Euobian League in Euboia 272BC Cow Grapes Authentic Ancient Greek Coin i48799

Item: i48799

Authentic Ancient

Coin of:

Greek city of

Euobian League

in

Euboia

Bronze 13mm (0.98 grams) Struck circa 272-267 B.C.

Reference: HGC 4, 1439; Wallace 1965, p. 130; BCD Euboia 56-87
Pedigree: Ex-BCD Collection with original hand-written tag
Cow standing right, symbol above.
Grape bunch on vine.

You are bidding on the exact item pictured,

Authenticity.

Euboea
is the second-largest
Greek island
in area and population, after
Crete
. The narrow
Euripus Strait
separates it from
Boeotia
in mainland
Greece
. 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
.

Name

Like most of the Greek islands, Euboea was originally known under other names
in Antiquity
, such as Macris (Μάκρις) and
Doliche (Δολίχη) from its elongated shape, or Ellopia, Aonia
and Abantis from the tribes inhabiting it. Its ancient and current name,
Εὔβοια, derives from the words εὖ “good”, and βοῦς “ox”, meaning “the land of
the well-fed oxen”.

In the Middle Ages
, the island was often referred to
by
Byzantine
authors by the name of its capital,
Chalcis
or Euripos (itself the
name of the strait
that separates the island
from the Greek mainland), although the ancient name Euboea remained in use by
classicizing authors until the 15th century. In Western usage, the Italian name
Negroponte entered common use in the 13th century.

Under
Ottoman
rule, the island and its capital were
known as Eğriboz or Ağriboz, again after the Euripos strait.

Geography

 

 

 

Euboea was believed to have originally formed part of the mainland, and to
have been separated from it by an
earthquake
. This is fairly probable, because it
lies in the neighbourhood of a
fault line
, and both
Thucydides
and
Strabo
write that the northern part of the
island had been shaken at different periods. In the neighbourhood of
Chalcis
, both to the north and the south, the
bays are so confined as to make plausible the story of
Agamemnon
‘s fleet having been detained there by
contrary winds. At Chalcis itself, where the strait is narrowest at only 40 m,
it is called the
Euripus Strait
. The extraordinary changes of
tide that take place in this passage have been a subject of note since classical
times. At one moment the current runs like a river in one direction, and shortly
afterwards with equal velocity in the other. A bridge was first constructed here
in the twenty-first year of the
Peloponnesian War
(410 BC).

Geography and nature divide the island itself into three distinct parts: the
fertile and forested north, the mountainous centre, with agriculture limited to
the coastal valleys, and the barren south.

The main mountains include
Dirfi
(1,743 m (5,719 ft)), Pyxaria (1,341 m
(4,400 ft)) in the northeast and
Ochi
(1,394 m (4,573 ft)). The neighboring
gulfs are the
Pagasetic Gulf
in the north,
Malian Gulf
,
North Euboean Gulf
in the west, the
Euboic Sea
and the
Petalion Gulf
. At the 2001 census the island
had a population of 198,130, and a total land area of 3,684 square kilometres
(1,422 sq mi).

History

Antiquity

 

 

The history of the island of Euboea is largely that of its two principal
cities, Chalcis
and
Eretria
, both mentioned in the
Catalogue of Ships
. Both cities were settled by
Ionian
Greeks from
Attica
, and would eventually settle numerous
colonies in
Magna Graecia
and
Sicily
, such as
Cumae
and
Rhegium
, and on the coast of
Macedonia
. This opened new trade routes to the
Greeks
, and extended the reach of western
civilization. The commercial influence of these city-states is evident in the
fact that the Euboic scale of weights and measures was used among the Ionic
cities generally, and in
Athens
until the end of the 7th century BC,
during the time of Solon
.^{[citation
needed]} The classicist
Barry B. Powell
has proposed that Euboea may
have been where the
Greek alphabet
was first employed, c. 775-750
BC, and that Homer
may have spent part of his life on the
island.

Chalcis and Eretria were rival cities, and appear to have been equally
powerful for a while. One of the earliest major military conflicts in Greek
history took place between them, known as the
Lelantine War
, in which many other Greek
city-states also took part. In 490 BC, Eretria was utterly ruined and its
inhabitants were transported to
Persia
^{[clarification
needed]}. Though it was restored nearby its original
site after the
Battle of Marathon
, the city never regained its
former eminence.

Both cities gradually lost influence to Athens, which saw Euboea as a
strategic territory. Euboea was an important source of
grain
and
cattle
, and controlling the island meant Athens
could prevent invasion and better protect its trade routes from
piracy
.

Athens invaded Chalcis in 506 BC and settled 4,000 Attic Greeks on their
lands. After this conflict, the whole of the island was gradually reduced to an
Athenian dependency. Another struggle between Euboea and Athens broke out in
446. Led by Pericles
, the Athenians subdued the revolt, and
captured Histiaea
in the north of the island for their
own settlement.

By 410 BC, the island succeeded in regaining its independence. Euboea
participated in Greek affairs until falling under the control of
Philip II of Macedon
after the
Battle of Chaeronea
in 338 BC, and eventually
being incorporated into the
Roman Republic
in the second century BC.
Aristotle
died on the island in 322 BC soon
after fleeing Athens for his mother’s family estate in Chalcis.

Based on the records of the 2nd century AD geographer
Pausanias
, it is suspected that the
Titan
god
Crius
is an indigenous deity.y.