Listed 42 sub titles with search on: History for wider area of: "EVIA Island GREECE" .
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).
ERETRIA (Ancient city) EVIA
Datis, with his many myriads, captured by force the whole of the Eretrians; and to Athens he sent on an alarming account of how not a man of the Eretrians had escaped him: the soldiers of Datis had joined hands and swept the whole of Eretria clean as with a draw net. (Plato, Laws 698c). When Datis and Artaphrenes reached Asia in their voyage, they carried the enslaved Eretrians inland to Susa. (Herodt 6.119.1)
On his arrival Flamininus sacked Eretria, defeating the Macedonians who were defending it.
Otilius carried out his orders up to a point, but displeased the Romans in certain of his acts. Hestiaea in Euboea and Anticyra in Phocis, which had been compelled to submit to Philip, he utterly destroyed. It was, I think, for this reason that the senate, when they heard the news, sent Flamininus to succeed Otilius in his command.
OROVIES (Ancient city) EVIA
About the same time that these earthquakes were so common, the sea at Orobiae, in Euboea, retiring from the then line of coast, returned in a huge wave and invaded a great part of the town, and retreated leaving some of it still under water; so that what was once land is now sea; such of the inhabitants perishing as could not run up to the higher ground in time.
SKYROS (Island) STEREA HELLAS
The inhabitants of Skyros were enslaved and their land was apportioned to Athenian settlers.
STYRA (Ancient city) EVIA
Styra was destroyed in the Malian war by Phaedrus, the general of the Athenians; but the country is held by the Eretrians.
CHALKIS (Ancient city) EVIA
Chalcis colonized the cities that were subject to Olynthus, which later were treated outrageously by Philip. And many places in Italy and Sicily are also Chalcidian.
The Amphipolitans having received settlers from Chalcis were most of them driven out by them (Aristotle, Politics: section 1303b).
Leontines, who were colonists from Chalcis (Diodorus Siculus, Library: book 12, chapter 53, section 1)
The inhabitants of Rhegium, who were colonists of Chalcis (Diodorus Siculus, Library: book 14, chapter 40, section 1).
Palaeopolis was a city not far from the present site of Neapolis The two cities formed one community. The original inhabitants came from Cumae; Cumae traced its origin to Chalcis in Euboea. The fleet in which they had sailed from home gave them the mastery of the coastal district which they now occupy, and after landing in the islands of Aenaria and Pithecusae they ventured to transfer their settle- ments to the mainland. (Perseus Project - Livy, History of Rome (ed. Rev. Canon Roberts): book 8, chapter 22 ).
Naxos was founded in Sicily by the Chalcidians on the Euripus.
ERETRIA (Ancient city) EVIA
Be this as it may, these cities grew exceptionally strong and even sent forth noteworthy colonies into Macedonia; for Eretria colonized the cities situated round Pallene and Athos, and Chalcis colonized the cities that were subject to Olynthus, which later were treated outrageously by Philip.
CHALKIS (Ancient city) EVIA
The Athenians made a clever use of their victory, and after defeating the Boeotians and Chalcidians, they at once after the battle made themselves masters of the city of Chalcis.
STYRA (Village) EVIA
Styra, the headquarters of the Municipality with the same name, is
an old town, in contrast with the coastal and touristic Nea
Styra. As its name suggests, Nea Styra is a relatively new and rapidly developing
settlement.
The first written reference to Styra is found in the "Iliad" of Homer,
in the catalogue of ships, wherein its participation, along with that of other
Evian cities, in the campaign against Troy under the command of Elafinoras is
recorded. The ancient Greek historiographers, especially Herodotus, classified
the population of Styra as part of the pre-Hellenic Indo-European tribe of the
Dryopes. According to the lexicographer Stephanos of Byzantium, Dryopes settled
initially around Iti and Parnassos.
After the arrival of the Dorians they were forced to move towards the Peloponnese
and Evia, occupying the area
of Dystos, Styra
and Karystia. In contrast
with this view, the ancient geographer Strabon attributed the foundation of Styra
to colonists from the Athenian deme
of Marathon.
This text is cited May 2003 from the Municipality
of Styra tourist pamphlet.
ARTEMISSION (Ancient city) ISTIEA
The Greeks appointed to serve in the fleet were these: the Athenians
furnished a hundred and twenty-seven ships; the Plataeans manned these ships with
the Athenians, not that they had any knowledge of seamanship, but because of mere
valor and zeal. The Corinthians furnished forty ships and the Megarians twenty;
the Chalcidians manned twenty, the Athenians furnishing the ships; the Aeginetans
eighteen, the Sicyonians twelve, the Lacedaemonians ten, the Epidaurians eight,
the Eretrians seven, the Troezenians five, the Styrians two, and the Ceans two,
and two fifty-oared barks; the Opuntian Locrians brought seven fifty-oared barks
to their aid.
These are the forces which came to Artemisium for battle, and I have
now shown how they individually furnished the whole sum. The number of ships mustered
at Artemisium was two hundred and seventy-one, besides the fifty-oared barks.
The Spartans, however, provided the admiral who had the chief command, Eurybiades,
son of Euryclides, for the allies said that if the Laconian were not their leader,
they would rather make an end of the fleet that was assembling than be led by
the Athenians.
In the first days, before the sending to Sicily for alliance, there
had been talk of entrusting the command at sea to the Athenians. However, when
the allies resisted, the Athenians waived their claim, considering the safety
of Hellas of prime importance and seeing that if they quarrelled over the leadership,
Hellas must perish. In this they judged rightly, for civil strife is as much worse
than united war as war is worse than peace. Knowing that, they gave ground and
waived their claim, but only so long as they had great need of the others. This
is clear, for when they had driven the Persian back and the battle was no longer
for their territory but for his, they made a pretext of Pausanias' highhandedness
and took the command away from the Lacedaemonians. All that, however, took place
later.
But now, the Greeks who had at last come to Artemisium saw a multitude
of ships launched at Aphetae and forces everywhere, and contrary to all expectation,
the barbarian was shown to be in much different shape than they had supposed.
They accordingly lost heart and began to deliberate about flight from Artemisium
homewards into Hellas. Then the Euboeans, noticing that they were making such
plans, entreated Eurybiades to wait a little while, till they themselves had removed
their children and households. When they could not prevail with him, they tried
another way and gave Themistocles, the Athenian admiral, a bribe of thirty talents
on the condition that the Greek fleet should remain there and fight, when they
fought, to defend Euboea.
This was the way in which Themistocles made the Greeks stay where
they were: he gave Eurybiades for his share five talents of that money, as though
he were making the present of his own money. When Eurybiades had been won over
in this way, none of the rest was inclined to resist save Adimantus, son of Ocytus,
the Corinthian admiral, who said that he would not remain but sail away from Artemisium;
to him Themistocles, adding an oath, said: "No, you of all men will not desert
us, for I will give you a greater gift than the king of the Medes would send you
for deserting your allies." With that he sent three talents of silver to
Adimantus ship. These two, then, were won over by gifts, the Euboeans got what
they wanted, and Themistocles himself was the gainer. No one knew that he had
kept the rest of the money, and those who had received a part of it supposed that
it had been sent for that purpose by the Athenians.
So the Greeks remained in Euboea and fought there; this came about
as I will now reveal. Having arrived at Aphetae in the early part of the afternoon,
the barbarians saw for themselves the few Greek ships that they had already heard
were stationed off Artemisium, and they were eager to attack so that they might
take them. They were not prepared to make a head-on attack since they feared that
the Greeks would see them coming and turn to flee with night close upon them as
they fled; it was their belief that the Greeks would save themselves by flight,
and they did not want even so much as a firebearer to be saved.
Taking these things into consideration, they devised the following
plan; separating two hundred ships from the whole number, they sent them to cruise
outside Sciathus so that the enemies might not see them sailing round Euboea and
by way of Caphereus round Geraestus to the Euripus so that they might catch the
Greeks between them, the one part holding that course and barring the retreat,
and they themselves attacking in front. Upon making these plans they sent the
appointed ships on their way, intending not to make an attack upon the Greeks
either on that day or before the signal should be seen, whereby the ships that
sailed round were to declare their coming. So they sent those ships to sail round,
and set about counting the rest at Aphetae.
Now when they were engaged in this count, there was in the fleet one
Scyllias, a man of Scione; he was the best diver of the time, and in the shipwreck
at Pelion he had saved for the Persians much of their possessions and gotten much
for himself in addition; this Scyllias had before now, it would seem, intended
to desert to the Greeks, but he never had had so fair an occasion as now. By what
means he did at last make his way to the Greeks, I cannot with exactness say.
If the story is true, it is marvellous indeed, for it is said that he dove into
the sea at Aphetae and never rose to the surface till he came to Artemisium, thus
passing underneath the sea for about eighty furlongs. There are many tales about
this man, some similar to lies and some true, but as regards the present business
it is my opinion that he came to Artemisium in a boat. After arriving, he straightway
told the admirals the story of the shipwreck, and of the ships that had been sent
round Euboea.
Hearing that, the Greeks took counsel together; there was much talk,
but the opinion prevailed that they should remain and encamp where they were for
that day, and then, after midnight, to put to sea and meet the ships which were
sailing around. Presently, however, meeting with no opposition, they waited for
the late afternoon of the day and themselves advanced their ships against the
barbarian, desiring to put to the proof his fashion of fighting and the art of
breaking the line.
When Xerxes' men and their generals saw the Greeks bearing down on
them with but a few ships, they thought that they were definitely mad and put
out to sea themselves, thinking that they would win an easy victory; this expectation
was very reasonable, since they saw that the Greek ships so few while their own
were many times more numerous and more seaworthy. With this assurance, they hemmed
in the Greeks in their midst. Now all the Ionians who were friendly to the Greeks
came unwillingly to the war and were distressed to see the Greeks surrounded.
They supposed that not one of them would return home, so powerless did the Greeks
seem to them to be. Those who were glad about the business, however, vied each
with each that he might be the first to take an Attic ship and receive gifts from
the king, for it was the Athenians of whom there was most talk in the fleet.
But the Greeks, when the signal was given them, first drew the sterns
of their ships together, their prows turned towards the foreigners; then at the
second signal they put their hands to the work, despite the fact that they were
hemmed in within a narrow space and were fighting face-to-face. There they took
thirty of the foreigners ships as well as the brother of Gorgus king of Salamis,
Philaon son of Chersis, a man of note in the fleet. The first Greek to take an
enemy ship was an Athenian, Lycomedes, son of Aeschraeus, and he it was who received
the prize for valor. They fought that sea-fight with doubtful issue, and nightfall
ended the battle; the Greeks sailed back to Artemisium, and the barbarians to
Aphetae, after faring far below their hopes in the fight. In that battle Antidorus
of Lemnos, the only one of the Greeks siding with the Persian, deserted to the
Greeks, and for that the Athenians gave him land in Salamis.
When darkness came on, the season being then midsummer, there was
abundance of rain all through the night and violent thunderings from Pelion. The
dead and the wrecks were driven towards Aphetae, where they were entangled with
the ships' prows and jumbled the blades of the oars. The ships crews who were
there were dismayed by the noise of this, and considering their present bad state,
expected utter destruction; for before they had recovered from the shipwreck and
the storm off Pelion, they next endured a stubborn sea-fight, and after the sea-fight,
rushing rain and mighty torrents pouring seaward and violent thunderings.
This is how the night dealt with them. To those who were appointed
to sail round Euboea, however, that same night was still more cruel since it caught
them on the open sea. Their end was a terrible one, for when the storm and the
rain came on them in their course off the Hollows of Euboea, they were driven
by the wind in an unknown direction and were driven onto the rocks. All this was
done by the god so that the Persian power might be more equally matched with the
Greek, and not much greater than it.
These men, then, perished at the Hollows of Euboea. As for the barbarians
at Aphetae, when to their great comfort the day dawned, they kept their ships
unmoved, being in their evil plight well content to do nothing for the moment.
Now fifty-three Attic ships came to aid the Greeks, who were encouraged both by
the ships coming and by the news that the barbarians sailing round Euboea had
all perished in the recent storm. They waited then for the same hour as before,
and fell upon certain Cilician ships when they put to sea. After destroying these
when night fell, they sailed back to Artemisium.
On the third day, however, the barbarian admirals, finding it hard
to bear that so few ships should do them hurt and fearing Xerxes' anger, waited
no longer for the Greeks to begin the fight, but gave the word and put out to
sea about midday. So it came to pass that these sea-battles were fought on the
same days as the land-battles at Thermopylae; the seamen's whole endeavor was
to hold the Euripus while Leonidas' men strove to guard the passage; the Greeks
were ordered to give the barbarian no entry into Hellas, and the Persians to destroy
the Greek host and win the strait.
So when Xerxes' men ordered their battle and advanced, the Greeks
remained in their station off Artemisium, and the barbarians made a half circle
of their ships striving to encircle and enclose them. At that the Greeks charged
and joined battle. In that sea-fight both had equal success. Xerxes' fleet did
itself harm by its numbers and size. The ships were thrown into confusion and
ran foul of each other; nevertheless they held fast and did not yield, for they
could not bear to be put to flight by a few ships. Many were the Greek ships and
men that perished there, and far more yet of the foreigners' ships and men; this
is how they fought until they drew off and parted from each other.
In that sea-fight of all Xerxes' fighters the Egyptians conducted
themselves with the greatest valor; besides other great feats of arms which they
achieved, they took five Greek ships together with their crews. As regards the
Greeks, it was the Athenians who bore themselves best on that day, and of the
Athenians Clinias son of Alcibiades. He brought to the war two hundred men and
a ship of his own, all at his own expense.
So they parted, and each hurried gladly to his own place of anchorage.
When the Greeks had withdrawn and come out of the battle, they were left in possession
of the dead and the wrecks. They had, however, had a rough time of it themselves,
chiefly the Athenians, half of whose ships had suffered some damage. Now their
counsel was to flee to the inner waters of Hellas.
Themistocles thought that if the Ionian and Carian nations were removed
from the forces of the barbarians, the Greeks might be strong enough to prevail
over the rest. Now it was the custom of the Euboeans to drive their flocks down
to the sea there. Gathering the admirals together, he told them that he thought
he had a device whereby he hoped to draw away the best of the king's allies. So
much he revealed for the moment, but merely advised them to let everyone slay
as many from the Euboean flocks as he wanted; it was better that the fleet should
have them, than the enemy. Moreover, he counselled them each to order his men
to light a fire; as for the time of their departure from that place, he would
see to it that they would return to Hellas unscathed. All this they agreed to
do and immediately lit fires and set upon the flocks.
Now the Euboeans had neglected the oracle of Bacis, believing it to
be empty of meaning, and neither by carrying away nor by bringing in anything
had they shown that they feared an enemy's coming. In so doing they were the cause
of their own destruction, for Bacis' oracle concerning this matter runs as follows
When a strange-tongued man casts a yoke of papyrus on the waves,
Then take care to keep bleating goats far from the coasts of Euboea
To these verses the Euboeans gave no heed; but in the evils then present
and soon to come they suffered the greatest calamity.
While the Greeks were doing as I have said, there came to them their
lookout from Trachis. There was a scout at Artemisium, one Polyas, a native of
Anticyra, who was charged (and had a rowing boat standing ready for it), if the
fleet should suffer a reverse to declare it to the men at Thermopylae. Similarly,
if any ill should befall the land army, Abronichus son of Lysicles, an Athenian,
was with Leonidas, ready for his part to bring the news in a thirty-oared bark
to the Greeks at Artemisium. So this Abronichus came and declared to them the
fate of Leonidas and his army. When the Greeks learned this, they no longer delayed
their departure but went their ways in their appointed order, the Corinthians
first and last of all the Athenians.Themistocles, however, picked out the seaworthiest
Athenian ships and made his way to the places where drinking water could be found.
Here he engraved on the rocks words which the Ionians read on the next day when
they came to Artemisium. This was what the writing said:
"Men of Ionia, you do wrongly to fight against the land of your
fathers and bring slavery upon Hellas. It would best for you to join yourselves
to us, but if that should be impossible for you, then at least now withdraw from
the war, and entreat the Carians to do the same as you. If neither of these things
may be and you are fast bound by such constraint that you cannot rebel, yet we
ask you not to use your full strength in the day of battle. Remember that you
are our sons and that our quarrel with the barbarian was of your making in the
beginning." To my thinking Themistocles wrote this with a double intent,
namely that if the king knew nothing of the writing, it might induce the Ionians
to change sides and join with the Greeks, while if the writing were maliciously
reported to Xerxes, he might thereby be led to mistrust the Ionians and keep them
out of the sea-fights.
Such was Themistocles' writing. Immediately after this there came
to the barbarians a man of Histiaea in a boat, telling them of the flight of the
Greeks from Artemisium. Not believing this, they kept the bringer of the news
in confinement and sent swift ships to spy out the matter. When the crews of these
brought word of the truth, the whole armada sailed all together to Artemisium
at the crack of dawn. Here they waited till midday and then sailed to Histiaea.
Upon their arrival they took possession of the Histiaeans' city and overran all
the villages on the seaboard of the Ellopian region, which is a district belonging
to Histiaea.
While they were there, Xerxes sent a herald to the fleet. Before sending
him, Xerxes had made the following preparations: of all his own soldiers who had
fallen at Thermopylae (that is, as many as twenty thousand) he left about a thousand,
and the rest he buried in trenches, which he covered with leaves and heaped earth
so that the men of the fleet might not see them. When the herald had crossed over
to Histiaea, he assembled all the men of the fleet and said: "Men of our
allies, King Xerxes permits any one of you who should so desire to leave his place
and come to see how he fights against those foolish men who thought they could
overcome the king's power."
After this proclamation, there was nothing so hard to get as a boat,
so many were they who wanted to see this. They crossed over and went about viewing
the dead. All of them supposed that the fallen Greeks were all Lacedaemonians
and Thespians, though helots were also there for them to see. For all that, however,
those who crossed over were not deceived by what Xerxes had done with his own
dead, for the thing was truly ridiculous; of the Persians a thousand lay dead
before their eyes, but the Greeks lay all together assembled in one place, to
the number of four thousand. All that day they spent in observation, and on the
next the shipmen returned to their fleet at Histiaea while Xerxes' army set forth
on its march.
This extract is from: Herodotus. The Histories (ed. A. D. Godley, 1920), Cambridge. Harvard University Press. Cited May 2003 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains comments & interesting hyperlinks.
CHALKIS (Ancient city) EVIA
The following took part in the war:… the Chalcidians with their twenty ships from Artemisium, and the Eretrians with the same seven; these are Ionians.
The Chalcidians manned twenty, the Athenians furnishing the ships
. . . were six hundred Eretrians and Styreans; next to them, four hundred Chalcidians; next again, five hundred Ampraciots.
ERETRIA (Ancient city) EVIA
The following took part in the war: . . the Chalcidians with their twenty ships from Artemisium, and the Eretrians with the same seven; these are Ionians.
The Eretrians furnished seven ships
. . . Next to the men of Hermione were six hundred Eretrians and Styreans; next to them, four hundred Chalcidians;
STYRA (Ancient city) EVIA
. . . Next to the men of Hermione were six hundred Eretrians and Styreans; next to them, four hundred Chalcidians;
The following took part in the war:… The Styrians provided the same number of ships as at Artemisium, and the Cythnians one trireme and a fifty-oared boat; these are both Dryopians
The Styrians furnished two ships
ISTIEA (Ancient city) EVIA
Histiaeotis in Thessaly was also named after the Histiaeans who were carried off from here into the mainland by the Perrhaebians.
KARYSTOS (Ancient city) EVIA
These places ( Carystus and Marmarium) are said to have been settled by colonists from the Marathonian Tetrapolis.
MARMARION (Ancient city) EVIA
These places ( Carystus and Marmarium) are said to have been settled by colonists from the Marathonian Tetrapolis.
AVLIS (Ancient city) STEREA HELLAS
When Agesilaus offered to undertake the campaign, the Lacedaemonians gave him everything he asked for and provisions for six months. And when he marched forth from the country after offering all the sacrifices which were required, including that at the frontier, he dispatched messengers to the various cities and announced how many men were to be sent from each city, and where they were to report; while as for himself, he desired to go and offer sacrifice at Aulis, the place where Agamemnon had sacrificed before he sailed to Troy. When he had reached Aulis, however, the Boeotarchs, on learning that he was sacrificing, sent horsemen and bade him discontinue his sacrificing, and they threw from the altar the victims which they found already offered. Then Agesilaus, calling the gods to witness, and full of anger, embarked upon his trireme and sailed away. And when he arrived at Gerastus and had collected there as large a part of his army as he could, he directed his course to Ephesus.
ERETRIA (Ancient city) EVIA
Euboian Greeks from Eretria and Chalkis established here (Aenaria-Ischia, Italy) in the early 8th c. B.C. a commercial post to facilitate trade with mainland Etruscans.
It was first colonized by Greek settlers from Chalcis and Eretria, either simultaneously with, or even previous to, the foundation of Cumae on the neighbouring mainland; and the colony attained to great prosperity, but afterwards suffered severely from internal dissensions, and was ultimately compelled to abandon the island in consequence of violent earthquakes and volcanic outbreaks. (Liv. viii. 22; Strab. v. p. 248.)
STYRA (Village) EVIA
The dominant theory in comparative linguistics at the end of the eighteenth
century identified the etymology of the root of the place-name Styra with the
Phoenician goddess Astarte (Astira) and the establishment in the area of a Phoenician
trading colony. Today, this view has been rejected and today's generally accepted
version is that the name "Styra" comes from the Sanskrit word "Stoura", which
was current around the ninth century B.C., and which means bull or ox.
Styra was conquered by the troops of the Persian general Dates during
the Persian campaign against Greece in 490 B.C. Prior to the battle of Marathon,
the Persians transported the captured Eretrians to the small island of Styra,
the ancient Aigileia. During the second Persian campaign against the Greeks, the
Styraians took an active part in the struggle against Xerxes' troops, with two
triremes and an infantry battalion taking part in the battle of Plataia
in 479 B.C.
From 477 B.C. Styra, along with all the other cities of Evia, participated
in the Athenian League. The Styraians took part in many military campaigns on
the side of the Athenians during the Sicilian expedition of 415 B.C. in the second
phase of the Peloponnesian War. It appears that in the early fourth century B.C.
Styra came under the dominance of Eretria,
since epigraphic evidence of the time refers to it as though it were an Eretrian
territory. During the Lamian War between the Macedonians under Antipater and the
Athenians in 322 B.C., the Styraians supported the former. As a result, the city
was destroyed by the army of the Athenian general Leosthenes.
The Styraians, along with the Eretrians and the Chalkidians were famed
for their prowess at fishing for deep-red shellfish. During the period of Roman
rule, the economy of Styra and Karystia
region was founded on the mining of its famous marble, which in antiquity was
called Karistian stone or Euboeac or, according to Latin writers, cipollino. It
was a green-veined marble from which were made the columns of the Library of Hadrian
in Athens, and which was in great demand in the Roman and Byzantine periods.
During the period of Frankish rule in Evia the settlement of Styra
was located on its present site, in the shadow of the castle of the Armenians
or Lamenians, the ruins of which are preserved at the top of the hill of St. Nicholas
or Diakoftis (450 m.) above Kliosi. The castle was built over the walls of the
ancient Acropolis of Styra. At the beginning of the 1300s the fortress was conquered
by the Catalans, who sold it to the Venetians in 1373. It was still in use after
the occupation of Evia by the Ottomans in 1470.
It was also during the period of Frankish rule that Albanian-speakers
were first settled in Evia, after a decision by the Venetian Senate (20 April
1402), with the purpose of using this population in the defence of the island.
A second wave of Albanian speakers arrived in Evia around 1425. These Albanian-speakers
settled in the region which stretches out to the south of Ochi
as far as Avlonari and Aliveri.
These populations mixed with and were absorbed by the Greek population which was
already there. The memory of these events is today preserved in the form of the
linguistic idiom of the region of Styra, which is based on Arvanitika, medieval
Albanian, and also in local place-names.
The Stouraites took an active part in the struggle for liberation
against the Ottomans. On 12, January 1822 on the hill of Kokkinomylos, northwest
of Styra, one of the most dramatic pages in modern Greek history was written.
Ilias Petrobeis Mavromichalis and a few brave young men entrenched inside a windmill,
the ruins of which still remain today, were besieged by the Ottoman hordes of
Omer Bey of Karystia, and suffered a martyr's death. A monument was erected to
act as a local reminded of the sacrifice of the Maniat war-lord and his fellow
fighters. Mavromichalis' bones were laid to rest inside the monument.
A few months after the battle of Kokkinomylos, in June 1822, Nikolaos
Kriezotis was appointed head of the Greek revolutionary powers in Evia. On 20,
March 1823 Kriezotis fortified the slope of Diakoftis below the castle of the
Armenians, with the purpose of using the area as a base for the military campaign
to besiege Karystia. On 23, March 1823 the Ottoman forces attempted to occupy
the area and destroy the revolutionaries. After a six hour battle Omer Bey's forces
were repelled by the Greek fighters. The Battle of Diakoftis had a great effect
on the course of the revolution in Evia, reinforcing the morale of the revolutionaries,
as it was the first time that the fearful Bey of Karystia had been defeated in
battle by the revolutionary forces.
This text is cited May 2003 from the Municipality
of Styra tourist pamphlet.
CHALKIS (Ancient city) EVIA
The nearest approach to a coalition took place in the old war between Chalcis and Eretria; this was a quarrel in which the rest of the Hellenic name did to some extent take sides. Thucydides, The Peloponnesian War: book 1, chapter 15, section 3
ERETRIA (Ancient city) EVIA
The Lelantine war took place at the end of the 8th c. B.C. between Eretria and Chalkis.
Lelantine War. A war waged between Eretria and Chalcis, probably for the possession of the plain of Lelantus (q.v.). E. Curtius has assumed as the date of this contest B.C. 704, which Professor Mahaffy thinks too early. Some of the most powerful States of Greece joined in the struggle, especially Samos and Miletus. See Strabo, pp. 58, 447; Herod.v. 99; Thuc.i. 15; Hermann in the Rheinisches Museum, i. p. 85; and especially Mahaffy in Hermathena, iv. p. 325.
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