Euboea (Greek Εὔβοια): large island in Greece, north of Boeotia and Attica, southeast of Thessaly.
Euboea
Euboea's northern shore, the "hollows"
Large island in Greece, north of Boeotia and Attica, southeast of Thessaly. Many mountains, rocky shores.
Three main cities: Chalcis (close to the Euripos, i.e., the narrow strait between Euboea and Boeotia), Eretria, and Carystus in the southeast.
Ninth century BCE: important trade center (exchange with Chios)
In the Archaic Age (c.800-500 BCE) active as metropolis, "mother city", in the colonization of Italy (e.g., Cumae) and the Chalcidice in the north; exchanging wine for metal with the Etruscans in the eight century BCE. According to the Athenian historian Thucydides, the first Greeks to settle on Sicily were from Chalcis.note[Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War, 6.3.]
Firts half of the sixth century: Lelantine War between Eretria and Chalcis in which other Greek cities were involved as well (Eretria and Miletus versus Chalcis and Samos); Eretria loses control of several islands in the Aegean Sea
506 BCE: Athenian intervention in Chalcis, which is garrisoned
499 BCE: Eretria and Athens intervene in the Ionian Revolt and sack Sardes, western capital of the Achaemenid Empire
490 BCE: While there is a conflict between Carystus and Eretria, the Persians retaliate for the Greek intervention in Sardes; Eretria is sacked, Carystus becomes pro-Persian, the Athenians defeat the Persian forces at Marathon
The island gradually becomes part of the Athenian realm
446 BCE: Anti-Athenian revolt; suppressed by Pericles; another Athenian colony at Histiaea
410 BCE: During the& Decelean War, Euboea becomes independent; creation of the Euboean League, which is not well-understood, but may have survived into Roman times
In Dio Chrysostom's Oration 7 ("the Euboean"), the oprator concludes (after a novel-like description of a shipwreck on Euboea and Dio's encounter with a poor hunter) that the poor can live a good life
Artemisium, Statue of Zeus
Eretria, Gymnasium, Statue of Cleonicus
Chalcis-Vromousa, Head of a woman (Roman copy of a Greek original)
