ERETRIA Euboea Euboia UNPUBLISHED? Rare Ancient Greek Coin Bull Grapes i30671

Item: i30671

Authentic Ancient

Coin of:

Greek city of Eretria in Euboia (Euboea)
under the name of the Euboian League

Bronze 12mm (2.23 grams) Struck circa 194-150 B.C.

Reference: No Similar Examples found, possibly unpublished type.
Cow or bull standing right.
Bunch of grapes,
EY in field to left.

* Numismatic Note: This may be a very rare, possibly
unpublished issue from Euboia. I was unable to locate any similar examples in
any standard reference I have.

Eretria became the capital and mint of the Euboian League,
formed in 411 B.C.

 You are bidding on the exact item pictured,

Authenticity.

Euboea
(Greek:
Ε��βοια, Évia;
Ancient Greek: ÃŽâ€¢Ã¡Â½â€�βοια ‘Eúboia’)
is the second largest
Greek island
in area and population, after
Crete
. It is
separated from the mainland of Greece by the narrow
Euripus Strait
. In general outline it is a long and narrow, seahorse-shaped
island; it is about 150 kilometres (93 mi) long, and varies in breadth from 50 kilometres
(31 mi) to 6 kilometres (3.7 mi). Its general direction is from northwest to
southeast, and it is traversed throughout its length by a mountain range, which
forms part of the chain that bounds
Thessaly
on
the east, and is continued south of Euboea in the lofty islands of
Andros
,
Tinos
and
Mykonos
.

The history of the island is for the most part that of its two principal
cities, Chalcis

and Eretria
.
Both cities were Ionian
settlements from
Attica
, and
their importance in early times is shown by their numerous colonies in
Magna Graecia
and
Sicily
, such as
Cumae
and
Rhegium
, and on the coast of
Macedonia
. In this way they opened new trade routes to the
Greeks
, and
extended the field of western civilization.^{[
neededcitation]}

The strength of their commerce is shown by the fact that the Euboic scale of
weights and measures was used in
Athens
until
Solon
, and among
the Ionic cities generally. They were rival cities, and appear to have been
equally powerful at first; one of the earliest of the sea battles mentioned in
Greek history took place between them, and it is also said that many of the
other Greek states took part.

In 490 BC, Eretria was utterly ruined and its inhabitants were transported to
Persia
. Though it was restored after the
Battle of
Marathon
, on a site at a little distance from its original position, it
never regained its former eminence, but it was still the second city on the
island. From this time its neighbour Chalcis held an undisputed supremacy.
Already, however, this city had suffered from the growing power of Athens. In
the year 506 BC the Chalcidians were totally defeated by the Athenians, who
established 4,000 Attic settlers on their lands, and seem to have reduced the
whole island to a condition of dependence.^{[citation
needed]}

Again, in 446 BC, when Euboea endeavoured to throw off the yoke, it was once
more reduced by Pericles
, and a new body of settlers was planted at
Histiaea
in
the north of the island, after the inhabitants of that town had been expelled.
The Athenians fully recognized its importance to them, for supplying them with
grain (i.e., wheat) and cattle, securing their commerce, and guaranteeing them
against piracy, because its proximity to the coast of Attica rendered it
extremely dangerous to them when in other hands. But in 410 BC the island
succeeded in regaining its independence. After this it took sides with one or
other of the leading states, until, after the
Battle of Chaeronea
, it passed into the hands of
Philip
II of Macedon
, and finally into those of the Romans.