Location information

SIFNOS (Island) KYKLADES
  As a continuation of the Neolithic Age, the Cycladic Era began about 3,200 B.C. and flourished for 1,200 years in three main phases: Ancient, Mid and Later. The appearance of Cycladic engineers, marble workers, ship builders and seamen were succeeded first by the Minoan and then by the Mycenean civilizations.
  Sifnos, a significant entity in the ancient world, gave much which remains inscrutable. However judging by the unparalleled beauty of the sculptures of the Sifnoan Treasure, further investigation would be well worthwhile.
  In ancient times, Sifnos was a very prosperous island due to its gold and silver mines. Originally it was inhabited by the Cares and the Phoenicians and was known as "Akis" or "Meropia". Later it was named Minoa after the Minoans who lived there. In more recent years it was inhabited by the Ionians. The splendid Sifnoan Treasure, one of the more important collections exhibited at the Archaeological Museum in Delphi, bears witness to the cultural blossoming of these years. There are prehistoric monuments at Kalamitsi, Agios Andreas and Agios Nikitas.
  Sifnos participated in the Persian Wars and later was a member of the Athenian Alliance. During the Hellenistic and Roman Eras, Sifnos, like all the other Cycladic islands, was ruled by the Roman Empire and during the Byzantine period was part of the Aegean "Theme". Between 1207 and 1269, it came under the Venetian Dukedom of Naxos. In 1537, it was pillaged by Barbarosa and in 1617 it was conquered by the Turks. Until this time, it was ruled by the Cozadino Dynasty. Sifnos played an active part in the 1821 revolution and was liberated in 1836, along with other Cycladic islands.
This text (extract) is cited August 2003 from the Apollonia and Artemonas Communities tourist pamphlet.

SKYROS (Island) STEREA HELLAS
  Skyros is known throughout Greece’s history, beginning with mythology, when Theseus was killed on Skyros. Achilles was hidden here in king Lycomides’ court, then was discovered by Odysseus and consequently left to fight at Troy. As proven by the excavations at Palamari, Skyros was a trade centre in the Copper Age (2500-1800 BC). In 470 B.C. the Athenian general Kimon captured the island, driving away the Dolopian pirates who had used Skyros as a base for their attacks and he brought Athenian settlers to the island. Later, Skyros fell into the bands of the Macedonians from 332-196 B.C., when it then returned to Athenian control. During the Roman occupation of Greece Skyros was enlisted in the "Aegean Sea Theme" being used as an exile base for powerful enemies. In the beginning of the 13th century A.D. Skyros came under the command of the Northern Italians (Venetians) and in 1538 was conquered by the Turkish commander Barbarossa. Skyros was active in the revolution of 1821 and was used as a hiding-place for revolutionaries.
This text (extract) is cited July 2003 from the Municipality of Skyros tourist pamphlet (1996).

STAVROS (Small town) THESSALONIKI
  The sunny area of Stavros is known from the ancient times. According to ancient writers and historians, it was a "mygdonic" residence, that it, a township known as "Vormiskos" according to Stephanos Vizantios of "Vromiskos" according to Thucydides, which was built near the river Richios. It is said that Euripides, the great Greek ancient poet, was killed here by the wild dogs of King Archelaos during a hunt.
  On the one hand, this "mygdonic" residence was important since it entered the great Athenian and Delian alliance.
  On the other hand, it was an access road used by the Lacedemonian troops of General Vrassidas and of Xerxes’ army. During the Byzantine period it was an important strategic junction since it was near "Egnatia road" and on the way to Agio Oros. Stavros, however, was settled by the refugees from Asia Minor. It was in 1922 when the Greek people who were living in the coast of Asia Minor and specifically refugees from Katirli of Vithinia and Agia Paraskevi came here in Stavros along with refugees from Proussa and Madytos. Those capable people managed to build a brand new community through difficulties and hardships. They suffered great pain but they loved this place just because it reminded them of their homeland. They were mainly woodcutters and fishermen who worked hard to create a new home.
This text (extract) is cited November 2003 from the Municipality of Rentina tourist pamphlet.

SYMI (Island) DODEKANISSOS
  The history of the island begins in ancient and mythological times. Its ancient names were Aigli, Metapontis and Cariki. It is postulated that its first inhabitants were the Carians and the Leleges.
  Symi is mentioned in The Iliad: King Nireus took part in the Trojan war with three ships. Herodotus refers to it as being a member of the Dorian Hexapolis (6 cities). From 480 B.C. the island belonged to the Athenian League.
  In the Roman and Byzantine epochs Symi’s fortune was closely linked to that of Rhodes. From 1309 the island entered upon a prosperous period with the development of shipping, commerce, the sponge trade, boat building and other crafts. This period also saw the beginning of the increase in urban growth the beauty of which remains intact to this day. The houses began to spread out from the same time people started to abandon many of their traditional settlements. The majority of the churches were also built during this time.
  Turkish attacks were repulsed in 1457 and 1485. In 1522, realizing that further resistance wa in vain, and attempting to preserve as much as they could; the people offered gifts to the sultan and gained the grant, of many special privileges. Thus they achieved freedom of religious expression and the use of their own language with the resulting advances in education and crafts. In addition to these privileges, they won sponge-fishing rights throughout all the seas of the Ottoman Empire.
  They supported the national war of independence and contributed funds to the Greek fleet over a number of years; not to mention financial assistance to Laskarina Bouboulina, Admiral Miaoulis, Themelis and others.
  In 1832 Symi unwillingly returned to Turkish control, and people reacted most strongly to this. In 1869 there was an attempt to abrogate the special privileges. In 1875 and 1885 there were population censuses: in 1908 Symi won her second battle to preserve her privileges, resulting in victory for the other islands as well.
  In 1912 Turkish dominion gave way to Italian control, which lasted until September 17th, 1943. From that date the island changed hands several times between the British and the Germans, the British taking Symi for the third time on September 25th, 1944, on which day the castle and the surrounding quarter of town were blown up. On May 8th, 1945 the German surrender of the Dodecanese was signed on Symi. On April 1st, 1947 a British Military Administration handed over to a Greek one, and on March 7th, 1948 the Dodecanese were incorporated into the Greek state.
This text (extract) is cited November 2003 from the Municipality of Symi tourist pamphlet.

TOPIRO (Municipality) XANTHI
  The newly established Municipality of Topeiros owes its name to a city which existed on the Egnatia Road, during the Roman Ages, in the same area in which the Municipality extends today.
  Approaching the bridge over the Nestos river, in the area between the villages of Toxotes and Paradeisos, 14 km west of Xanthi, you can see the remains of the ancient city of Topeiros, where monuments of old Christian and Byzantine ages mostly parts of Churches and Monasteries, have been found and conserved.
  It was established in the 1st A.C. and it was the Bishop’s Seat form the 5th to 8th century. Recent clear evidence for the Bishopric of Topeiros comes from the 1st early Byzantine Age, specifically from 4th and 5th century. As a consequence, Bishop’s names are reported in the records of the Third and Forth Ecumenical Synods. At the end of the 4th century Topeiros gained distinction from Trianoupoli’s Metropolitan Bishop, under whose domination remained for at least 900 years.
  During the 2nd century A.C. the city of Topeiros had its own coins (Proof of self rule and wealth). With the division of the Roman Empire into East and West, the area of Xanthi with the city Topeiros as capital, belongs to the East Empire and it is its western boundary.
  In 549 A.C. during the Justinian Empire the city was conquered by the Slavs, who totally destroyed it. 2 years later, Justinian rebuilt it and surrounded it with stronger walls.
  The city had a historical presence until 812 A.C. when it was destroyed by the Bulgarian Tsar "Croumo".
This text (extract) is cited October 2003 from the Municipality of Topeiros tourist pamphlet.

The fortress of Rogon

VOUCHETION (Ancient city) PREVEZA
  A few kilometres away from Louros, over a picturesque rich in vegetation hill, is the ruins of the Rogon fortress. A very beautiful castle, it surrounded the city of Rogon - of the Roman and Byzantine era. The relics of the Evangelist Loukas were kept in that city from 1204 to 1453, when they were carried to Smaderevo - a Serbian city.
  The city and the castle of Rogon was desolated from 1449 (when conquered by Turks) until 1690. It is the same site where the ancient city of Bouchetion - continuity of which Rogon was around 8th-9th century A.C. On the NW side of the ancient acropolis of the fortress, a holy church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary is preserved - from the 17th century. This is the last monument of the Byzantine and Post-Byzantine period of the settlement, which formed as well the headquarters of Bishopric (which was later united with the Bishopric of Kozilis). Kozili was a small Byzantine city near Nikopolis (in the area of N. Samsous). Near the city the Kozili Monastery was founded in 774 A.C. The bishop of Kozili and Rogon, (1820-26) was very famous who during the siege of Mesologi while defending it heroically, his comrades and he were exploded at the 12th of October 1826.
(text: LAZAROS SINESIOS)
This text (extract) is cited July 2003 from the Prefecture of Preveza tourist pamphlet.

Achaean league

ACHAIA (Ancient country) GREECE
Achaicun Foedus (to Achaikon), the league or confederation of a number of towns on the north-west coast of Peloponnesus. In speaking of the Achaean league we must distinguish between two periods, an earlier and a later one. The former, though formed for mutual protection, was mainly of a religious character, whereas the latter was pre-eminently a political confederation to protect the towns against the domination of Macedonia.
1. The earlier League.
  When the Herakleidae took possession of Peloponnesus, which until then had been inhabited chiefly by the Achaean race, a portion of the latter, under Tisamenos, turned northwards and took possession of the northern coast of the peninsula, which was called Aigialos: the Ionians, who had hitherto occupied that country, took refuge in Attica and on the west coast of Asia Minor. The country thus occupied by the Achaeans, from whom it derived its name of Achaia, contained twelve towns which had been leagued together even in the time of their Ionian inhabitants. They were governed by the descendants of Tisamenos, until, after the death of king Ogyges, they abolished the kingly rule and established democratic institutions. The time when this happened is not known. In the time of Herodotus (i. 145; comp. Strab. viii. p. 483 foll.) the twelve towns of which the league consisted were: Pellene, Aegeira, Aegae, Bura, Helike, Aegion, Rhypes, Patrae, Pharae, Olenos, Dyme, and Tritaea. After the time of Herodotus, Rhypes and Aegae disappear from the number of the confederate towns, as they had decayed and become deserted (Paus. vii. 23, 25; Strab. viii), and Leontion and Keryneia stepped into their place (Polyb. ii. 41; comp. Paus. vii. 6). Helike appears to have been their common place of meeting; but this town, together with Bura, was swallowed up by the sea during an earth-quake in B.C. 373, whereupon Aegion was chosen as the place of meeting for the confederates (Strab. viii; Diod. xv. 48 ; Pans. vii. 24). Of the constitution of this league very little is known; but it is clear that the bond which united the different towns was very loose, and less a political than a religious one, as is shown by the common sacrifice offered at Helike to Poseidon. When that town was destroyed and Aegion had become the central point of the league, the common sacrifice was offered up to the principal divinities of Aegion, i. e. to Zeus, surnamed Homagyrios, and to Demeter Panachaea (Pans. vii. 24). The looseness of the connexion among the towns in a political point of view is evident from the fact that some of them acted occasionally quite independent of the rest (Thuc. ii. 9). The confederation generally kept aloof from the troubles of other parts of Greece, on which accordingly it exercised no particular influence down to the time when the league was broken up by the Macedonians. But they were nevertheless highly respected by the other Greek states on account of their honesty, sincerity, and wise moderation. Hence after the battle of Leuktra they were chosen to arbitrate between the Thebans and Lakedaemonians (Polyb. ii. 39). Demetrios, Kassander, and Antigonos Gonatas placed garrisons in some of their towns, while in others they favoured the rising of tyrants. The towns were thus separated from one another, and the whole confederation was gradually destroyed.
2. The later League.
  The ancient confederacy had thus ceased to exist for some time when events took place which in some towns roused the ancient spirit of independence. When in B.C. 281 Antigonos Gonatas attempted to drive Ptolemaeos Keraunos from the throne of Macedonia, the Achaeans availed themselves of the opportunity of shaking off the Macedonian yoke and renewing the ancient confederation. The grand object however now was no longer a common worship, but a real political union among the confederate towns. The places which first shook off the yoke of the oppressors were Dyme and Patrae, and the alliance concluded between them was speedily joined by the towns of Tritaea and Pharae (Polyb. ii. 41). One town after another now expelled the Macedonian garrisons and tyrants; and when in B.C. 275 Aegion, the head of the ancient league, followed the example of the other towns, the foundation of the new confederation was complete, and the main principles of its constitution were settled, though afterwards many changes and modifications were introduced. The fundamental laws were that henceforth the confederacy should form one inseparable state; that every town which should join it should have equal rights with the others; and that all members in regard to foreign countries should be regarded as dependent, and be bound in every respect to obey the federal government and those officers who were entrusted with the executive (Polyb. ii. 37 foll.). No town, therefore, was allowed to treat with any foreign power without the sanction of the others. Aegion, for religious reasons, was at first appointed the seat of the government, and retained this distinction until the time of Philopoemen, who proposed a measure according to which the national meetings should be held in rotation in any of the other towns (Liv. xxxviii. 30); but whether this plan was adopted is uncertain. At Aegion, therefore, the citizens of the various towns met at stated and regular times to deliberate upon the common affairs of the confederation, and if necessary upon those of any separate town or even individuals, and to elect the officers of the league. After having thus established a firm union among themselves, the Achaeans zealously exerted themselves in delivering other towns also from their tyrants and oppressors. The league however did not acquire any great strength until B.C. 251, when Aratos united Sikyon, his native place, with it, and some years later also gained Corinth for it. Megara, Troezen, and Epidauros soon followed their example. Afterwards Aratos prevailed upon all the more important towns of Peloponnesus to join the confederacy; and Megalopolis, Argos, Hermione, Phlius, and others were added to it. In a short time the league thus reached its highest power, for it embraced Athens, Aegina, Salamis, and the whole of Peloponnesus with the exception of Sparta, Tegea, Orchomenos, Mantineia, and Elis. Greece seemed to revive, and promised to become stronger and more united than ever, but it soon showed that its new power was employed only in self-destruction and its own ruin. We cannot here enter into the history of this new confederation, but must confine ourselves to giving an outline of its constitution, as it existed at the time of its full development.
  Polybius (ii. 38) remarks that there was no other constitution in the world in which all the members of the community had such a perfect equality of rights and so much liberty, and, in short, which was so perfectly democratic and so free from all selfish and exclusive regulations, as the Achaean league; for all its members had equal rights, whether they had belonged to it from the beginning or had only recently joined it, and whether they were large or small towns. Their common affairs were regulated at general meetings by the citizens of all the towns, and were held regularly twice every year, in the spring and in the autumn. These meetings, which lasted three days, were held in a grove of Zeus Homagyrios, in the neighbourhood of Aegion, and near a sanctuary of Demeter Panachaea. (Polyb. ii. 54, iv. 37, v. 1, xix. 9; Liv. xxxii. 22, xxxviii. 32; Strab. viii; Paus. vii. 24.) In cases of urgent necessity, however, extraordinary meetings might be convened, either at Aegion or in any other of the confederate towns (Liv. xxi. 25; Polyb. xxv. 1, xxix. 8; Pint. Arat. 41). Every citizen, both rich and poor, who had attained the age of thirty, might attend the assemblies, speak, and propose any measure, to which they were invited by a public herald (Polyb. xxix. 9 ; Liv. xxxii. 20). Under these circumstances the assemblies were sometimes of the most tumultuous kind, and a wise and experienced man might sometimes find it difficult to gain a hearing among the crowds of ignorant and foolish people (Polyb. xxviii. 4). It is, however, natural to suppose that the ordinary meetings, unless matters of great importance were to be discussed, were attended chiefly by the wealthier classes, who had the means of paying the expenses of their journey, for many lived at a considerable distance from the place of meeting.
  The subjects to be brought before the assembly were prepared by a council (boule), which seems to have been permanent (Polyb. xxiii. 7, xxviii. 3, xxix. 9; Plut. Arat. 53). The principal subjects on which the assembly had to decide were -peace and war (Polyb. iv. 15 foll.); the reception of new towns into the confederacy (Polyb. xxv. 1); the election of the magistrates of the confederation (Polyb. iv. 37, 82; Plut. Arat. 41); the punishment of offences committed by the magistrates, though sometimes special judges were appointed for that purpose, as well as the honours and distinctions to be conferred upon them (Polyb. iv. 14, viii. 14, xl. 5, 8; Paus. vii. 9). The ambassadors of foreign states had to deliver their messages to the assembly, where they were discussed by the assembled people (Polyb. iv. 7, xxiii. 7 foll., xxviii. 7; Liv. xxxii. 9). The assembly further had the power to determine as to whether negotiations were to be carried on with any foreign power or not, and no single town was allowed to send an embassy to a foreign power on its own responsibility, even on matters of merely local importance, although otherwise every individual town managed its own internal affairs at its own discretion, so long as it did not interfere with the interests of the league. No town, moreover, was allowed to accept presents from a foreign power (Polyb. xxiii. 8; Pans. vii. 9). The votes in the assembly were given according to towns; each town, whether large or small, having one vote (Liv. xxxviii. 22 foll.).

The principal officers of the Achaean league were:
1. At first two strategi (stratepsoi), but after the year B.C. 255 there was only one (Strab. viii), who, in conjunction with the hipparchus (hipparchos) or commander of the cavalry (Polyb. v. 95, xxviii. 6) and an under-strategus (hupostrategos, Polyb. iv. 59), commanded the army furnished by the confederate towns, and was entrusted with the whole conduct of the war.
2. A state-secretary (grammateus).
3. An apparently permanent council of ten men, called the demionrgoi (Strab. viii; Liv. xxxii. 22, xxxviii. 30; Polyb. v. 1, xxiii. 10, where they are called archontes). These demiurgi, whom Polybius in another passage (xxxviii. 5) calls geronsia, appear to have presided at the great assemblies, which either they or the strategus might convene, though it seems that the latter could do so only when the people were convened in arms or for military purposes (Polyb. iv. 7; Liv. xxv. 25).
  All the officers of the league were elected in the assembly held in the spring, at the rising of the Pleiades (Polyb. ii. 43; iv. 6, 37; v. 1), and legally they were invested with their several offices only for one year; but it often happened that men of great merit, like Aratos and Philopoemen, were re-elected for several successive years (Plut. Arat. 24, 30; Cleom. 15). If an officer died during the period of his office, his place was filled by his predecessor, until the time for the new elections arrived (Polyb. xl. 2). The close union subsisting among the confederates was, according to Polybius (ii. 37), strengthened by their adopting common weights, measures, and coins. Many Achaean coins are preserved in various collections.
  The Achaean league might at one time have become a great power, and might have united at least the whole of Peloponnesus into one state; but the original objects of the league were in the course of time so far forgotten that it sought the protection of those against whom it had been formed; and the perpetual discord among its members, the hostility of Sparta, the intrigues of the Romans, and the folly and rashness of the [p. 10] last strategi brought about not only the dissolution and destruction of the confederacy, but the political annihilation of the whole of Greece in the year B.C. 146. After a time the Romans again allowed certain national confederations to be renewed (Paus. vii. 16), but they had no political influence, and were entirely dependent upon the Roman governor of Macedonia, until in the reign of Augustus all Greece was constituted as a Roman province under the name of Achaia.

This text is from: A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890) (eds. William Smith, LLD, William Wayte, G. E. Marindin). Cited June 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks

A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890) (eds. William Smith, LLD, William Wayte, G. E. Marindin)
• http://perseus.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/cgi-bin/ptext?d...
Achaean league: Perseus Lookup Tool
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With Athenians

ARGOS (Ancient city) ARGOLIS
It is said that the alliance between the two peoples was brought about thus. Sparta was once shaken by an earthquake, and the Helots seceded to Ithome. After the secession the Lacedaemonians sent for help to various places, including Athens, which dispatched picked troops under the command of Cimon, the son of Miltiades. These the Lacedaemonians dismissed, because they suspected them. The Athenians regarded the insult as intolerable, and on their way back made an alliance with the Argives, the immemorial enemies of the Lacedaemonians. (Paus.+=1.29.8-9)

Pausanias, Description of Greece
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The Achaean league

(more Information see Achaia, ancient country)

A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890) (eds. William Smith, LLD, William Wayte, G. E. Marindin)
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With Athenians, Mantineans & Eleans

The Athenians, Argives, Mantineans, and Eleans, acting for themselves and the allies in their respective empires, made a treaty for a hundred years, to be without fraud or hurt by land and by sea.
1. It shall not be lawful to carry on war, either for the Argives, Eleans, Mantineans, and their allies, against the Athenians, or the allies in the Athenian empire; or for the Athenians and their allies against the Argives, Eleans, Mantineans, or their allies, in any way or means whatsoever. The Athenians, Argives, Eleans, and Mantineans shall be allies for a hundred years upon the terms following:
2. If an enemy invade the country of the Athenians, the Argives, Eleans, and Mantineans shall go to the relief of Athens, according as the Athenians may require by message, in such way as they most effectually can, to the best of their power. But if the invader be gone after plundering the territory, the offending state shall be the enemy of the Argives, Mantineans, Eleans, and Athenians, and war shall be made against it by all these cities; and no one of the cities shall be able to make peace with that state, except all the above cities agree to do so.
3. Likewise the Athenians shall go to the relief of Argos, Mantinea, and Elis, if an enemy invade the country of Elis, Mantinea, or Argos, according as the above cities may require by message, in such way as they most effectually can, to the best of their power. But if the invader be gone after plundering the territory, the state offending shall be the enemy of the Athenians, Argives, Mantineans, and Eleans, and war shall be made against it by all these cities, and peace may not be made with that state except all the above cities agree to it.
4. No armed force shall be allowed to pass for hostile purposes through the country of the powers contracting, or of the allies in their respective empires, or to go by sea, except all the cities--that is to say, Athens, Argos, Mantinea, and Elis--vote for such passage. [6] 5. The relieving troops shall be maintained by the city sending them for thirty days from their arrival in the city that has required them, and upon their return in the same way; if their services be desired for a longer period the city that sent for them shall maintain them, at the rate of three Aeginetan obols per day for a heavy-armed soldier, archer, or light soldier, and an Aeginetan drachma for a trooper.
6. The city sending for the troops shall have the command when the war is in its own country; but in case of the cities resolving upon a joint expedition the command shall be equally divided among all the cities.
7. The treaty shall be sworn to by the Athenians for themselves and their allies, by the Argives, Mantineans, Eleans, and their allies, by each state individually. Each shall swear the oath most binding in his country over full-grown victims; the oath being as follows: 'I will stand by the alliance and its articles, justly, innocently, and sincerely, and I will not transgress the same in any way or means whatsoever.'
  The oath shall be taken at Athens by the Senate and the magistrates, the Prytanes administering it; at Argos by the Senate, the Eighty, and the Artynae, the Eighty administering it; at Mantinea by the Demiurgi, the Senate, and the other magistrates, the Theori and Polemarchs administering it; at Elis by the Demiurgi, the magistrates, and the Six Hundred, the Demiurgi and the Thesmophylaces administering it.
  The oaths shall be renewed by the Athenians going to Elis, Mantinea, and Argos thirty days before the Olympic games; by the Argives, Mantineans, and Eleans going to Athens ten days before the great feast of the Panathenaea.
  The articles of the treaty, the oaths, and the alliance shall be inscribed on a stone pillar by the Athenians in the citadel, by the Argives in the market-place, in the temple of Apollo; by the Mantineans in the temple of Zeus, in the market-place; and a brazen pillar shall be erected jointly by them at the Olympic games now at hand.
  Should the above cities see good to make any addition to these articles, whatever all the above cities shall agree upon, after consulting together, shall be binding.

Thucydides, The Peloponnesian War
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The Arcadian League

ARKADIA (Ancient area) PELOPONNISOS
   The Arcadian League, established some time after the battle of Leuctra (B.C. 371), when the victory of Epaminondas had destroyed the supremacy of Sparta in the Peloponnesus and restored the independence of the Arcadian towns. The Arcadian League succeeded in giving unity to the Arcadians for only a short time, however, and its influence soon declined.

This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited Nov 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks

Perseus: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities (1898)
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Member of the Delian League alliance

CHIOS (Island) NORTH AEGEAN
The battle of Mycale, 479, freed Chios from the Persian yoke, and it became a member of the Athenian League, in which it was for a long time the closest and most favoured ally of Athens; but an unsuccessful attempt to revolt, in 412, led to its conquest and devastation.

Attic Maritime League: Perseus Lookup Tool, text search
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Athenian alliance: Perseus Lookup Tool, text search
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Delian League: Perseus Lookup Tool, text search
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With Lacedaemonians, 412 BC

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Amphictyonic League (Amphictyones, Amphictyons)

DELFI (Ancient sanctuary) FOKIDA
  Amphictyones (Amphiktuones). Literally "those dwelling around", but in a special sense applied to populations which at stated times met at the same sanctuary to keep a festival in common, and to transact common business. The most famous and extensive union of the kind was that called, par excellence, the Amphictyonic League, whose common sanctuaries were the temple of Pythian Apollo at Delphi, and the temple of Demeter at Anthela, near Pylae or Thermopylae. After Pylae the assembly was named the Pylaean, even when it met at Delphi, and the deputies of the league Pylagorae. The league was supposed to be very ancient, as old even as the name of Hellenes; for its founder was said to be Amphictyon, the son of Deucalion and brother of Hellen, the common ancestor of all Hellenes. ( Herod.vii. 200.) It included twelve populations: Malians, Phthians, Aenianes or Oetoeans, Dolopes, Magnetians, Perrhoebians, Thessalians, Locrians, Dorians, Phocians, Boeotians, and Ionians, together with the colonies of each. Though in later times their extent and power were very unequal, yet in point of law they all had equal rights. Besides protecting and preserving those two sanctuaries, and celebrating from the year B.C. 586 on wards the Pythian Games, the league was bound to maintain certain principles of international right, which forbade them, for instance, ever to destroy utterly any city of the league, or to cut off its water, even in time of war. To the assemblies, which met every spring and autumn, each nation sent two hieromnemones (= wardens of holy things) and several pylagorae. The latter took part in the debates, but only the former had the right of voting. When a nation included several States, these took by turns the privilege of sending deputies. But the stronger states, such as the Ionian Athens or the Dorian Sparta, were probably allowed to take their turn oftener than the rest, or even to send to every assembly. When violations of the sanctuaries or of popular right took place the assembly could inflict fines, or even expulsion; and a State that would not submit to the punishment had a "holy war" (or Sacred War) declared against it. By such a war the Phocians were expelled B.C. 346, and their two votes given to the Macedonians; but the expulsion of the former was withdrawn because of the glorious part they took in defending the Delphian temple when threatened by the Gauls in B.C. 279, and at the same time the Aetolian community, which had already made itself master of the sanctuary, was acknowledged as a new member of the league. In B.C. 191 the number of members amounted to seventeen, who nevertheless had only twenty-four votes, seven having two votes each, the rest only one. Under the Roman rule the league continued to exist, but its action was now limited to the care of the Delphian temple. It was reorganized by Augustus, who incorporated the Malians, Magnetians, Aenianes, and Pythians with the Thessalians, and substituted for the extinct Dolopes the city of Nicopolis in Acarnania, which he had founded after the battle of Actium. The last notice we find of the league is in the second century A.D.

This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited Oct 2003 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks

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The Delian League

DELOS (Island) KYKLADES
   Confederacy of. A league entered into by the Greek States under the hegemony of Athens in B.C. 478, with the primary object of defending Greece against the designs of Persia. The league obtained its name from the fact that the representatives of the States composing it met periodically at the island of Delos, in the temple of Apollo and Artemis. Each State contributed at its option either ships or money according to the assessment proposed by Aristides, representing Athens, and ratified by the assembled delegates. The first assessment amounted to 460 talents, or about $550,000. The contributions were collected and administered by officers called Hellenotamiae.

This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited Oct 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks

Perseus: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities (1898)
• http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Per...

Aristides . . he and his colleague Cimon had the glory of obtaining for Athens the command of the maritime confederacy (Confederacy of Delos); and to Aristides was by general consent intrusted the task of drawing up its laws and fixing its assessments. The first tribute of four hundred and sixty talents, paid into a common treasury at Delos, bore his name.

Perseus: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities (1898)
• http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Per...

A Permanent Structure for the Alliance
  Under Athenian direction, the Greek alliance against Persia took on a permanent organizational structure. Member states swore a solemn oath never to desert the coalition. The members were predominately located in northern Greece, on the islands of the Aegean Sea, and along the western coast of Anatolia--that is, in the areas most exposed to Persian attack. Most of the independent city-states of the Peloponnese, on the other hand, remained in their traditional alliance with the Spartans. This alliance of Sparta and its allies, which modern historians refer to as the Peloponnesian League, had an assembly to set policy, but no action could be taken unless the Spartan leaders agreed to it. The alliance headed by Athens also had an assembly of representatives to make policy. Its structure was supposed to allow participation by all its members.
The Finances of the Alliance (Delian League)
The Athenian representatives came to dominate this erstwhile democracy, however, as a result of the special arrangements made to finance the alliance's naval operations. Aristides set the different levels of payments the various member states were to pay each year, based on their size and prosperity. The Greek word describing the payments was phoros, literally "that which is brought". Modern historians refer to the payments as "tribute", but the translation "dues" might come closer to the official terminology of the alliance, so long as it is remembered that these dues were compulsory and permanent. For their tribute payments, larger member states were assessed the responsibility of supplying entire warships complete with crews and pay; smaller states could share the cost of a ship, or simply contribute cash which would be put together with others' payments to pay for ships and crews. Over time, more and more of the members of the alliance chose to pay their dues in cash rather than go to the trouble of furnishing warships. The alliance's funds were kept on the centrally-located island of Delos, in the group of islands in the Aegean Sea called the Cyclades, where they were placed under the guardianship of the god Apollo, to whom the whole island of Delos was sacred. Historians today refer to the alliance as the Delian League because its treasury was originally located on Delos.
The Warships of the Delian League
The warship of the time was a narrow vessel built for speed called a trireme("triple-banks-of-oars ship"), a name derived from its having three tiers of oarsmen on each side for propulsion in battle. One hundred and eighty rowers were needed to propel a trireme, which fought mainly by ramming enemy ships with a metal-clad ram attached to the bow and thus sinking them bypuncturing their hulls below the water line. Triremes also carried a complement of about twenty officers and marines; the marines, armed as infantry, could board enemy ships. Effective battle tactics in triremes required extensive training and physical conditioning of the crews. Most member states of the Delian League preferred to pay their annual dues in cash instead of furnishing triremes because it was beyond their capacities to build ships as specialized as triremes and to train crews in the intricate teamwork required to work triple banks of oars in battle maneuvers. Athens was far richer and more populous than most of its allies in the Delian League, and it not only had the shipyards and craftsmen to build triremes in numbers but also a large pool of poorer men eager to earn pay as rowers. Therefore, Athens built and manned most of the alliance's triremes, using the dues of allies to supplement its own contribution.
The Rebellion of Thasos
Since Athens supplied the largest number of warships in the fleet of the Delian League, the balance of power in the League came firmly into the hands of the Athenian assembly, whose members decided how Athenian ships were to be employed. Members of the League had no effective recourse if they disagreed with decisions made for the League as a whole under Athenian leadership. Athens, for instance, could compel the League to send its ships to force reluctant allies to go on paying dues if they stopped making their annual payments. The most egregious instance of such compulsion was the case of the city-state of the island of Thasos which, in 465 B.C, unilaterally withdrew from the Delian League after a dispute with Athens over gold mines on the neighboring mainland. To compel the Thasians to keep their sworn agreement to stay in the League, the Athenians led the fleet of the Delian League, including ships from other member states, against Thasos. The attack turned into a protracted siege, which finally ended after three years' campaigns in 463 B.C. with the island's surrender. As punishment, the League forced Thasos to pull down its defensive walls, give up its navy, and pay enormous dues and fines. As Thucydides observed, rebellious allies like the Thasians "lost their independence", making the Athenians as the League's leaders "no longer as popular as they used to be".
The Military and Financial Success of the Delian League
The Athenian-dominated Delian League enjoyed success after success against the Persians in the 470s and 460s. Within twenty years after the rout of the Persian fleet in the battle of Salamis in 479, almost all Persian garrisons had been expelled from the Greek world and the Persian fleet driven from the Aegean. Although the Persian heartland was not threatened by these setbacks, Persia ceased to be a threat to Greeks for the next fifty years. Athens meanwhile grew stronger from its share of the spoils captured from Persian outposts and the dues paid by its members. By the middle of the fifth century B.C., League members' dues alone totaled an amount equivalent to perhaps $200,000,000 in contemporary terms (based on the assumption of $80 as the average daily pay of a worker today). For a state the size of Athens (around 30,000 to 40,000 adult male citizens at the time), this annual income meant prosperity.
Athenian Self-Interest in Empire
The male citizens meeting in the assembly decided how to spend the city-state's income. Rich and poor alike had a self-interest in keeping the the fleet active and the allies paying for it. Well-heeled aristocrats like Cimon (c. 510-450 B.C.), the son of Miltiades the victor of the battle of Marathon, could enhance their social status by commanding successful League campaigns and then spending their share of the spoils on benefactions to Athens. The numerous Athenian men of lesser means who rowed the Delian League's ships came to depend on the income they earned on League expeditions. The allies were given no choice but to acquiesce to Athenian wishes on League policy. The men of Athens insisted on freedom for themselves, but they failed to preserve it for the member states in the alliance that had been born in the fight for just this sort of freedom from domination by others. In this way, alliance was transformed into empire, despite Athenian support of democractic governments in some allied city-states previously ruled by oligarchies. From the Athenian point of view, this transformation was justified because, by keeping the allies in line, the alliance remained strong enough to do its job of protecting Greece from the Persians.

This text is from: Thomas Martin's An Overview of Classical Greek History from Homer to Alexander, Yale University Press. Cited Mar 2003 from Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.

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Syntaxis.. The tribute paid by the allies of Athens into the treasury of the League was originally called phoros. But after the downfall of the Athenian supremacy, and the establishment of the second confederacy in B.C. 378-7, the old name was dropped, as it had grown hateful to the allies with the general unpopularity of the rule of Athens, and the new assessment was known as suntaxis.

Perseus: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities (1898)
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The ancient Persian and Greek cultures did not exist in isolation. There was cross-fertilization. The present article contains a description of Persia's influence on Greece.
Politics: Delian league
  The most remarkable aspect of the Delian League is that it was a maritime empire. Earlier Greek (con)federations of Greek towns had all been land-based. A maritime empire demands another kind of organization, not in the least because the lines of communication can be threatened in the winter, whereas transport between the member states is much cheaper. This makes it unlikely that a Greek league was the model of the Athenian empire, and it is possible that the western part of the Achaemenid empire -with its maritime lines of communication and active navy- was the real source of inspiration.
  The maritime organization of the western part of the Achaemenid empire was was a result of king Cambyses' conquest of Egypt (525 BCE), which was only possible after the building of a large imperial navy. (Without marine superiority, it was impossible for an army to cross through the Sinai desert, because any army marching to the west would be exposed to Egyptian naval actions.)
  When Egypt was defeated and added to the Achaemenid empire, it was necessary to keep the navy to control the new region. Many men and lots of silver and gold were necessary for the upkeep, and the result was the monetarization of the tribute by king Darius the Great. Although it was still possible to pay in kind, payments in cash were preferred.
  The organization of the western Achaemenid empire was, therefore, largely based on the demands of the navy, and the Athenians copied certain aspects of this. For example, the ships of the Persian navy had a mixed crew: the rowers came from various parts of the empire. The Athenian ships were partly manned by Athenians, partly by the allies. Towns in the Achaemenid empire could pay their tribute by manning ships; the kings appreciated this type of tribute, because towns that had sent part of their manhood away, were less likely to revolt. The Athenians did the same.
  But the main factor is the tribute system. After the Greeks had defeated the Persians, the Athenians took over the Persian fiscal organization of the Greek towns in Asia. After the Ionian revolt, the satrap of Lydia and Ionia, Artaphernes, had established the tribute that the Greek towns had to pay, and the Athenians did not change his system. Every four year, the Athenians and their subjects revised the tariff.
  At least in theory, the subject towns could negotiate about the amount they owed to their masters, and it is tempting to link this fact to the remark by Herodotus that the Persians regarded king Darius as a merchant (kapelos) because he negotiated about everything (Histories 3.89). This is really remarkable, because a king was not supposed to make deals with his subjects about the prize of his reign.
  The negotiations between the ruler -whether Persian or Athenian- suggest a voluntariness and an equality which probably did not really exist. But the illusion was kept intact in both empires.

Janine Bakker, ed.
This text is cited July 2003 from the Livius Ancient History Website URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks.

• http://www.livius.org/ia-in/influence/influence08....

• http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~dee/GREECE/DELIAN.HTM

Military & Financial Success of the Delian League

Perseus: Thomas R. Martin, An Overview of Classical Greek History from Homer to Alexander
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Achaean (Achaian) League

EGHION (Ancient city) ACHAIA
   (Achaicum Foedus; to Achaikon). The league or confederation of a number of towns on the northwest coast of Peloponnesus. In speaking of it we must distinguish between two periods. The former, though formed for mutual protection, was mainly of a religious character, whereas the latter was a political confederation to protect the towns against the domination of Macedonia.
    (1) The Earlier League.--When the Heraclidae took possession of Peloponnesus, a portion of the Achaeans, under Tisamenos, turned northwards and took possession of the northern coast of the peninsula, which was called Aigialos: the Ionians, who had hitherto occupied that country, sought refuge in Attica and on the west coast of Asia Minor. The country thus occupied by the Achaeans, from whom it derived its name of Achaia, contained twelve towns which had been leagued together even in the time of their Ionian inhabitants. They were governed by the descendants of Tisamenus, until, after the death of King Ogyges, they abolished the kingly rule and established democratic institutions. The time when this happened is not known. In the time of Herodotus the twelve towns of which the league consisted were: Pellene, Aegeira, Aegae, Bura, Helice, Aegion, Rhypes, Patrae, Pharae, Olenos, Dyme, and Tritaea. After the time of Herodotus, Rhypes and Aegae disappear from the number of the confederate towns, as they had decayed and become deserted, and Leontion and Cerynea stepped into their place. Helice appears to have been their common place of meeting; but this town, together with Bura, was swallowed up by the sea during an earthquake in B.C. 373, whereupon Aegion was chosen as the place of meeting for the confederates (Strab. viii. p. 384). Of the constitution of this league very little is known; but it is clear that the bond which united the different towns was very loose, and less a political than a religious one. The looseness of the connection among the towns in a political point of view is evident from the fact that some of them acted occasionally quite independent of the rest. The confederation generally kept aloof from the troubles of other parts of Greece, on which accordingly it exercised no particular influence down to the time when the league was broken up by the Macedonians. But they were nevertheless highly respected by the other Greek states on account of their honesty, sincerity, and wise moderation. Hence after the battle of Leuctra they were chosen to arbitrate between the Thebans and Lacedaemonians. Demetrius, Cassander, and Antigonus Gonatas placed garrisons in some of their towns, while in others they favoured the rising of tyrants. The towns were thus separated from one another, and the whole confederation was gradually destroyed.
    (2) The Later League.--The ancient confederacy had thus ceased to exist for some time when events took place which in some towns roused the ancient spirit of independence. When in B.C. 281 Antigonus Gonatas attempted to drive Ptolemaeus Ceraunus from the throne of Macedonia, the Achaeans availed themselves of the opportunity of shaking off the Macedonian yoke, and renewing the old confederation. The object, however, was no longer a common worship, but a real political union among the towns. The places which first shook off the yoke of the oppressors were Dyme and Patrae, and the alliance concluded between them was speedily joined by the towns of Tritaea and Pharae. One town after another expelled the Macedonian garrisons and tyrants; and when in B.C. 275, Aegion, the head of the ancient league, followed the example of the other towns, the foundation of the new confederation was complete, and the main principles of its constitution were settled, though afterwards many changes and modifications were introduced. The fundamental laws were that henceforth the confederacy should form one inseparable state; that every town which should join it should have equal rights with the others; and that all members in regard to foreign countries should be regarded as dependent, and be bound in every respect to obey the federal government and those officers who were intrusted with the executive. No town, therefore, was allowed to treat with any foreign power without the sanction of the others. Aegion, for religious reasons, was appointed the seat of the government. At Aegion, therefore, the citizens of the various towns met at stated and regular times to deliberate upon the common affairs of the confederation, and if necessary upon those of any separate town or even of individuals, and to elect the officers of the league. After having thus established a firm union among themselves, the Achaeans zealously exerted themselves in delivering other towns also from their tyrants and oppressors. The league, however, did not acquire any great strength until B.C. 251, when Aratus united Sicyon, his native place, with it, and some years later also gained Corinth for it. Megara, Troezen, and Epidaurus soon followed their example. Afterwards Aratus prevailed upon all the more important towns of Peloponnesus to join the confederacy, and Megalopolis, Argos, Hermione, Phlius, and others were added to it. In a short time the league thus reached its highest power, for it embraced Athens, Aegina, Salamis, and the whole of Peloponnesus, with the exception of Sparta, Tegea, Orchomenus, Mantinea, and Elis. Greece seemed to revive, and promised to become stronger and more united than ever, but it soon showed that its new power was employed only in self-destruction and its own ruin. The Achaean League might at one time have become a great power, and might have united at least the whole of Peloponnesus into one State; but the original objects of the league were in the course of time so far forgotten that it sought the protection of those against whom it had been formed; and the perpetual discord among its members, the hostility of Sparta, the intrigues of the Romans, and the folly and rashness of the last strategy brought about not only the dissolution and destruction of the confederacy, but the political annihilation of the whole of Greece in the year B.C. 146.

This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited Dec 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks

Perseus: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities (1898)
• http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Per...

Grammateus (grammateus). The Greek word for a writer, secretary, or clerk. At Athens the officials had numerous clerks attached to them, who were paid by the State and belonged to the poorer class of citizens. But there were several higher officials who bore the title of grammateus. The Boule, or Senate, for instance, chose one of its members by show of hands to be its clerk or secretary for one year. His duty was to keep the archives of the Senate. So, too, a secretary was chosen by lot from the whole number of senators for each prytany to draft all resolutions of the Senate. His name is therefore generally given in the decrees next to that of the president and the proposer of the decree. The name of the grammateus of the first prytany was also given with that of the archon, as a means of marking the year with more accuracy. At the meetings of the Ecclesia, a clerk, elected by the people, had to read out the necessary documents. The office of the antigrapheis, or checking clerks, was of still greater importance. The antigrapheus of the Senate, elected at first by show of hands, but afterwards by lot, had to take account of all business affecting the financial administration. The antigrapheus of the administration had to make out, and lay before the public, a general statement of income and expenditure, and exercised a certain amount of control over all financial officials. In the Aetolian and Achaean leagues the grammateus was the highest officer of the league after the strategi and hipparchi.

This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited Oct 2003 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks

• http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Per...

Achaean League: Perseus Lookup Tool, search text
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Achaean League: Perseus Encyclopedia
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Aetolian League

ETOLIA (Ancient area) ETOLOAKARNANIA
   Aetolicum Foedus, (to koinon ton Aitolon). A confederation of the Aetolian towns, afterwards joined by other towns and cantons of Greece, and formed in B.C. 338, after the battle of Chaeronea, to counteract the influence of Macedonia in the affairs of Greece. Its political existence was destroyed in B.C. 189 by the treaty with Rome by which the Aetolians became Roman subjects.

This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited Nov 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks

Perseus: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities (1898)
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Aetolian League : Perseus Project

Aetolian League: Perseus Encyclopedia
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Aetolian League: Perseus Lookup Tool, text search
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With the Phocians

FERES (Ancient city) RIGAS FERAIOS
The tyrants of Pherae, Lycophron and Peitholaus, who were destitute of allies after the death of Onomarchus, gave Pherae over to Philip, while they themselves, being protected by terms of truce, brought together their mercenaries to the number of two thousand, and, having fled with these to Phayllus, joined the Phocians as allies. (Diod.+16.37, fr.12-16)

Perseus: Diodorus Siculus, Library (ed. C. H. Oldfather, 1989).
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Boeotia, Arkadia & Elis (ca. 371 BC)

ILIA (Ancient country) GREECE
(...) On the other hand, after the disaster at Leuctra, when his adversaries in league with the Mantineans were murdering his friends and acquaintances in Tegea, and a coalition of all Boeotia, Arcadia and Elis had been formed, he (Agis) took the field with the Lacedaemonian forces only, thus disappointing the general expectation that the Lacedaemonians would not even go outside their own borders for a long time to come.

Perseus: Thucydides, The Peloponnesian War (ed. Richard Crawley, 1910)
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Dorian Hexapolis

KAMIROS (Ancient city) RHODES
The three cities of Rhodes Lindos, Kamiros, and Ialysos together with Kos, Halikarnassos and Knidos formed the Dorian Hexapolis.

Dorian Hexapolis: Perseus Lookup Tool, text search
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Dorian Hexapolis

KOS (Ancient city) DODEKANISSOS
The three cities of Rhodes Lindos, Kamiros, and Ialysos together with Kos, Halikarnassos and Knidos formed the Dorian Hexapolis.

Dorian Hexapolis: Perseus Lookup Tool, text search
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Perseus: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities (1898)
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Member of the Attic Maritime League

LESVOS (Island) NORTH AEGEAN

Attic Maritime League+Lesbos: Perseus Lookup Tool, text search
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Athenian Alliance+Mytilenaians: Perseus Lookup Tool, text search
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Member of The Delian League

NAXOS (Island) KYKLADES
Delos (when the island was apparently under the control of Naxos) served as the headquarters and religious center of an Ionian League.

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Delian League

RHODES (Island) DODEKANISSOS
With the defeat of the Persians in Greece, Rhodes was compelled to join the Delian League in 478 B.C., but it resigned from the League in 411 B.C.

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The league of Aegean states

After Spartian power in the Aegean was destroyed by Conon in 394 B.C., Iasos was rebuilt, possibly with the aid of Knidos, and it joined a league of Aegean states that included Ephesos, Rhodes, Samos, and Byzantium.

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In 357 B.C. Rhodes became an ally of Persia

In the 4th century B.C. Rhodes submitted first to Sparta, then to Athens, and in 357 B.C. became an ally of Persia.

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The league of Aegean states

SAMOS (Island) NORTH AEGEAN
After Spartian power in the Aegean was destroyed by Conon in 394 B.C., Iasos was rebuilt, possibly with the aid of Knidos, and it joined a league of Aegean states that included Ephesos, Rhodes, Samos, and Byzantium.

• http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/vor?lang=en&f...

Delian League

SAMOTHRAKI (Island) MAKEDONIA EAST & THRACE

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Aetolian League

THERMON (Ancient city) ETOLOAKARNANIA
Sanctuary of Apollo and meeting place of the Aetolian League

A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890) (eds. William Smith, LLD, William Wayte, G. E. Marindin)
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Aetolian League: Perseus Encyclopedia
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Rhodes - Nesiotic League

TINOS (Island) KYKLADES
In the 3d c. B.C. Tinos became one of the principal representatives of the Nesiotic League and developed close ties with Rhodes.

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Achaean League

TRIZIN (Ancient city) GREECE
The league, however, did not acquire any great strength until B.C. 251, when Aratus united Sicyon, his native place, with it, and some years later also gained Corinth for it. Megara, Troezen, and Epidaurus soon followed their example. Afterwards Aratus prevailed upon all the more important towns of Peloponnesus to join the confederacy, and Megalopolis, Argos, Hermione, Phlius, and others were added to it. In a short time the league thus reached its highest power, for it embraced Athens, Aegina, Salamis, and the whole of Peloponnesus, with the exception of Sparta, Tegea, Orchomenus, Mantinea, and Elis.

Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities (1898)
• http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Per...

Boeotian league & Boeotarchs (Boeotarches)

VIOTIA (Ancient area) GREECE
Boeotarches (Boiotarches). The Boeotians in ancient times occupied Arne in Thessaly ( Thuc.i. 12). Sixty years after the taking of Troy they were expelled by the Thessalians, and settled in the country then called Cadmeis, but afterwards Boeotia. The leader of the Boeotians was King Opheltas. It would seem that their kings ruled the whole country from Thebes. Later on, the country was divided into several States, containing each a principal city, with its allies and dependants. The number and names of these independent States are differently given by different writers on the subject; we know, however, for certain that they formed a confederacy called the Boeotian League, with Thebes at its head, and Freeman is of opinion that the political union grew out of an older Amphictyony. Common sanctuaries were the temple of the Itonian Athene near Coronea, where the Pamboeotia were celebrated, and the Temple of Poseidon in Onchestus. Thucydides (iv. 93) mentions seven independent States: Thebes, Haliartus, Coronea, Copae, Thespiae, Tanagra, and Orchomenus; and we learn from inscriptions that, at one time or other, the following belonged to the same class: Anthedon, Lebadea, Hyettus, Acraephia, Chorsia (or Korsia, Demosth. F. L. 141, etc.), Thisbe, Chaeronea. O. Muller (Orchom. p. 403) supposes there were originally fourteen free States. Probably the number differed at different times. Each of the principal towns of Boeotia seems to have had its demos and boule. The boule was presided over by an archon, who probably had succeeded to the priestly functions of the old kings, but possessed little, if any, executive authority. The polemarchs, who, in treaties and agreements, are mentioned next to the archon, had some executive authority, but did not command forces--e. g. they could imprison, and they directed the levies of troops. But, besides the archon of each separate State, there was an archon of the confederacy --archon en koinoi Boioton--most probably always a Theban. His name was affixed to all alliances and compacts which concerned the whole confederacy, and he was president of what Thucydides calls the four councils, who directed the affairs of the league (hapan to kuros echousi). On important questions they seem to have been united; for the same author speaks of them as he boule, and informs us that the determinations of the Boeotarchs required the ratification of this body before they were valid. We may now explain who these Boeotarchs were. They were properly the military heads of the confederacy, chosen by the different States; but we also find them discharging the functions of an executive in various matters. In fact, they are represented by Thucydides as forming an alliance with foreign States; as receiving ambassadors on their return home; as negotiating with envoys from other countries, and acting as the representatives of the whole league, though the boule refused to sanction the measures they had resolved on in the particular case to which we are now alluding. Another instance in which the Boeotarchs appear as executive is their interference with Agesilaus, on his embarking from Aulis for Asia (B.C. 396), when they prevented him offering sacrifice as he wished. Still, the principal duty of the Boeotarchs was of a military nature: thus, they led into the field the troops of their respective States; and when at home they took whatever measures were requisite to forward the military operations of the league or of their own State. For example, we read of one of the Theban Boeotarchs ordering the Thebans to come in arms to the ecclesia for the purpose of being ready to attack Plataea. Each State of the confederacy elected one Boeotarch, the Thebans two, although on one occasion--i. e. after the return of the exiles with Pelopidas (B.C. 379)--we read of there being three at Thebes. The total number from the whole confederacy varied with the number of the independent States. Mention is made of the Boeotarchs by Thucydides, in connection with the battle of Delium (B.C. 424). There is, however, a difference of opinion with respect to his meaning: some understand him to speak of eleven, some of twelve, and others of thirteen Boeotarchs. Dr. Arnold is disposed to adopt the last number; and we think the context is in favour of the opinion that there were then thirteen Boeotarchs, so that the number of free States was twelve. At the time of the battle of Leuctra (B.C. 371), we find seven Boeotarchs mentioned; on another occasion, when Greece was invaded by the Gauls (B.C. 279), we read of four. Livy states that there were twelve, but before the time (B.C. 171) to which his statement refers Plataea had been reunited to the league. Still the number mentioned in any case is no test of the actual number, inasmuch as we are not sure that all the Boeotarchs were sent out by their respective states on every expedition or to every battle.
  The Boeotarchs, when engaged in military service, formed a council of war, the decisions of which were determined on by a majority of votes, the president being one of the two Theban Boeotarchs who commanded alternately. Their period of service was a year, beginning about the winter solstice; and whoever continued in office longer than his time was punishable with death both at Thebes and in other cities. Epaminondas and Pelopidas did so on their invasion of Laconia (B.C. 369), but their eminent services saved them; in fact, the judges did not even come to a vote respecting the former (oude archen peri autou thesthai ten psephon). At the expiration of the year, a Boeotarch was eligible to office a second time, and Pelopidas was repeatedly chosen. From the case of Epaminondas and Pelopidas, who were brought before Theban judges (dikastai) for transgression of the law which limited the time of office, we may conclude that each Boeotarch was responsible to his own State alone, and not to the general body of the four councils.
  Mention is made by Livy of an election of Boeotarchs. He further informs us that the league (concilium) was broken up by the Romans B.C. 171. Still, it must have been partially revived, as we are told of a second breaking-up by the Romans after the destruction of Corinth, B.C. 146.

This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited Oct 2003 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks

Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities (1898)
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Boeotarchs: Perseus Encyclopedia
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THORIKOS (Ancient city) ATTICA, EAST

Photographs created by David Gill on 17 November 2001.
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ACHAIA (Ancient country) GREECE
Seven of the 12 cities of the Achaean League, namely Aeges, Aegeira, Boura, Helice, Cerynea, Rypes and Aegion belonged to the area of the Homeric Aegialus.

Aigina

AEGINA, AIGINA (Island) GREECE
Aigina. A mountainous and volcanic island in the Saronic gulf, halfway between Attica and the Peloponnesos. Its geographic position explains its importance in the commerce between the Greek states and around the Mediterranean basin from the most remote periods of history. The island had commercial relations with the Cyclades, with the cities along the coast of Anatolia, and with Egypt.
  Archaeological remains indicate that the most ancient inhabitants of the island came from the Near East. The first settlement, however, must have been the result of a migration by Peloponnesian peoples around the end of the 4th millennium B.C. Remains testify to uninterrupted occupation and to a definite cultural unity with the centers of population in the Peloponnesos, as well as close ties with the Cyclades and S Greece.
  Two great periods about which little is known can be identified: one ca. 2000 B.C. with the appearance of peoples who used Minoan ware, the other ca. 1400 B.C. when another people, of Achaian stock, brought Mycenaean ware.
  The historic period begins around 950 B.C., probably after a brief abandonment by the population in the 12th-10th c. Classical sources indicate that the colonizers probably came from the Peloponnese, perhaps from Epidauros (Herod. 8.46; Paus. 2.29.9). During the 7th and 6th c. B.C., Aigina became a maritime power of the first order. There is no evidence of strong land ownership, unlike the mainland where feudal concentration could provoke serious social disturbances. Aigina had a stable and developed mercantile aristocracy which spread the fame of its products, particularly pottery and bronze ware, throughout the Mediterranean basin. In this connection, it is significant that the oldest system of weights in the Classical world was developed on Aigina between 656 and 650 B.C., and the spread of Aiginetan money shows clearly her absolute supremacy.
  At the beginning of the 6th c. B.C., Athens began to oppose the supremacy of Aigina, and Solon passed special laws to limit the spread of Aiginetan commerce, thereby causing the island to ally itself first with Sparta, then with Thebes, and finally with Persia to oppose the rising Athenian power. In 488 B.C. the Aiginetan navy routed the Athenian ships, but 30 years later Athens defeated the combined naval forces of Aigina and of Corinth, and in the following years forced the island to surrender. In 431 B.C. Athens expelled the last of the native population and apportioned the land among Athenians. After the Pergamene conquest the island enjoyed a new period of prosperity (210 B.C.).
  The most important archaeological sites on the island are near Cape Colonna (named for the remains of a single column of a temple), on Mt. St. Elia, and in the area of Mesagro. In the zone of Cape Colonna, the most important and the oldest area, the remains of the stereobate of the temple mentioned above are still visible, as well as some pedimental decorations of Parian marble.
  The building was constructed of a yellowish, shell-bearing limestone (a local poros), with a portico of Doric columns (6 x 12). In front of the cella was a pronaos and behind the cella an opisthodomos from which the surviving column comes. The date of the temple must be 520-500 B.C. At a lower level traces of an older temple were discovered, dating from between the end of the 8th and the beginning of the 6th c. A semicircular antefix from this temple has been preserved. The archaic temple was dedicated to Apollo (to whom some inscriptions refer) or to Poseidon. In the Late Roman period the temple was destroyed and replaced by a building of huge proportions, similar to a fortress. Its cistern has been found between the temple and the sea.
  There are remains, SE of the temple, of an archaic propylon with reliefs on the walls and an altar in the center, dating from the 6th c. It was probably the Aiakeion. North of the archaic temple are traces of two small naiskoi and of a round structure which was probably the tomb of Phokos (Paus. 2.29.9). Farther W is a Pergamene building, perhaps the Attaleion. At the foot of the hill, to the E, are a theater and a stadium. The outer wall of this sacred area is partially preserved.
  Excavations on the slopes of Mt. St. Elia have brought to light a Thessalian settlement of ca. the 13th c. B.C. The site was abandoned at the same time as the destruction of the Late Mycenaean centers of the area and was reoccupied in the Geometric period; it took on a monumental character only in the Pergamene era. In the Byzantine period a sanctuary, resembling a monastery in structure, was built on the mountain; its remains can still be seen. With regard to Mesagro, there are some Mycenaean ex-voto offerings, the oldest indications of a religious practice. Around the middle of the 7th c., when the thalassocracy of Aigina developed, a primitive sanctuary was built. Its sacred precinct included a small altar, of which there are a few remains, and perhaps a small structure for the image of Aphaia (Paus. 3.14.2), a divinity worshiped on the island in this period who had a priestly service.
  In the 6th c., when the thalassocracy of Aigina had reached its greatest development, the sanctuary underwent modifications of a more monumental character. The first temple (distyle in antis with a cella of three naves and an adyton in two sections) was built; a second altar was set behind the first; to the S, the monumental entrance to the sanctuary was constructed with an appropriate propylon. To this building phase (the second) we may attribute a large inscription which refers to the construction of an oikos of Aphaia during the hiereia of a Kleoita or of a Dreoita.
  The great building phase (the third) came at the beginning of the 5th c. The temple was enlarged and reoriented and the sacred area was tripled. A large ramp was built from the temple to the altar, which was also enlarged and made more imposing by a double staircase. The new temple was built on a krepidoma of three steps. It was hexastyle, distyle in antis, with twelve columns on the side; the cella had three naves with a double colonnade of five columns; the limestone of the walls was covered by fine stucco. The pediment was painted and the roof had marble tiles on the more visible portions and terracotta tiles elsewhere. The acroterion consisted of an architectural motif with palmettes flanked by two female figures. The first propylon gave access to the sacred area and a second led to an inner division, on the S, for the priests.
  The identity of the divinity to whom the sanctuary was dedicated has been much discussed. The sculptures on the front clearly refer to Athena, but an important dedicatory inscription mentions the building of an oikos of Aphaia, a divinity named on numerous other inscriptions cut into the rock. Probably the temple was dedicated to Athena but the local populace, assimilating this divinity to their own autochthonous Aphaia, continued to use the name of the old goddess to whom the archaic temple must have belonged.
  The most important sculptures from Aigina are those of the front of the temple of Aphaia, discovered in 1811. Seventeen statues from the pedimental decoration are now in the Munich Glyptothek; they represent the first European contact with archaic Greek art. Ten fairly well-preserved statues come from the W pediment and five in less good condition from the E pediment; numerous fragments come from at least two other statues, but it is impossible to establish their positions.
  The subject on both pediments is nearly the same: the struggle between the heroes of Aigina and Troy in the presence of Athena. Comparison of the two pediments reveals stylistic differences which raise the problem of contemporaneous or successive production. The figures on the E side appear freer and less exact in superficial detail, and present a more mature study of masses and of volumes. The so-called archaic smile, obvious on the W side, is no longer present on the E. A different date for the two pediments has therefore been proposed by many scholars, but cannot be established with certainty, given the poor preservation of the figures from the E side. If one accepts different dates, the W pediment was probably completed just before the Persian wars and the E pediment after the battle of Marathon.
  Recent restorations of the groups in the Munich Glyptothek, carried out by Italian experts under supervision of the museum staff, have fundamentally changed their external appearance. Both the groupings and the positions of individual statues against the background of the pediments have been altered.
  Fragments of a third pediment group, now in the National Museum at Athens, seem to complicate the problem of style. These fragments show obvious stylistic affinities with the sculptures of the W pediment, so that we may reasonably suppose this third group to be the original decoration of the E side of the temple of Aphaia which was replaced by the new decoration mentioned above. This would explain the obvious superiority shown by the W pediment grouping compared to the E side. The first pediment probably remained on view inside the sacred precinct, where it suffered badly from the weather. It is impossible, however, to substantiate this conjecture as to the problem of the differences in style between the two pediments; the problem remains open to discussion.

B. Conticello, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites, Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Oct 2002 from Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.

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Aegina

   An island in the Sinus Saronicus, near the coast of Argolis. The earliest accounts given by the Greeks make it to have been originally uninhabited, and to have been called, while in this state, by the name of Oenone; for such is evidently the meaning of the fable, which states that Zeus, in order to gratify Aeacus, who was alone there, changed a swarm of ants into men, and thus peopled the island. It afterwards took the name of Aegina, from the daughter of the Asopus. But, whoever may have been the earliest settlers on the island, it is evident that its stony and unproductive soil must have driven them at an early period to engage in maritime affairs. Hence they are said to have been the first who coined money for the purpose of commerce, used regular measures, a tradition which, though no doubt untrue, still points very clearly to their early commercial habits. It is more than probable that their commercial relations caused the people of Aegina to be increased by colonies from abroad, and Strabo expressly mentions Cretans among the foreign inhabitants who had settled there. After the return of the Heraclidae, this island received a Dorian colony from Epidaurus and from this period the Dorians gradually gained the ascendency in it, until at last it became entirely Doric, both in language and form of government. Aegina, for a time, was the maritime rival of Athens, and the competition eventually terminated in open hostilities, in which the Athenians were only able to obtain advantages by the aid of the Corinthians, and by means of intestine divisions among their opponents. When Darius sent deputies into Greece to demand earth and water, the people of Aegina, partly from hatred towards the Athenians, and partly from a wish to protect their extensive commerce along the coasts of the Persian monarchy, gave these tokens of submission. For this conduct they were punished by the Spartans. In the war with Xerxes, therefore, they sided with their countrymen, and acted so brave a part in the battle of Salamis as to be able to contest the prize of valour with the Athenians themselves, and to bear it off, as well by the universal suffrages of the confederate Greeks as by the declaration of the Pythian oracle. After the termination of the Persian war, however, the strength of Athens proved too great for them. Their fleet of seventy sail was annihilated in a sea-fight by Pericles, and many of the inhabitants were driven from the island, while the remainder were reduced to the condition of tributaries. The fugitives settled at Thyrea in Cynuria, under the protection of Sparta, and it was not until after the battle of Aegos-Potamos, and the fall of Athens, that they were able to regain possession of their native island. They never attained, however, to their former prosperity.
    The situation of Aegina made it subsequently a prize for each succeeding conqueror, until at last it totally disappeared from history. In modern times the island nearly retains its ancient name, being called Aegina or, with a slight corruption, Engia, and is often visited by travellers, being beautiful, fertile, and well cultivated. As far back as the time of Pausanias, the ancient city would appear to have been in ruins. That writer makes mention of some temples that were standing, and of the large theatre built after the model of that in Epidaurus. The most remarkable remnant of antiquity which this island can boast of at the present day is the Temple of Pallas Athene, situated on a mount of the same name, about four hours' distance from the port, and which is supposed to be one of the most ancient temples in Greece, and one of the oldest specimens of the Doric style of architecture.

This text is cited Oct 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks

Perseus: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities (1898)
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Aegina

Aegina (Aigina: Eth. Aiginhetes, Aegineta, Aeginensis, fem. Aiginetis: Adj. Aiginaios, Aiginetikhos, Aegineticus: Eghina), an island in the Saronic gulf, surrounded by Attica, Megaris, and Epidaurus, from each of which it was distant about 100 stadia. (Strab. p. 375) It contains about 41 square English miles, and is said by Strabo (l. c.) to be 180 stadia in circumference. In shape it is an irregular triangle. Its western half consists of a plain, which, though [p. 33] stony, is well cultivated with corn, but the remainder of the island is mountainous and unproductive. A magnificent conical hill now called Mt. St. Elias, or Oros (oros, i. e. the mountain), occupies the whole of the southern part of the island, and is the most remarkable among the natural features of Aegina. There is another mountain, much inferior in size, on the north-eastern side. It is surrounded by numerous rocks and shallows, which render it difficult and hazardous of approach, as Pausanias (ii. 29. § 6) has correctly observed.
  Notwithstanding its small extent Aegina was one of the most celebrated islands in Greece, both in the mythical and historical period. It is said to have been originally called Oenone or Oenopia, and to have received the name of Aegina from Aegina, the daughter of the river-god Asopus, who was carried to the island by Zeus, and there bore him a son Aeacus. It was further related that at this time Aegina was uninhabited, and that Zeus changed the ants (mnruekes) of the island into men, the Myrmidones, over whom Aeacus ruled (Paus.ii. 29. §2.; Apollod.iii. 12. § 6; Ov. Met. vii. 472, seq.) Some modern writers suppose that this legend contains a mythical account of the colonization of the island, and that the latter received colonists from Phlius on the Asopus and from Phthia in Thessaly, the seat of the Myrmidons. Aeacus was regarded as the tutelary deity of Aegina, but his sons abandoned the island, Telamon going to Salamis, and Peleus to Phthia. All that we can safely infer from these legends is that the original inhabitants of Aegina were Achaeans. It was after-wards taken possession of by Dorians from Epidaurus, who introduced into the island the Doric customs and dialect. (Herod. viii. 46; Paus. ii. 29. § 5.) Together with Epidaurus and other cities on the mainland it became subject to Pheidon, tyrant of Argos, about B.C. 748. It is usually stated on the authority of Ephorus (Strab. p. 376), that silver money was first coined in Aegina by Pheidon, and we know that the name of Aeginetan was given to one of the two scales of weights and measures current throughout Greece, the other being the Euboic. There seems, however, good reason for believing with Mr. Grote that what Pheidon did was done in Argos and nowhere else; and that the name of Aeginetan was given to his coinage and scale, not from the place where they first originated, but from the people whose commercial activity tended to make them most generally known. (Grote, Hist. of Greece, vol. ii. p. 432.) At an early period Aegina became a place of great commercial importance, and gradually acquired a powerful navy. As early as B.C. 563, in the reign of Amasis, the Aeginetans established a footing for its merchants at Naucratis in Egypt, and there erected a temple of Zeus. (Herod. ii. 178.) With the increase of power came the desire of political independence; and they renounced the authority of the Epidaurians, to whom they had hitherto been subject. (Herod. v. 83.) So powerful did they become that about the year 500 they held the empire of the sea. According to the testimony of Aristotle (Athen. p. 272), the island contained 470,000 slaves; but this number is quite incredible, although we may admit that Aegina contained a great population. At the time of their prosperity the Aeginetans founded various colonies, such as Cydonia in Crete, and another in Umbria. (Strab. p. 376.) The government was in the hands of an aristocracy. Its citizens became wealthy by commerce, and gave great encouragement to the arts. In fact, for the half century before the Persian wars and for a few years afterwards, Aegina was the chief seat of Greek art, and gave its name to a school, the most eminent artists of which were Callon, Anaxagoras, Glaucias, Simon, and Onatas, of whom an account is given in the Dict. of Biogr.
  The Aeginetans were at the height of their power when the Thebans applied to them for aid in their war against the Athenians about B.C. 505. Their request was readily granted, since there had been an ancient feud between the Aeginetans and Athenians. The Aeginetans sent their powerful fleet to ravage the coast of Attica, and did great damage to the latter country, since the Athenians had not yet any fleet to resist them. This war was continued with some interruptions down to the invasion of Greece by Xerxes. (Herod. v.81, seq., vi. 86, seq.; Thuc. i. 41.) The Aeginetans fought with 30 ships at the battle of Salamis (B.C. 480), and were admitted to have distinguished themselves above all the other Greeks by their bravery. (Herod. viii. 46, 93.) From this time their power declined. In 460 the Athenians defeated them in a great naval battle, and laid siege to their principal town, which after a long defence surrendered in 456. The Aeginetans now became a part of the Athenian empire, and were compelled to destroy their walls, deliver up their ships of war, and pay an annual tribute. (Thuc. i. 105, 108.) This humiliation of their ancient enemies did not, however, satisfy the Athenians, who feared the proximity of such discontented subjects. Pericles was accustomed to call Aegina the eye-sore of the Peiraeus (he lheue ton Peirhaieos, Arist. Rhet. iii. 10.; comp. Cic. de Off. iii. 1. 1); and accordingly on the breaking out of the Peloponnesian war in 431, the Athenians expelled the whole population from the island, and filled their place with Athenian settlers. The expelled inhabitants were settled by the Lacedaemonians at Thyrea. They were subsequently collected by Lysander after the battle of Aegospotami (404), and restored to their own country, but they never recovered their former state of prosperity. (Thuc. ii. 27; Plut. Per. 34; Xen. Hell. ii. 2. 9; Strab. p. 375.) Sulpicius, in his celebrated letter to Cicero, enumerates Aegina among the examples of fallen greatness (ad Fam. iv. 5).
  The chief town in the island was also called Aegina, and was situated on the north-western side. A description of the public buildings of the city is given by Pausanias (ii. 29, 30). Of these the most important was the Aeaceium (Aihakeion), or shrine of Aeacus, a quadrangular inclosure built of white marble, in the most conspicuous part of the city. There was a theatre near the shore as large as that of Epidaurus, behind it a stadium, and likewise numerous temples. The city contained two harbours: the principal one was near the temple of Aphrodite; the other, called the secret harbour, was near the theatre. The site of the ancient city is marked by numerous remains, though consisting for the most part only of foundations of walls and scattered blocks of stone. Near the shore are two Doric columns of the most elegant form. To the S. of these columns is an oval port, sheltered by two ancient moles, which leave only a narrow passage in the middle, between the remains of towers, which stood on either side of the entrance. In the same direction we find another oval port, twice as large as the former, the entrance of which is protected in the same manner by ancient walls or moles, 15 or 20 feet thick. The latter of these ports seems to have been the large harbour, [p. 34] and the former the secret harbour, mentioned by Pausanias. The walls of the city are still traced through their whole extent on the land side. They were about 10 feet thick, and constructed with towers at intervals not always equal. There appear to have been three principal entrances.
  On the hill in the north-eastern extremity of the island are the remains of a magnificent temple of the Doric order, many of the columns of which are still standing. It stood near the sea in a sequestered and lonely spot, commanding a view of the Athenian coast and of the acropolis at Athens. The beautiful sculptures, which occupied the tympana of the pediment, were discovered in 1811, buried under the ruins of the temple. They are now preserved at Munich, and there are casts from them in the British Museum. The subject of the eastern pediment appears to be the expedition of the Aeacidae or Aeginetan heroes against Troy under the guidance of Athena: that of the western probably represents the contest of the Greeks and Trojans over the body of Patroclus. Till comparatively a late period it was considered that this temple was that of Zeus Panhellenius, which Aeacus was said to have dedicated to this god. (Paus. ii. 30. § § 3, 4.) But in 1826 Stackelberg, in his work on the temple of Phigalia, started the hypothesis, that the temple, of which we have been speaking, was in reality the temple of Athena, mentioned by Herodotus (iii. 59); and that the temple of Zeus Panhellenius was situated on the lofty mountain in the S. of the island. (Stackelberg, Der Apollotempel zu Bassae in Arcadien, Rom, 1826.) This opinion has been adopted by several German writers, and also by Dr. Wordsworth, but has been ably combated by Leake. It would require more space than our limits will allow to enter into this controversy; and we must therefore content ourselves with referring our readers, who wish for information on the subject, to the works of Wordsworth and Leake quoted at the end of this article. This temple was probably erected in the sixth century B.C., and apparently before B.C. 563, since we have already seen that about this time the Aeginetans built at Naucratis a temple to Zeus, which we may reasonably conclude was in imitation of the great temple in their own island.
  In the interior of the island was a town called Oea (Oie), at the distance of 20 stadia from the city of Aegina. It contained statues of Damia and Auxesia. (Herod. v. 83; Pans. ii. 30. § 4.) The position of Oea has not yet been determined, but its name suggests a connection with Oenone, the ancient name of the island. Hence it has been conjectured that it was originally the chief place of the island, when safety required an inland situation for the capital, and when the commerce and naval power which drew population to the maritime site had not yet commenced. On this supposition Leake supposes that Oea occupied the site of Palea--Khora, which has been the capital in modern times whenever safety has required an inland situation. Pausanias (iii. 30. § 3) mentions a temple of Aphaea, situated on the road to the temple of Zeus Panhellenius. The Heracleum, or temple of Hercules, and Tripyrgia (Tripyrghia), apparently a mountain, at the distance of 17 stadia from the former, are both mentioned by Xenophon (Hell. v. 1. § 10), but their position is uncertain. (Dodwell, Tour through Greece, vol. i. p. 558, seq.; Leake, Morea, vol. ii. p. 431, seq., Peloponnesiaca, p. 270, seq.; Wordsworth, Athens and Attica, p. 262, seq.; Boblaye, Recherches Geographiques, p. 64; Prokesch, Denkwurdigkeiten, vol. ii. p. 460, seq.; Muller, Aegineticorum Liber, Berol. 1817.)

This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited June 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks

Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD)
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The first Greek city state to adopt coinage

Ephorus says that silver was first coined in Aegina, by Pheidon; for the island, he adds, became a merchant center, since, on account of the poverty of the soil, the people employed themselves at sea as merchants, and hence, he adds, petty wares were called Aeginetan merchandise.

Perseus: Strabo, Geography
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Aegina was apparently the first Greek city state to adopt coinage and its system of weights became one of the earliest standards for trade in the Greek historical period.

Aegina Coinage: Perseus Lookup Tool, text search
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...Herodotus states that it was Pheidon, king of Argos, who regulated the measures of the Peloponnese (Herod. vi. 127); and Ephorus, quoted by Strabo (viii. pp. 358 and 376), says that he struck nomisma to te allo kai to arguroun at the island of Aegina. Certainly some of the earliest of the coins of Greece proper were the electrum and silver money of Aegina, bearing the type of a tortoise. According to Herodotus (vi. 127), Pheidon's son was one of the suitors of Agariste, daughter of Cleisthenes of Sicyon. If this be true, his date must be brought down to that of Cleisthenes, about 600-580 B.C.; and we agree with Unger, who has discussed the whole question of the date of Pheidon in the Philologus (vols. 28, 29), that there is good reason to believe that there was a Pheidon ruling in Argos at that period. The testimony of Herodotus is too clear and explicit to be rejected. And this king it must certainly have been who introduced coins into Greece. It is contrary to all evidence to place that introduction at so early a period as the eighth Olympiad.
  Whether it was this Pheidon who also regulated the measures of the Peloponnese may be considered more doubtful. That the same ruler regulated the weights also is not stated by Herodotus, but is probable. That there was an earlier Pheidon is proved by a mass of testimony; and the explicit statement of Pausanias (vi. 22, 2) that he presided at the eighth Olympic festival appears too definite to be disputed. The conjecture of Weissenborn, who wishes to substitute twenty-eighth for eighth, is rightly rejected by Unger, and has indeed nothing in its favour, besides being quite inconsistent with the testimony of Herodotus; and it may be this earlier Pheidon who regulated Peloponnesian weights and measures.
  In any case we may allow the truth of the tradition that silver coin was first struck in Hellas proper in the island of Aegina. Of this very primitive coinage we possess many specimens. Their type is a turtle, the emblem of the Phoenician goddess of trade. One specimen in the British Museum weighs 211 grains, but few weigh more than 200 grains. It is difficult to determine whence the Aeginetans or Argives derived this standard, which is called the Aeginetan. It is possible that it is merely a slightly degraded form of the Phoenician. Argos had been from early times in constant commercial intercourse with the Phoenicians, and long before the invention of coinage the Argives must have been in the habit of using bars of metal of fixed weight. It is possible that Pheidon, in regulating the weight of the Aeginetan stater, thought best to adapt it to the Babylonic gold standard, which was already in use, as we shall see, in some parts of Greece for silver. The Babylonic stater weighing 130 grains, he may have lowered the standard of Phoenicia (supposing that to have been in use at Argos) so that his new staters should weigh 195 grains, and two of them exchange for three of the Babylonic staters. Of late years attempts have been made to deduce the Aeginetic mina from the water-weight of the cube of the Olympic foot, and so to connect it with Hellenic systems of metrology.

These, however, are speculations; what is. certain is, that the scale of the coins with the tortoise on them, a scale henceforward called Aeginetan, spread with great rapidity over Greece. It was in the sixth century used everywhere in Peloponnesus except at Corinth, and was the customary standard in the Cyclades; in Thessaly, Boeotia, and the whole of Northern Greece, except Euboea; and some parts of Macedon. Its weights are as follows:
                                 Grammes. Grains.
Talent                            37,800  585,000
Mina                                    630      9,750
Stater (didrachm)           12.60         195
Drachm                              6.30           97
Obol                                    1.05           16

It will be seen that we here reach new terms,--stater, drachm, and obol. The first is but a rendering of the Semitic word shekel (see Stater). But the other terms are of Greek origin. The drachm became in Greece the unit in which calculations of weight and of money were made, and the obol, which was the sixth part of the drachm, was the coin used for small payments. (see Drachma)   The only other standard in use in Greece proper before the time of Solon was the Euboic. This was identical with the light Babylonian gold standard. The silver staters struck on the Euboic standard at Chalcis and Eretria weighed about 130 grains. This Euboic standard obtained currency in some other parts, such as the island of Chios. Herodotus in his account of the tribute paid by the Persian Satrapies (iii. 89) states that the gold was measured by the Euboic standard, clearly identifying it with the Persian official standard according to which the Darics. were coined. In the course of the fifth century B.C. we find Cumae in Campania and other Euboean colonies striking on a standard which is apparently the Euboic, the coins weighing from 120 to 110 grains. But about the middle of the sixth century B.C. the Attic standard arose, and it is impossible to distinguish henceforth the history of the Euboic from that of the Attic standard.

This extract is from: A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890) (eds. William Smith, LLD, William Wayte, G. E. Marindin). Cited Aug 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks

A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890) (eds. William Smith, LLD, William Wayte, G. E. Marindin)
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Aspropyrgos

ASPROPYRGOS (Town) ATTIKI
  West of the plain of Athens, and separated from it by the range of Aigaleos, is the Thriasian plain with its most important ancient centers at Eleusis at the W end of the Bay of Eleusis and at Thria. The position of the latter is not precisely located. What indications there are, however, point to the neighborhood of the modern town of Aspropyrgos, once the rural community of Chalyvia, set towards the E end of the plain about 3 km from the shore. Here, sculpture and inscriptions--one, IG II2 6266, a grave monument for a demesman of Thria--have been discovered in the walls of the houses and chapels in the vicinity. Moreover, in antiquity the road leading into the plain of Athens through the gap between Parnes and Aigaleos passed nearby. Today the only obvious ancient remain is a rectangular grave plot of Early Roman Imperial date. It is enclosed with large white marble blocks, one of which is decorated with a sculptured wreath and supports a marble table inscribed with the names of the deceased, Straton of the deme of Kydathenaion, his wife, and son. The grave lies some distance S of Aspropyrgos, alongside the Athens-Eleusis highway, a few m W of the junction between it and the road to Aspropyrgos.

C.W.J. Eliot, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites, Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Nov 2002 from Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.

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Archon

ATHENS (Ancient city) GREECE
Archon was the title of the chief magistrates in many Greek states. The wide diffusion of the name is attested by a multitude of inscriptions. We find it in Boeotia applied both to federal and city magistrates; at Delphi, where a long list of archons is preserved, and other towns of Phocis; towns in Thessaly, with three archons to each; in Locris, in many islands of the Aegaean, and in outlying cities like Cyzicus and Olbia.
  At Athens, according to tradition, royalty was abolished on the death of Codrus, B.C. 1068, and his son Medon became the first archon for life. The archonship remained hereditary in the line of Medon and twelve successors, and must have been a slightly modified royalty under another name; but there is no sufficient ground for the conjecture (presently to be noticed) that neither the name nor the attributes of royalty underwent any change at all. The next step, dated B.C. 752, was to limit the continuance of the office to ten years, still confining it to the Medontidae, or house of Codrus, in whose family it was hereditary. Seven decennial archons are reckoned, Charops, Aesimides, Cleidicus, Hippomenes, Leocrates, Apsandrus, Eryxias; but only the four first of these were of the ancient royal race. In 713 a further revolution threw open the chief magistracy to all the Eupatridae. With Kreon, who succeeded Eryxias, the archonship was not only made annual, but put into commission and distributed among nine persons. It is from this date, B.C. 683, that trustworthy Athenian chronology begins; and these nine archons annually changed continue throughout the historical period, interrupted only by the few intervals of political disturbance and foreign domination.
  The essentially legendary character of these accounts of early times would seem to render any criticism of their details, from the historical point of view, more or less unprofitable. The broad fact remains that at Athens, as elsewhere in Greece, hereditary monarchy passed into a commonwealth which at the dawn of authentic history was still in its oligarchic stage. But when we find, in works of high authority, attempts to reconstruct the Athenian constitution for the four centuries assumed between Codrus and the annual archons, some notice of them seems demanded. It has been maintained, as the result of a critical inquiry, that the monarchy existed at Athens, without essential modifications, until B.C. 752; the hereditary successors of Codrus had therefore, during three centuries, the same powers as their illustrious ancestor. We must therefore briefly touch upon the questions how far (1) the powers and (2) the name of royalty were really affected by the change traditionally associated with the death of Codrus.
  The received view is thus stated in an often-quoted passage of Pausanias (iv. 5,10): The people first deprived the successors of Melanthus [the father of Codrus], who were called Medontidae, of the greater part of their authority, and changed the monarchy into a responsible government (archen hupeuthunon); they afterwards further limited their government to ten years. On this M. Caillemer raises the objection, that we know of no political body to whom the archons can have been responsible. The answer is obvious, to the general body of the Eupatridae, who were at this time and long afterwards the demos at Athens, the only fully enfranchised citizens. Even in the Heroic age the royal power had its limits (epi rhetois gerasi, Thucyd. i. 13); and when the halo of divinity which attached to the name of basilus had disappeared with the change of title, the controlling influence of the nobles was doubtless augmented. Probably, like the barons in feudal monarchies and the Venetian nobles under the early doges, they at least exercised the right of deposition. We can hardly, therefore, accept the assertion that the powers of royalty were not limited ; the prestige of royalty had vanished, though Athens, like other ancient republics, granted a large amount of arbitrary authority, even in matters of life and death, to her chief magistrates. And as regards the mere name, too much has been made of Plato's essentially rhetorical and dramatic language (Menex. 238 D; Sympos. 208 D), and of the casual expressions of a writer so late as Pausanias, who couples the phrase tous apo Melanthou basileusantas with the statement that Theseus introduced the democracy! (i. 3, cf. vii. 2,1) or the still later and more uncritical Aelian (V. H. v. 13, viii. 10). It is enough to say with Westermann that the archons are some-times called by the Beiname, familiar or nickname, of basileuontes. The single archon, whether perpetual or decennial, of course discharged those priestly duties of the old kings which were afterwards assigned to a subordinate member of the Nine, the second or king-archon; and this circumstance is quite sufficient to account for the occasional use of the name.
  The nine annual archons during nearly the first century of their existence were still chosen from the Eupatridae exclusively, and by show of hands (arche hairete or cheirotonete). They still in reality stood at the head of the state as the supreme magistracy, combining the chief administrative and judicial functions. It is probable that a law of Draco (621) transferred the jurisdiction in cases of homicide from the archons and court of Areiopagus to the Ephetae; but, with this exception, the entire judicial system seems to have been in their hands. At the time of Cylon's revolt (about 612) they still managed the greater part of the public affairs (Thucyd. i. 126). This arrangement continued till the timocracy established by Solon, who made the qualification for office depend not on birth, but property, still retaining the election by suffrage. Two important changes remained to be made, before we arrive at the developed democracy as it stood from the age of Pericles to that of Demosthenes: the abolition of the property qualification, and the election by lot. The date and authorship of the former of these changes are matters of little doubt. Aristides, who had himself been archon in 489, the year after Marathon, under the old rule as a pentakosiomedimnos (Plut. Asrist. 1), ten years later, when all classes of citizens had been drawn together in enthusiastic resistance to the Persian invader, proposed and carried a law that the archonship and other offices should be open to all Athenians without distinction (ib. 22). The effect of this chance was less sweeping than at first sight appears. We must remember that the Solonian constitution had reckoned only income from land, not personal property, in classifying the citizens; and the actual effect of Aristides' law was solely to get rid of the monopoly of these offices by the larger landed proprietors, in favour of the trading classes and of capitalists in general. Besides, the devastation of Attica by the Persian invader had compelled many who had hitherto been rich to part with their lands, and had created a dangerous class of discontented Eupatrids who were not only impoverished but saw their political rights diminished, and were ready to conspire against the constitution (Plut. Arist. 13).
  The question at what time the election by lot was introduced is both difficult and obscure, owing to the conflict of ancient authorities; and recent scholars have arrived at very different conclusions. The notion that this change was due to Solon may be at once dismissed; it rests only on the loose statements of orators, who flattered their hearers by ascribing all democratic legislation to the great lawgiver (Demosth. c. Lept. 90; c. Androt. 30). And Aristotle expressly states that Solon made no change in the halresis or mode of election, but only in the qualification for office (Pol. ii. 12,3). The introduction of the lot is ascribed to Cleisthenes by Westermann. Among those who have upheld a later date are Niebuhr and Grote; some regarding it as anterior to the battle of Marathon, others as connected with Aristides' admission of all classes to the office, and therefore later than the battle of Plataea. In favour of the earlier date are the statements of Herodotus that Callimachus, the polemarch at Marathon, was ho toi kuamho lachon (vi. 109); and of Plutarch, who uses the same words of Aristides' archonship in 489 (Plut. Arist. 1). But the dates of political changes were, as has been seen, so speedily forgotten by the Athenians themselves that we cannot be surprised if Herodotus, a foreigner, made a mistake on this point though writing in the next generation; while Plutarch mentions that the historian Idomeneus (circ. 310-270) had stated that Aristides was elected by suffrage. We may grant to Schomann that Plutarch had no doubt that the lot was the rule, and yet argue that Idomeneus may have preserved a genuine tradition which Plutarch, who records it, did not know how to explain. There is, we think, a strong case to be made out in favour of the view of Lugebil and Caillemer (ubi supra), that this was one of the reforms of Ephialtes, the friend of Pericles, about 461-458. We may be allowed to see, though Herodotus did not, the absurdity of supposing that Callimachus, as an archon appointed by lot, could have had equal authority with the ten generals; and the fact that, in the early part of the century, the ablest Athenian statesmen--Themistocles, Aristides, Xanthippus the father of Pericles--were all eponymous archons, while afterwards neither Pericles himself nor any Athenian known to history enjoyed that honour, may fairly be balanced against the testimony of uncritical writers, however numerous. On the whole, this late date for the change may be accepted, not as certain, but as by far the most probable.
  The frequent occurrence at Athens of boards of ten men, one from each tribe, and the tribal constitution of the senate of 500 and its prytanies, have led to the suggestion that the nine archons also belonged each to a different tribe. This conjecture of H. Sauppe's is approved by Schomann. The tenth tribe may have been represented by the grammateus or secretary, as suggested by Telfy, rather than by the hieromnemon, as Sauppe thought. There is evidence that the grammateus was on some occasions associated with the archons as a tenth man, e. g. in drawing lots for the dicasts among the tribes (Schol. Aristoph. Plut. 277 ; Vesp. 772).
  Still,, after the removal of the old restrictions, some security was left to insure respectability; for, previously to an archon entering on office, he underwent a double dokimasia (not, like other magistrates, a single one [DOKIMASIA]) before the senate and before a dicastery. Pollux calls this inquiry anakrisis: but that word has another technical sense, and in the Orators we only find the verb anakrinein (Dem. c. Eubul. 66,70; Deinarch. in Aristog. 17; Pollux, viii. 85). The archon was examined as to his being a legitimate and a good citizen, a good son, and his having served in the army, and, it is added, being qualified in point of property (ei to timema estin autoi, Poll.); but this latter condition, if it existed at all after the time of Aristides, soon became obsolete. We read in Lysias (Or. 24, pro Inval.13) that a needy old man, so poor as to receive a state allowance, was not disqualified from being archon by his indigence, but only by bodily infirmity ; freedom from all such defects being required for the office, as it was in some respects of a sacred character. Yet, even after passing a satisfactory dokimasia, each of the archons, in common with other magistrates, was liable to be deposed, on complaint of misconduct made before the people, at the first regular assembly in each prytany. On such an occasion, the epicheirotonia, as it was called, took place; and we read (Dem. c. Theocrin.28; Pollux, viii. 95; Harpocrat. s. v. kuria ekklesia) that in one case the whole body of thesmothetai was deprived of office for the misbehaviour of one of their body: they were, however, reinstated, on promise of better conduct for the future.
  We are enabled, by means of inscriptions, to trace the archonship through the greater part of the Roman period. Athens as a libera civitas (eleuthera kai autonomos) was freed from the duty of receiving a Roman garrison, and had the administration of justice (jurisdictio) according to its own laws. But, as with the consulate at Rome, the archonship now became merely honorary, and the dignity of eponumos was given by way of compliment to distinguished foreigners, like king Rhoemetalkes of Thrace and the emperor Hadrian. In these instances, at least, it would seem that election by lot was no longer the rule.
  With the growth of democracy, the archons gradually lost the great political power which they had possessed as late as the time of Solon, perhaps even of Cleisthenes. They became, in fact, not as of old, directors of the government, but merely municipal magistrates, exercising functions and bearing titles which we will proceed to describe.
  It has been already stated that the duties of the single archon were shared by a college of nine. The first or president of this body was called ho archon, by way of pre-eminence; and in later times eponumos, from the year being distinguished by and registered in his name. But this phrase, contrary to the general opinion, did not come into use until after the Roman conquest. The second was styled basileus, or the king-archon; the third, polemarchos, or commander-in-chief; the remaining six, thesmothetai, or legislators. As regards the duties of the archons, it is sometimes difficult to distinguish what belonged to them individually and what collectively. It seems, however, that a considerable portion of the judicial functions of the ancient kings devolved upon the Archon Eponymus, who was also constituted a sort of state protector of those who were unable to defend themselves (Lex ap. Dem. c. Macart. 75; Pollux, viii. 89). Thus he had to superintend orphans and their estates, heiresses, families losing their representatives (oikoi hoi exeremoumenoi), widows left pregnant, and to see that they were not wronged in any way. Should any one do so, he was empowered to inflict a fine of a certain amount, or to bring the parties to trial. Heiresses, indeed, seem to have been under his peculiar care ; for we read (Lex ibid. 54) that he could compel the next of kin either to marry a poor heiress himself, even though she were of a lower class, or to portion her in marriage to another. Again we find (Lex ibid. 16; Pollux, viii. 62) that, when a person claimed an inheritance or heiress adjudged to others, he summoned the party in possession before the archon-eponymus (epidikasia: cf. HERES), who brought the case into court, and made arrangements for trying the suit. We must, however, bear in mind that this authority was only exercised in cases where the parties were citizens, the polemarch having corresponding duties when the heiress was an alien. It must also be understood that, except in very few cases, the archons did not decide themselves, but merely brought the causes into court, and cast lots for the dicasts who were to try the issue (Dem. c. Steph. ii.22, 23). Another duty of the archons was to receive informations against individuals who had wronged heiresses, children who had maltreated their parents, and guardians who had neglected or defrauded their wards [KAKOSIS]. The various modes of prosecution, by apagoge, ephegesis, endeixis, eisangelia, or phasis, came as a rule before all the archons indiscriminately; but we find the endeixis especially connected with the office of the thesmothetae (Dem. c. Timocr. 23). The last office of the archon which we shall mention was of a sacred character; we allude to his superintendence of the greater Dionysia and the Thargelia, the latter celebrated in honour of Apollo and Artemis. (Pollux, viii. 89; cf. Meier, Att. Process)
  The functions of the basileus, or King Archon, were almost all connected with religion: his distinguishing title shows that he was considered a representative of the old kings in their capacity of high priest, as the Rex Sacrificulus was at Rome. Thus he presided at the Lenaean or older Dionysia ; superintended the mysteries and the games called lampadephoriai, and had to offer up sacrifices and prayers in the Eleusinium, both at Athens and Eleusis. Moreover, indictments for impiety, and controversies about the priesthood, were laid before him; and, in cases of murder, he brought the trial into the court of the Areiopagus, and voted with its members. His wife, also, who was called basilissa basilinna, had to offer certain sacrifices, and therefore it was required that she should be a citizen of pure blood, and not previously married. His court was held in what was called he tou basileos stoa (Dem. c. Neaer. 74, 75; c. Androt. 27: Lysias, c. Andoc. 4, where the duties are enumerated; Elmsley, Ad Aristoph. Acharn. 1143, et Scholia; Harpocr. s. v. Epimeletes ton musterion: Plato, Euthyphr. ad init. et Theaet. ad fin.; Pollux, viii. 90). The Polemarch was originally, as his name denotes, the commander-in-chief (Herod. vi. 109, 111; Pollux, viii. 91); and we find him discharging military duties as late as the battle of Marathon, in conjunction with the ten strategol: he there took, like the kings of old, the command of the right wing of the army. This, however, seems to be the last occasion on record of this magistrate being invested with such important functions; and in after ages we find that his duties ceased to be military, having been in a great measure transferred to the protection and superintendence of the resident aliens, so that he resembled in many respects the praetor peregrinus at Rome. In fact, we learn from Aristotle, in his Constitution of Athens, that the polemarch stood in the same relation to foreigners as the archon to citizens (Arist. ap. Harpocr. s. v.; Pollux, viii. 91, 92). Thus, all actions affecting aliens, the isoteles and proxeni, were brought before him previously to trial; as, for instance, the dike aprostasiou against a metoikos, for living in Athens without a patron; so was also the dike apostasiou against a slave who failed in his duty to the master who had freed him. Moreover, it was the polemarch's duty to offer the yearly sacrifice to Artemis, in commemoration of the vow made by Callimachus at Marathon, and to arrange the funeral games in honour of those who fell in war. The functions of the three first archons are very clearly distinguished in a passage of Demosthenes, c. Lacr. 48. These three archons--the eponumos, basileus, and polemarchos--were each allowed two assessors (paredroi) to assist them in the discharge of their duties.
  The Thesmothetae did not act singly, but formed a collegium (sunedrion, Hyperid. pro Eux. col. 22). They appear to have been called legislators, because in the absence of a written code they might be said to make laws (thesmoi, an older word for nomoi), though in reality they only declared and explained them. They were required to review, every year, the whole body of laws, that they might detect any inconsistencies or superfluities, and discover whether any laws which had been repealed were wrongly retained in the public records (Aeschin. c. Ctes.38, 39). Their report was submitted to the people, who referred the necessary alterations to a jury of sworn dicasts impanelled for the purpose, and called nomothetai [NOMOTHETAE].
  In the Athenian legal system the thesmothetae had a more extensive jurisdiction than the three archons who, in point of dignity, enjoyed precedence over them. It may be said, indeed, that all cases not specially reserved to other magistrates came naturally before them. Their duties included the receiving of informations, getting up cases as juges d'instruction, and presiding at the trial before a jury (hegemonia dikasteriou). The following are instanced as being under their jurisdiction: endeixis, eisangelia other than kakoseos (see above), probolai, the Dokimasia of magistrates generally and the Euthynae of the Strategi; among public causes, graphai agraphiou, agraphou metallou, adikiou, apateseos tou demou, bouleuseos, dekasmou, doroxenias, doron, exagoges, hetaireseos, kataluseos tou demou, moicheias, nomismatos diaphthoras, xenias, proagogeias, prodosias, sukophantias, turannidos, hubreos, pseudengraphes, pseudokleteias: among private ones, dikai ageorgiou, ameliou (an obscure case hardly to be distinguished from ageorgiou) anagoges, arguriou, bebaioseos, blabes, engues, enoikiou, exoules, kakegorias, klopes, parakatathekes, sumbolaion parabaseos, chreous: and finally, all dikai emporikai, metallikai, eranikai, and dikai apo sumbolon. We also find, in the Orators, informations laid before the thesmothetae in the following cases: For breach of the law against cutting down olive-tress (Dem. c. Macart. § 71); conspiracy to defeat the ends of justice (Dem. c. Steph. ii. 35 f.); if a foreigner married a citizen, or a man gave in marriage as his own daughter the child of another, or confined as an adulterer one who was not so (Dem. c. Neaer.17, 52, 66). If a man banished for homicide returned without a legal pardon, the thesmothetae might order him to summary execution (Dem. c. Aristocr. 31). The name thesmothetae is sometimes applied to all the nine, and not merely to the six minor archons: mostly, no doubt, in late inscriptions (C. L. G. 380) and grammarians (Arg. to Dem. c. Androt.), but occasionally even in classical writers. For instance, in Dem. c. Eubul. 66, the phrase tous thesmothetas anakrinete must be equivalent to tous ennea archontas anakrinete in the concluding section of the speech. On the other hand, the words archai and archontes are used in reference to magistrates in general, not to the nine exclusively. Thus in Isaeus (Or. 1,Cleonymus, 14) certain archontes are spoken of who (in 15) are shown to be the astunomoi.
  In their collective capacity the archons also superintended to epicheirotonia of the magistrates, held every prytany (eperotosin ei dokei kalos archein), and brought to trial those whom the people deposed, if an action or indictment were the consequence of it. Moreover, they attended jointly to the annual ballot for the dicasts or jurymen, and presided in the assemblies for the election of strategi, taxiarchs, hipparchs, and phylarchs (Pollux, viii. 87, 88; Harpocrat. s. v. katacheirotonia).
  The places in which the archons exercised their judicial power were, with the exception of that assigned to the Polemarch, without doubt all situated in the market. That of the first archon was by the statues of the ten Eponymi; that of the archon Basileus beside the so-called Bucolium, a building not otherwise known, in the neighbourhood of the Prytaneum, or else in the so-called Hall of the King; that of the Thesmothetae in the building called after them Thesmothesium, in which they, and perhaps the whole nine, are said to have dined at the public expense. The Polemarch had his office outside the walls, but quite close to the city, adjoining the Lyceum. In their oath of office the archons promised faithfully to observe the laws and to be incorruptible, and in the case of transgression to consecrate at Delphi a golden statue of the same size as themselves (isometreton, Plat. Phaedr. 235 D). Suidas improves upon this, making them three statues instead of one, at Athens, Delphi, and Olympia (s. v. chruse eikon). The simplest explanation of this absurdity is Schomann's, that it is an ancient formula used to denote an impossible penalty, the non-payment of which of necessity entailed Atimia.
  A few words will suffice for the privileges and honours of the archons. The greatest of the former was the exemption from the trierarchies--a boon not allowed even to the successors of Harmodius and Aristogeiton. As a mark of their office, they wore a chaplet or crown of myrtle; and if any one struck or abused one of the thesmothetae or the archon, when wearing this badge of office, he became atimos, or infamous in the fullest extent, thereby losing his civic rights (Dem. c. Lept. 28, c. Meid. 33; Pollux, viii. 86). The archons, at the close of their year of service, when they had delivered their account and proved them-selves free from blame, were admitted among the members of the Areiopagus. [AREIOPAGUS]
The Archon Eponymus being an annual magistrate at Athens, like the consul at Rome, it is manifest that a correct list of the archons is an important element in the determination of Athenian chronology. Now from Creon (B.C. 683), the first annual archon, to Myrus (B.C. 499), we have the names of about thirty-four. From B.C. 495 to 292, Diodorus and Dionysius of Halicarnassus furnish an almost unbroken succession for a period of nearly 200 years. After B.C. 292, about 166 names have been recovered, mostly from inscriptions, and many of them undated, down to the latest Roman period; the latest with a date being A.D. 485 (Meier, Index Archontum eponymorum qui post Ol. cxxi. 2 eum magistratum obtinuerunt; Marin. Vit. Proc. 36).

(Appendix). Against the received tradition that the Medontidae, the early successors of Codrus, held office for life, but without the title of king, the contention of Lugebil and Caillemer that both the name and the attributes of royalty survived almost unchanged, has now received important confirmation. In Ath. pol. c. 3 it is stated that in the times before Draco the head of the state was styled basileus, and ruled for life; next to him was a polemarchos, or commander-in-chief, who indeed dates back to the period of the real kings; thirdly, an archon, or chief civil magistrate. These two officers were probably elected for a term of years by the Eupatrids, and formed an important check on the autocracy of the titular king. Mr. Kenyon remarks: The abolition of the title of king as that of the chief magistrate of the state probably took place when the decennial system was established. The name was then retained only for sacrificial and similar reasons, and, to mark the fact that the kingly rule was actually at an end, the magistrate bearing the title was degraded to the second position, while the Archon, whose name naturally suggested itself as the best substitute for that of king, was promoted to the titular headship of the state.
  Fresh light is also thrown on the question as to the time when the election by lot was introduced. We find the following stages in the history of the method of election to this office: (1) prior to Draco, the archons were nominated by the Areopagus; (2) under the Draconian constitution they were elected by the ecclesia; (3) under the Solonian constitution, so far as it was not disturbed by internal troubles and revolutions, they were chosen by lot from forty candidates selected by the four tribes; (4) under the constitution of Cleisthenes they were directly elected by the people in the ecclesia; (5) after 487 B.C. they were appointed by lot from 100 (or 500, see below) candidates selected by the ten tribes; (6) at some later period the process of the lot was adopted also in the preliminary selection by the tribes (Ath. pol. c. 22). As regards the number of candidates selected under the arrangement of 487 B.C. the MS. here gives 500, but the writer had previously stated (c. 8) that each tribe chose ten candidates, making a total of 100. It is probable that for pentakosion (ph') we should read ekaton (r').
  After the expulsion of Damasias, who in a two years' archonship (B.C. 582-1) tried to establish a tyranny, we have for one year the unprecedented number of ten archons, of whom five were Eupatrids, three agroikoi = Geomori, and two Demiurgi (c. 13). The conjecture that the tenth tribe, which did not elect an archon, was compensated by having the appointment of the secretary (grammateus), is stated as a fact (Ath. pol. c. 55).
  The received account of the abolition of the property qualification must also be modified. If, according to Plutarch's account, Aristides in 479 B.C. widened the area of eligibility, he may at most have extended it from the pentakosiomedimnoi to the hippeis. It is now definitely stated (Ath. pol. c. 26) that the zeugitai first became eligible in 457 B.C., five years after the death of Ephialtes: which shows incidentally that the murder of Ephialtes must have taken place immediately after the triumph of his democratic legislation in 462. It is a further curious fact, that the property qualification was never entirely abolished by law. The thetikon telos or lowest class, was still in theory ineligible for any office, but in the time of Aristotle a member of that class was allowed to represent himself as a zeugites by a legal fiction (c. 7).
  In the archons' oath we get a rational explanation of the chruse eikon without the absurd addition isometretos. The archons and, it would seem, the diaetetae also, swore that if they accepted bribes they would dedicate a golden image -presumably of equal value to the amount received, though this is not explicitly stated. A somewhat similar explanation is given by Thompson on Plat. Phaedr. 235 D (Ath. pol. cc. 7, 54).
It has generally been held, as by Schomann, that all magistracies (archai in the technical sense) were unpaid at Athens (cf. HYPERETES). The treatise before us mentions, on the contrary, the pay of many public officers; and there is reason to think that that of the archons was four obols a day, though the passage (Ath. pol. c. 62) is mutilated and the words enn[ea archon]tes partly conjectural.

A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890) (eds. William Smith, LLD, William Wayte, G. E. Marindin)
• http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Per...

Archon "Ruler"

   The Athenian name for the supreme authority established on the abolition of royalty. On the death of the last king, Codrus, B.C. 1068, the headship of the state for life was bestowed on his son Medon and his descendants under the title of Archon. In B.C. 752 their term of office was reduced to ten years; in 714 their exclusive privilege was abolished, and the right to hold the office thrown open to all the nobility, while its duration was diminished to one year; finally in B.C. 683 the power was divided among nine Archons. By Solon's legislation his wealthiest class, the pentakosiomedimnoi, became eligible to the office; and by Aristides' arrangement after the Persian Wars, it was thrown open to the whole body of citizens, Clisthenes having previously, in the interests of the democracy, substituted the drawing of lots for election by vote . . .

This extract is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited Oct 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks

Perseus: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities (1898)
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Demos

   Demus (demos). A word which originally denoted a district or country. Then, because in the early days the lower classes lived in the country and the nobles in the city, it received the meaning of commons or common people. A third use, likewise derived from the original signification, is seen in its application to the local divisions, or townships as it were, of Attica.
    A certain number of these demoi, or demes, were included in each of the ten tribes established by Clisthenes to replace the four old Ionic tribes. Their exact number at that time is not positively known, though it is supposed by some, from a statement of Herodotus, to have been one hundred. In the third century before Christ, at all events, they numbered one hundred and seventyfour. The names of one hundred and forty-five of these are known to us from inscriptions. If, however, we consider the division of some demes into kathuperthen and hupenerthen, and of others between two different tribes, this sum is increased to one hundred and fifty-six. The names were derived in part from places, as in the case of Acharnae, Rhamnus, etc., and in part from the founders of the demes, as in the case of Erchia and of Daedalidae. The largest deme, according to Thucydides, was Acharnae, which in the Peloponnesian War was able to furnish three thousand heavily armed troops.
    At the time of his reforms Clisthenes admitted many resident aliens and even slaves to citizenship, and to this fact is due that alteration in the official designation of citizens which he also introduced. They were no longer designated by the father's name only, but also by the name of the deme to which they belonged. The demes now became the centres of the local administrative power, and are said by Aristotle to have taken the place of the naucraries. Each deme had its register of citizens, its own property, its own meetings and religious observances, and its own demarch. This officer made out the lists of the deme's property, kept in his possession the lexiarchic register, or register of qualified citizens, and convened the demesmen at will (Harpocration, s. v. Demarchos). At these meetings the public business of the deme was transacted, such as the leasing of property, the election of officers, the revision of the lexiarchic register, and the enrolment of new members.
    When a man was first admitted to citizenship he had the right to choose his own tribe and deme, but otherwise a man belonged to the same deme as his natural or adoptive father. The legitimate children of citizens could be enrolled on attaining their majority at the age of eighteen, and adopted children, whenever presented by their adoptive fathers. The enrolment took place in the presence of the assembled demesmen. If any member questioned the candidate's eligibility the matter was settled by a majority vote of those presentIllegal registration, however, was not uncommon, and certain demes, as Potamus for example, were notorious for this abuse. To counteract this evil an official investigation of those inscribed in the register, called diapsephisis (Harpocration, s. v. Diapsephisis), was held at various times by the deme. A similar examination was also held if, by any chance, the lexiarchic registers were lost or destroyed. If any one in the course of this inquiry was disfranchised by vote of the demesmen, he had the right of appeal to the courts. If the decision of the deme were sustained he was sold as a slave and his property was confiscated. But were he successful in his suit his name was restored to the register of the deme.
    A man was not obliged to reside within the limits of the deme of which he was a member. But he could only hold property in another deme upon payment to the demarch of a tax, called enktetikon. This tax, however, was sometimes remitted by the demes in the case of individuals to whom they desired to grant special privileges or honours.

This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited Nov 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks

Perseus: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities (1898)
• http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Per...

ATHINEON (Ancient city) VALTETSI
In 227 BC the settlement was seized by Cleomenes of Sparta and this was the reason for the Cleomenian war. In 223 BC Antigonus Doson, who had taken the settlement, gave it back to the Megalopolitans.