Aegina. Detailed history

Aegina is an island in the Saronic Gulf off the coast of Athens (ca. twenty miles), which received its name from the mother of the hero Aeacus, the island’s first king. The nearly triangular island runs about six miles from north to south and ten miles from east to west, with a total of about thirty-four square miles of area with fertile plains on the northern and western sides. Mount Oros, an extinct volcano, dominates the island.

The island had been inhabited since at least 2000, with evidence of Minoan pottery and a gold treasure found in 1891. The gold jewelry included earrings, diadems, a bracelet, a cup, rings, a pendant, and plaques and is attributed stylistically to Minoan heritage. The island was ideally located between the Peloponnese in the south and Attica in the north.

Although Herodotus claimed that Aegina was a colony of Epidaurus, which lies on the northern tip of the Peloponnese, its archaeological evidence clearly shows an older history. It is possible that its original inhabitants came from Asia Minor during the great migration in the third millennium. During the Mycenaean period, the island was under their influence and may have escaped initial destruction by the Dorian invaders. Throughout its history, Aegina remained an oligarchy. Unlike many of the Greek states, it did not trace its origins to mythical or heroic kings.

During its rise to power, the island’s leaders were its important families, and during the age of tyrants in the sixth century, Aegina escaped that phenomenon. The island did not convert to democracy, which may have also been one of the main reasons for its continual hostility with Athens. The evidence shows that Aegina never had a viable democratic party that was able to exert much influence over the policies and outcomes of the struggles with Athens.

Aegina appears to have helped Eretria in its war against Chalchis over the rich plain of Lelantine, a fertile region of the island of Euboea about 700, which Eretria lost. Aegina’s contribution may have been minimal, and only offset any help by Samos, its enemy and rival, to Chalchis. During the seventh to fifth centuries, Aegina increased its power and prestige through its naval expansion.

It is reported that Pheidon of Argos created a mint on Aegina producing the Aeginetic stater, the first such coin minted in Europe. The electrum stater, dating first from Aegina to about 700, and then at Corinth, was valued at three drachmas. The image for Aegina was the turtle, which was sacred to Aphrodite, the island’s chief deity.

The early staters had a sea turtle, and this was replaced with a land tortoise at the end of the Peloponnesian War. The Aegina standard, as well as its competitor at Athens, was one of two standard currencies recognized in the Greek world.

During this period, Aegina established trading ports in the Pontic region and Egypt. It is clear that its power rested on the lucrative trade that it carried on with Asia. Aegina cultivated a series of trading partners during its rise during the Archaic period. One such city was Kydonia, on the northwest coast of Crete. Herodotus indicated that the city was founded in 520 by the Samians and that they were later defeated by Aegina.

Strabo then reports that Aegina colonized the area, and Kydonia even minted coins similar to Aegina. This location allowed the Aegineans the ability to move to the southern coast of the Mediterranean to Egypt, where they traded at Naucratis.

Tradition had it that this city on the Canopic branch of the Nile River was founded by Ionian and Carian pirates who were forced to go there and established a trading base. Most experts, however, believe that it had been established well before the Mycenaean period, and after the Mycenaean collapse, contacts between the Greeks and Egypt were renewed during the Dark Ages.

Herodotus claimed that Greek mercenaries descended from the Carian/Ionian pirates were settled at Naucratis and established a trading post or emporia. Later in the fifth century, it established a similar trading station in the Pontic for the rich grain trade. Unlike other Greek cities during this period, Aegina did not establish colonies. This may have hurt it because it could not call on its daughter cities for help in its subsequent struggles against Athens.

With its position and outposts, Aegina was able to trade throughout the Eastern Mediterranean and build up a network of trading partners. During this period, the rise of Persia occurred, and Aegina was well positioned to reap the rewards. It appears to have had good relations with Persia, which allowed the island to grow economically.

The rise of trade by Aegina became central to its increase in power and prestige and began its rivalry with nearby Athens. The struggle between the two city-states probably concerned control of the Saronic Gulf. The first struggle between the two city-states occurred when Athens was led by Solon in the early sixth century and limited commerce between Aegina and Attica. The origins lay with Aegina carrying off idols from Epidaurus of the goddesses Damia and Auxesia.

The Athenians decided to steal the statues from Aegina, and the Aeginans set upon the Athenian attackers, killing all but one, who returned to Athens to announce what happened. Although perhaps allegorical and mythical, this probably relates to an age-old feud between Athens and Aegina.

The legend of the continuing struggle is further given by Herodotus, writing about 440, who held Athens as the bulwark against Persia and all of the other city- states as inconsequential. In his writings, he downplayed Athens’s rival states when possible. According to Herodotus, in the next phase, Thebes, another rival of Athens, asked Aegina for help after its defeat in 507, and Aegina responded by attacking Athens and its territory of Attica. Athens planned to attack but was told by the Oracle at Delphi to resist.

The next part in the struggle occurred in 491, when Persian representatives arrived in Greece to demand submission. Athens refused, but Aegina submitted. For Herodotus and the Athenians, this was seen as treason, but for Aegina, it made perfect sense—with its already established trade contacts with Persia and the east, the demand perhaps did not mean as much to Aegina. It may have seen that Greek cities in Asia Minor that had submitted continued to prosper, and it planned to do so as well. When Aegina submitted to Persia in 491, the Spartan kings Cleomenes I and Leotychides arrived and seized ten of its leading citizens as hostages, giving them to Athens. Later, the Athenians refused to give up the hostages, and Aegina seized some Athenians in retaliation.

War broke out between the two, with Aegina winning a naval battle. Although the account is probably fictional, it does lay the groundwork for the rivalry. Aegina was powerful in trade and had connections with Persia; Athens and Sparta were anxious about Aegina joining Persia, especially since the Aeginan fleet would have been sizable; Sparta probably coerced Aegina into joining, or at least staying neutral with, the Greeks before the Persian invasion of 490; and Athens and Aegina struggled in the period after Marathon in 490.

During the period from 490 to 480, the Athenians began to expand their navy, and in the Constitution of Athens, Themistocles, the leader of Athens, argued for the building of 200 warships to fight Aegina. The growth of Athenian warships would have been needed not only to fight against Persia, which Themistocles argued, but more immediately for keeping Aegina at bay. It is possible that Aegina did not suffer much after the Persian defeat at Marathon in 490.

They could inform Persia that they were not involved since they had to give over hostages to Athens, and they even had won a victory over Athens. During the next decade, Persia began to seek revenge. The Aegina fleet continued to dominate the region and controlled the Saronic Gulf. It was probably during this period that Aegina reached the height of its naval power and apparently its continual trade partnership with Persia.

The death of the Persian king Darius I, who had sent the invasion in 490, now prompted his son, Xerxes I, to not only avenge his father but take over all of Greece. In 480, the Persians once again returned to Greece.

It is not clear if Aegina submitted this time to Persian demands. The Persians may have believed that the earlier submission was sufficient, while Aegina may have believed that with the death of Darius, it was no longer in force. It is clear that the Greek fleet assembled at Salamis in 480 had a large Aegina contingent. Herodotus, even though he was pro-Athens, could not ignore the contribution of Aegina, and in fact the Greeks awarded them the honor of victory.

Therefore, Herodotus’s statement that Aegina supposedly contributed only 30 ships as opposed to Athens’s 180 ships is probably false. In fact, the Aegina fleet may have rivaled that of Athens. The victory appears to have been made in great part by Aegina and its fleet. After the war, Aegina was protected by Sparta and its alliance with Cimon, the new leader of Athens, who wanted friendly relations. While Cimon was in power, he pursued relations with Sparta, and Aegina did not suffer.

After Cimon was ostracized by Athens in 461, however, everything changed. With the anti-Spartan party in power, Aegina was now attacked, and during the period from 461-456 during the First Peloponnesian War, it was defeated. Athens conquered the island and forced them to pay 30 Talents in tribute.

The Athenians would ultimately expel the Aeginetans from the island in 431 during the first year of the Peloponnesian War, and they settled on the mainland near Argos. Although continually harassed by Athenian forces, they ultimately were restored to Aegina after the Spartan victory in 404, although by that time they were insignificant.

This loss of power, however, should not be seen as deriving from a naval victory by Athens over Aegina in the 450s. Rather, its power had begun to decline after Salamis. Although it had helped win the battle, that cost the Aeginetans their livelihood. No longer would Aegina have access to the Persian markets and trade centers. This time, they could not claim that they were coerced because they had actively fought for the Greek cause.

After the war, Athens took the lead in the new Delian League, which not only liberated Greek cities in Asia Minor, but established a new maritime empire. Aegina was not part of this league, and as such, it could not partake in the benefits of the victories. Athens was effectively able to squeeze Aegina out of its trade connections, and without access to Persian markets, the naval power of Aegina began to decline. As Athens’s power increased, Aegina’s decreased, so when the two finally went to war, Athens, which had increased its own fleet, now destroyed its competitor.