Listed 4 sub titles with search on: Information about the place for destination: "ISTIEA Ancient city EVIA".
The ancient site can be associated quite confidently with the prominent
terraced hill (Kastro) situated at the very E limits of the modern village of
Orei on the N coast of the island. In later antiquity the town came to be known
more commonly as Oreos (e.g., Strab. 10.1.3), the name of an old deme in the neighborhood
(probably Molos, a small headland located a few km to the W of Orei).
Histiaia was the most important Classical town in the region. Its
importance was based not only on its strategic position overlooking the narrows
leading to the North Euboian Gulf but on its control of the large and fertile
coastal plain on which the city lay. Trial excavation and surface reconnaissance
have demonstrated that the site was already flourishing in the Bronze Age, and
Homer (Il. 2.537) testifies to the fertility of the surrounding plain by describing
it as rich in vines. Surface finds suggest that it continued to be occupied during
the Early Iron Age, probably by the Aiolic-speaking Ellopians or Perrhaibians
who seem to have replaced the Homeric Abantes. In 480 B.C. the city and its environs
were overrun by the Persians (Hdt. 8.23). After the Persian Wars it became a member
of the Delian Confederacy, contributing the rather modest sum of 1/6 talent. In
446 the Euboians revolted and were promptly reduced by Athens (Thuc. 1.114.3);
but Histiaia was treated more severely than the other Euboian cities. (Plut. Per.
23 attributes the severity of the puhishment to the Histiaian seizure of an Athenian
ship and the murder of its crew.) Perikles sent off the existing population of
the city to Macedonia and replaced them with a cleruchy of 1000 (Diod. 12.22)
or 2000 (Theopompos in Strab. 10.1.3) Athenians who may have temporarily settled
at the old site of Oreos. In any event, the city was commonly referred to by that
name thereafter. The exiled population probably returned home at the end of the
Peloponnesian War in 404; thereafter they seem to have been largely under the
control of Sparta until they joined the Second Athenian Confederacy in 376-375.
Although the city appears to have become a member (for the first time) of the
reconstituted league of Euboian cities in 340, its allegiance during most of the
4th c. seems to have vacillated between Athens and Macedonia. It was almost exclusively
pro-Macedonian during the 3d c., as a result of which it was attacked in 208 and
captured in 199 by a Roman-Pergamene force (Livy 28.6, 31.46). The Roman garrison
was removed in 194, and--to judge from the wide distribution of its coinage--Histiaia-Oreos
prospered during the first half of the 3d c. Thereafter little is known of its
history, yet surface finds indicate that the site continued to be inhabited in
Roman, Byzantine, and later times. Considerable remains of the later fortifications
incorporating a number of Classical blocks can still be seen at Orei, while evidence
of ancient harbor installations have been observed at Mobs.
There has been little excavation at Orei. A small trial excavation
produced Early Helladic pottery; a segment of a house wall, a small cist-grave
and pottery, all probably of Middle Helladic date; and Late Helladic pottery.
The foundations of a Late Byzantine church were also exposed at the S foot of
the mound in 1954.
T. W. Jacobsen, 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.
Total results on 23/4/2001: 16 for Hestiaea, 1 for Hestiaia, 28 for Histiaea, 19 for Histiaia, 50 for Oreus, 7 for Orei.
( (Oreos). A town in the north of Euboea, originally called Hestiaea or Histiaea. After the Persian Wars it became subject to Athens, but having revolted from the Athenians in B.C. 445, it was taken by Pericles, its inhabitants expelled, and their place supplied by 2000 Athenians. It was an important place down to the dissolution of the Achaean League.
This text is cited Oct 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Oreus (Oreos: Eth. Oreites: the territory Horia, Strab. x. p. 445),
formerly called Histiaea (Histiaia, also Estiaia Eth. Histiaieus), a town in the
north of Euboea, situated upon the river Callas, at the foot of Mt. Telethrium,
and opposite Antron on the Thessalian coast. From this town the whole northern
extremity of Euboea was named Histiaeotis (Histiaiotis, Ion. Histiaietis, Herod.
vii. 23). According to some it was a colony from the Attic demus of Histiaea (Strab.
x. p. 445); according to others it was founded by the Thessalian Perrhaebi. (Scymn.
Ch. 578.) It was one of the most ancient and most important of the Euboean cities.
It occurs in Homer, who gives it the epithet of polustaphulos (Il. ii. 537); and
Scylax mentions it as one of the four cities of Euboea (p. 22). After the battle
of Artemisium, when the Grecian fleet sailed southwards, Histiaea was occupied
by the Persians. (Herod. vii. 23.) Upon the expulsion of the Persians from Greece,
Histiaea, with the other Euboean towns, became subject to Attica. In the revolt
of Euboea from Athens in B.C. 445, we may conclude that Histiaea took a prominent
part, since Pericles, upon the reduction of the island, expelled the inhabitants
from the city, and peopled it with 2000 Athenian colonists. The expelled Histiaeans
were said by Theopompus to have withdrawn to Macedonia. (Thuc. i. 114; Diod. xii.
7, 22; Plut. Per. 23; Theopomp. ap. Strab. x. p. 445.) From this time we find
the name of the town changed to Oreus, which was originally a demus dependent
upon Histiaea. (Strab. l. c.; Paus. vii. 26. § 4.) It is true that Thucydides
upon one occasion subsequently calls the town by its ancient name (vii. 57); but
he speaks of it as Oreus, in relating the second revolt of Euboea in B.C. 411,
where he says that it was the only town in the island that remained faithful to
Athens. (Thuc. viii. 95.) At the end of the Peloponnesian War, Oreus became subject
to Sparta; the Athenian colonists were doubtless expelled, and a portion at least
of its ancient inhabitants restored; and accordingly we read that this town remained
faithful to Sparta and cherished a lasting hatred against Athens. (Diod. xv. 30.)
Neogenes, supported by Jason of Pherae, made himself tyrant of Oreus for a time;
but he was expelled by Therippidas, the Lacedaemonian commander ; and the Athenian
Chabrias endeavoured in vain to obtain possession of the town. (Diod. l. c.) But
shortly afterwards, before the battle of Leuctra, Oreus revolted from Sparta.
(Xen. Hell. v. 4. 56) In the subsequent war between Philip and the Athenians,
a party in Oreus was friendly to Philip; and by the aid of this monarch Philistides
became tyrant of the city (Dem. Phil. iii. pp. 119, 127, de Cor. p. 248; Strab.
l. c.); but the Athenians, at the instigation of Demosthenes, sent an expedition
against Oreus, which expelled Philistides, and, according to Charax, put him to
death. (Dem. de Cor. p. 252; Charax, ap. Steph. s. v. Oreos.) In consequence of
its geographical position and its fortifications, Oreus became an important place
in the subsequent wars. In the contest between Antigonus and Cassander it was
besieged by the latter, who was, however, obliged to retire upon the approach
of Ptolemy, the general of Antigonus. (Diod. xix. 75, 77.) In the first war between
the Romans and Philip, it was betrayed to the former by the commander of the Macedonian
garrison, B.C. 207. (Liv. xxviii. 6.) In the second war it was taken by the Romans
by assault, B.C. 200. (Liv. xxxi. 46.) Soon afterwards, in B.C. 196, it was declared
free by T. Quinctius Flamininus along with the other Grecian states. (Polyb, xviii.
28, 30; Liv. xxxiii. 31, 34.) Pliny mentions it among the cities of Euboea no
longer existent in his time (Plin. iv. 21. s. 21), but it still occurs in the
lists of Ptolemy, under the corrupt form of Soreos (iii. 15. § 25).
Strabo says that Orens was situated upon a lofty hill named Drymus
(x. p. 445). Livy describes it as having two citadels, one overhanging the sea
and the other in the middle of the city (xxviii. 6). There are still some remains
of the ancient walls at the western end of the bay, which is still called the
bay of Oreos. (Stephani, Reise, &c. pp. 33, seq.; Leake, Northern Greece, vol.
iv. p. 352.)
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited August 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
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