protein, a high EEO may be desirable, and agaropectin may be added in the gel used.

Low melting and gelling temperature agaroses
The melting and gelling temperatures of agarose can be modified by chemical modifications, most commonly by hydroxyethylation, which reduces the number of intrastrand hydrogen bonds, resulting in lower melting and setting temperatures compared to standard agaroses. The exact temperature is determined by the degree of substitution, and many available low-melting-point (LMP) agaroses can remain fluid at 30 - 35 C range. This property allows enzymatic manipulations to be carried out directly after the DNA gel electrophoresis by adding slices of melted gel containing DNA fragment of interest to a reaction mixture. The LMP agarose contains fewer of the sulphates that can affect some enzymatic reactions, and is therefore preferably used for some applications.

Hydroxyethylated agarose also has a smaller pore size (~90 nm) than standard agaroses. Hydroxyethylation may reduce the pore size by reducing the packing density of the agarose bundles, therefore LMP gel can also have an effect on the time and separation during electrophoresis. Ultra-low melting or gelling temperature agaroses may gel only at 8 - 15 C.

Applications
Agarose is a preferred matrix for work with proteins and nucleic acids as it has a broad range of physical, chemical and thermal stability, and its lower degree of chemical complexity also makes it less likely to interact with biomolecules. Agarose is most commonly used as the medium for analytical scale electrophoretic separation in agarose gel electrophoresis. Gels made from purified agarose have a relatively large pore size, making them useful for separation of large molecules, such as proteins and protein complexes >200 kilodaltons, as well as DNA fragments >100 basepairs. Agarose is also used widely for a number of other applications, for example immunodiffusion and immunoelectrophoresis, as the agarose fibers can function as anchor for immunocomplexes.

Agarose gel electrophoresis
Agarose gel electrophoresis is the routine method for resolving DNA in the laboratory. Agarose gels have lower resolving power for DNA than acrylamide gels, but they have greater range of separation, and are therefore usually used for DNA fragments with lengths of 50–20,000 bp (base pairs), although resolution of over 6 Mb is possible with pulsed field gel electrophoresis (PFGE). It can also be used to separate large protein molecules, and it is the preferred matrix for the gel electrophoresis of particles with effective radii larger than 5-10 nm.

The pore size of the gel affects the size of the DNA that can be sieved. The lower the concentration of the gel, the larger the pore size, and the larger the DNA that can be sieved. However low-concentration gels (0.1 - 0.2%) are fragile and therefore hard to handle, and the electrophoresis of large DNA molecules can take several days. The limit of resolution for standard agarose gel electrophoresis is around 750 kb. This limit can be overcome by PFGE, where alternating orthogonal electric fields are applied to the gel. The DNA fragments reorientate themselves when the applied field switches direction, but larger molecules of DNA take longer to realign themselves when the electric field is altered, while for smaller ones it is quicker, and the DNA can therefore be fractionated according to size.

Agarose gels are cast in a mold, and when set, usually run horizontally submerged in a buffer solution. Tris-acetate-EDTA and Tris-Borate-EDTA buffers are commonly used, but other buffers such as Tris-phosphate, barbituric acid-sodium barbiturate or Tris-barbiturate buffers may be used in other applications. The DNA is normally visualized by staining with ethidium bromide and then viewed under a UV light, but other methods of staining are available, such as SYBR Green, GelRed, methylene blue, and crystal violet. If the separated DNA fragments are needed for further downstream experiment, they can be cut out from the gel in slices for further manipulation.

Protein purification

Agarose gel matrix is often used for protein purification, for example, in column-based preparative scale separation as in gel filtration chromatography, affinity chromatography and ion exchange chromatography. It is however not used as a continuous gel, rather it is formed into porous beads or resins of varying fineness. The beads are highly porous so that protein may flow freely through the beads. These agarose-based beads are generally soft and easily crushed, so they should be used under gravity-flow, low-speed centrifugation, or low-pressure procedures. The strength of the resins can be improved by increased cross-linking and chemical hardening of the agarose resins, however such changes may also result in a lower binding capacity for protein in some separation procedures such as affinity chromatography.

Agarose is a useful material for chromatography because it does not absorb biomolecules to any significant extent, has good flow properties, and can tolerate extremes of pH and ionic strength as well as high concentration of denaturants such as 8M urea or 6M guanidine HCl. Examples of agarose-based matrix for gel filtration chromatography are Sepharose and WorkBeads 40 SEC (cross-linked beaded agarose), Praesto and Superose (highly cross-linked beaded agaroses), and Superdex (dextran covalently linked to agarose).

For affinity chromatography, beaded agarose is the most commonly used matrix resin for the attachment of the ligands that bind protein. The ligands are linked covalently through a spacer to activated hydroxyl groups of agarose bead polymer. Proteins of interest can then be selectively bound to the ligands to separate them from other proteins, after which it can be eluted. The agarose beads used are typically of 4% and 6% densities with a high binding capacity for protein.

Solid culture media
Agarose plate may sometimes be used instead of agar for culturing organisms as agar may contain impurities that can affect the growth of the organism or some downstream procedures such as polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Agarose is also harder than agar and may therefore be preferable where greater gel strength is necessary, and its lower gelling temperature may prevent causing thermal shock to the organism when the cells are suspended in liquid before gelling. It may be used for the culture of strict autotrophic bacteria, plant protoplast, Caenorhabditis elegans, other organisms and various cell lines.

Motility assays
Agarose is sometimes used instead of agar to measure microorganism motility and mobility. Motile species will be able to migrate, albeit slowly, throughout the porous gel and infiltration rates can then be visualized. The gel's porosity is directly related to the concentration of agar or agarose in the medium, so different concentration gels may be used to assess a cell's swimming, swarming, gliding and twitching motility. Under-agarose cell migration assay may be used to measure chemotaxis and chemokinesis. A layer of agarose gel is placed between a cell population and a chemoattractant. As a concentration gradient develops from the diffusion of the chemoattractant into the gel, various cell populations requiring different stimulation levels to migrate can then be visualized over time using microphotography as they tunnel upward through the gel against gravity along the gradient.

title: Agarose