Aegina, according to
Herodotus, was a colony of
Epidaurus, to which state it was originally subject. Its placement between
Attica and the
Peloponnesus made it a site of trade even earlier, and its earliest inhabitants allegedly came from Asia Minor.
Early Bronze The most important Early Bronze Age settlement was Kolonna, stone-built fortified site. The main connections were with the Greek mainland, but there were found also influences from Cyclades and Crete. Another important deposit of Early Bronze Age golden and silver jewellery was discovered by Austrian archaeologists.
Middle Bronze Minoan ceramics have been found in contexts of . The famous
Aegina Treasure, now in the
British Museum is estimated to date between 1700 and 1500 BC. Archaeological excavations at Cape Kolonna revealed a
purple dye workshop dating back to the 16th century BC.
Late Bronze The discovery on the island of a number of gold ornaments belonging to the last period of
Mycenaean art suggests that Mycenaean culture existed in Aegina for some generations after the
Dorian conquest of
Argos and
Lacedaemon. At Mount Ellanio, a Mycenaean refuge has been found dating to the end of the
Late Bronze Age.
Iron Age It is probable that the island was not Doricised before the 9th century BC. One of the earliest historical facts is its membership in the
Amphictyony or
League of Calauria, attested around the 8th century BC. This ostensibly religious league included, besides Aegina,
Athens, the
Minyan (Boeotian)
Orchomenos,
Troezen,
Hermione,
Nauplia, and
Prasiae. It was probably an organisation of city-states that were still Mycenaean, for the purpose of suppressing
piracy in the Aegean that began as a result of the decay of the naval supremacy of the Mycenaean princes. Aegina seems to have belonged to the
Eretrian league during the
Lelantine War; this, perhaps, may explain the war with
Samos, a major member of the rival
Chalcidian League during the reign of King
Amphicrates (Herod. iii. 59), i.e. not later than the earlier half of the 7th century BC. Therefore, it is thought that the Aeginetes, within 30 or 40 years of the invention of coinage in
Asia Minor by the
Ionian Greeks or the
Lydians (), might have been the ones to introduce coinage to the
Western world. The fact that the Aeginetic standard of weights and measures (developed during the mid-7th century) was one of the two standards in general use in the Greek world (the other being the Euboic-Attic) is sufficient evidence of the early commercial importance of the island. Staters depicting a sea-turtle were struck up to the end of the 5th century BC. During the
First Peloponnesian War, by 456 BC, it was replaced by the land
tortoise. During the naval expansion of Aegina during the
Archaic Period,
Kydonia was an ideal maritime stop for Aegina's fleet on its way to other
Mediterranean ports controlled by the emerging sea-power Aegina. During the next century Aegina was one of the three principal states trading at the
emporium of
Naucratis in Egypt, and it was the only Greek state near Europe that had a share in this factory. At the beginning of the 5th century BC it seems to have been an entrepôt of the
Pontic grain trade, which, at a later date, became an Athenian monopoly. Unlike the other commercial states of the 7th and 6th centuries BC, such as
Corinth,
Chalcis,
Eretria and
Miletus, Aegina did not found any colonies. The settlements to which Strabo refers (viii. 376) cannot be regarded as any real exceptions to this statement. The Aeginetans at first contented themselves with sending the images of the
Aeacidae, the
tutelary heroes of their island. Subsequently, however, they contracted an alliance, and ravaged the seaboard of Attica. The Athenians were preparing to make reprisals, in spite of the advice of the
Delphic oracle that they should desist from attacking Aegina for thirty years, and content themselves meanwhile with dedicating a precinct to
Aeacus, when their projects were interrupted by the
Spartan intrigues for the restoration of
Hippias. In 491 BC Aegina was one of the states which gave the symbols of submission ("earth and water") to
Achaemenid Persia. Athens at once appealed to Sparta to punish this act of
medism, and
Cleomenes I, one of the Spartan kings, crossed over to the island, to arrest those who were responsible for it. His attempt was at first unsuccessful; but, after the deposition of
Demaratus, he visited the island a second time, accompanied by his new colleague
Leotychides, seized ten of the leading citizens and deposited them at Athens as hostages. After the death of Cleomenes and the refusal of the Athenians to restore the hostages to Leotychides, the Aeginetes retaliated by seizing a number of Athenians at a festival at
Sounion. Thereupon the Athenians concerted a plot with
Nicodromus, the leader of the democratic party in the island, for the betrayal of Aegina. He was to seize the old city, and they were to come to his aid on the same day with seventy vessels. The plot failed owing to the late arrival of the Athenian force, when Nicodromus had already fled the island. An engagement followed in which the Aeginetes were defeated. Subsequently, however, they succeeded in winning a victory over the Athenian fleet. All the incidents subsequent to the appeal of Athens to Sparta are referred expressly by Herodotus to the interval between the sending of the heralds in 491 BC and the invasion of
Datis and
Artaphernes in 490 BC (cf. Herod. vi. 49 with 94). There are difficulties with this story, of which the following are the principal elements: • Herodotus nowhere states or implies that peace was concluded between the two states before 481 BC, nor does he distinguish between different wars during this period. Hence it would follow that the war lasted from soon after 507 BC until the congress at the
Isthmus of Corinth in 481 BC • It is only for two years (491 and 490 BC) out of the twenty-five that any details are given. It is the more remarkable that no incidents are recorded in the period between the battles of
Marathon and
Salamis, since at the time of the Isthmian Congress the war was described as the most important one then being waged in Greece, • It is improbable that Athens would have sent twenty vessels to the aid of the Ionians in 499 BC if at the time it was at war with Aegina. • There is an incidental indication of time, which indicates the period after Marathon as the true date for the events which are referred by Herodotus to the year before Marathon, viz. the thirty years that were to elapse between the dedication of the precinct to Aeacus and the final victory of Athens. As the final victory of Athens over Aegina was in 458 BC, the thirty years of the oracle would carry us back to the year 488 BC as the date of the dedication of the precinct and the beginning of hostilities. This inference is supported by the date of the building of the 200 triremes "for the war against Aegina" on the advice of
Themistocles, which is given in the
Constitution of Athens as 483–482 BC. It is probable, therefore, that Herodotus is in error both in tracing back the beginning of hostilities to an alliance between Thebes and Aegina () and in claiming the episode of Nicodromus occurred prior to the battle of Marathon. The real occasion of the beginning of the war was the refusal of Athens to restore the hostages some twenty years later. There was but one war, and it lasted from 488 to 481 BC. That Athens had the worst of it in this war is certain. Herodotus had no Athenian victories to record after the initial success, and the fact that Themistocles was able to carry his proposal to devote the surplus funds of the state to the building of so large a fleet seems to imply that the Athenians were themselves convinced that a supreme effort was necessary. In confirmation of this opinion, that the naval supremacy of Aegina is assigned by the ancient writers on chronology to precisely this period, i.e. the years 490–480 BC.
Decline In the repulse of
Xerxes I it is possible that the Aeginetes played a larger part than is conceded to them by Herodotus. The Athenian tradition, which he follows in the main, would naturally seek to obscure their services. It was to Aegina rather than Athens that the prize of valour at Salamis was awarded, and the destruction of the Persian fleet appears to have been as much the work of the Aeginetan contingent as of the Athenian (Herod. viii. 91). There are other indications, too, of the importance of the Aeginetan fleet in the Greek scheme of defence. In view of these considerations it becomes difficult to credit the number of the vessels that is assigned to them by Herodotus (30 as against 180 Athenian vessels, cf.
Greek History, sect. Authorities). During the next twenty years the Philo-Laconian policy of
Cimon secured Aegina, as a member of the Spartan league, from attack. The change in Athenian foreign policy, which was consequent upon the ostracism of Cimon in 461 BC, resulted in what is sometimes called the First Peloponnesian War, during which most of the fighting was experienced by Corinth and Aegina. The latter state was forced to surrender to Athens after a siege, and to accept the position of a subject-ally (). The tribute was fixed at 30 talents. By the terms of the
Thirty Years' Peace (445 BC) Athens promised to restore to Aegina her autonomy, but the clause remained ineffective. During the first winter of the
Peloponnesian War (431 BC) Athens expelled the Aeginetans and established a
cleruchy in their island. The exiles were settled by Sparta in
Thyreatis, on the frontiers of Laconia and Argolis. Even in their new home they were not safe from Athenian rancour. A force commanded by
Nicias landed in 424 BC, and killed most of them. At the end of the Peloponnesian War
Lysander restored the scattered remnants of the old inhabitants to the island, which was used by the Spartans as a base for operations against Athens during the
Corinthian War. It is probable that the power of Aegina had steadily declined during the twenty years after Salamis, and that it had declined absolutely, as well as relatively to that of Athens. Commerce was the source of Aegina's greatness, and her trade, which seems to have been principally with the Levant, must have suffered seriously from the war with Persia. Aegina's medism in 491 is to be explained by its commercial relations with the Persian Empire. It was forced into patriotism in spite of itself, and the glory won by the
Battle of Salamis was paid for by the loss of its trade and the decay of its marine. The loss of the state's power is explained by the conditions of the island, which was based on slave labour.
Hellenistic period and Roman rule Aegina with the rest of Greece became dominated successively by the
Macedonians (322–229 BC), the
Achaeans (229–211 BC),
Aetolians (211–210 BC),
Attalus of Pergamum (210–133 BC) and the
Romans (after 133 BC). However, the first phases of those invasions began in the 4th century. The Romaniote Jewish community erected an elaborate synagogue in rectangle form with an apse on the eastern wall with a magnificent mosaic decorated with geometric motifs, still preserved in the courtyard of the Archaeological Museum of Aegina. The synagogue dates from the 4th century AD and was in use until the 7th century AD. Local Christian tradition has it that a Christian community was established there in the 1st century. There are written records of participation by later bishops of Aegina, Gabriel and Thomas, in the
Councils of Constantinople in 869 and
879. The see was at first a
suffragan of the
metropolitan see of Corinth, but was later given the rank of
archdiocese. No longer a residential bishopric, Aegina is today listed by the
Catholic Church as a
titular see.
Byzantine period Aegina belonged to the East Roman (Byzantine) Empire after the division of the Roman Empire in 395. It remained Eastern Roman during the period of crisis of the 7th–8th centuries, when most of the
Balkans and parts of the Greek mainland were overrun by
Slavic invasions. Indeed, according to the
Chronicle of Monemvasia, the island served as a refuge for the Corinthians fleeing these incursions. The island flourished during the early 9th century, as evidenced by church construction activity, but suffered greatly from Arab raids originating from
Crete. Various
hagiographies, such as those of
Athanasia of Aegina or
Theodora of Thessalonica, record a large-scale raid , that resulted in the flight of much of the population to the Greek mainland. During that time, some of the population sought refuge in the island's hinterland, establishing the settlement of
Paliachora. According to the 12th-century bishop of Athens,
Michael Choniates, by his time the island had become a base for pirates. when Alioto Caopena, at that time ruler of Aegina, placed himself by treaty under the Republic's protection to escape the danger of a Turkish raid. The island must then have been fruitful, for one of the conditions by which Venice accorded him protection was that he should supply grain to Venetian colonies. He agreed to surrender the island to Venice if his family became extinct.
Antonio II Acciaioli opposed the treaty for one of his adopted daughters had married the future lord of Aegina, Antonello Caopena.
Venetians in Aegina (1451–1537) In 1451, Aegina became Venetian. The islanders welcomed Venetian rule; the claims of Antonello's uncle Arnà, who had lands in
Argolis, were satisfied by a pension. A Venetian governor (
rettore) was appointed, who was dependent on the authorities of Nauplia. After Arnà's death, his son Alioto renewed his claim to the island but was told that the republic was resolved to keep it. He and his family were pensioned and one of them aided in the defence of Aegina against the Turks in 1537, was captured with his family, and died in a Turkish dungeon. In 1463 the
Turco-Venetian war began, which was destined to cost the Venetians
Negroponte (Euboea), the island of
Lemnos, most of the
Cyclades islands,
Scudra and their colonies in the
Morea. Peace was concluded in 1479. Venice still retained Aegina,
Lepanto (Naupactus),
Nauplia,
Monemvasia,
Modon,
Navarino,
Coron, and the islands
Crete,
Mykonos and
Tinos. Aegina remained subject to Nauplia.
Administration Aegina obtained money for its defenses by reluctantly sacrificing its cherished relic, the head of
St. George, which had been carried there from Livadia by the Catalans. In 1462, the Venetian Senate ordered the relic to be removed to St. Giorgio Maggiore in Venice and on 12 November, it was transported from Aegina by Vettore Cappello, the famous Venetian commander. In return, the Senate gave the Aeginetes 100
ducats apiece towards fortifying the island. In 1519, the government was reformed. The system of having two rectors was found to result in frequent quarrels and the republic thenceforth sent out a single official styled Bailie and Captain, assisted by two
councillors, who performed the duties of
camerlengo by turns. The Bailie's authority extended over the rector of Aegina, whereas
Kastri (opposite the island
Hydra) was granted to two families, the
Palaiologoi and the
Alberti. Society at Nauplia was divided into three classes: nobles, citizens and plebeians, and it was customary for nobles alone to possess the much-coveted local offices, such as the judge of the inferior court and inspector of weights and measures. The populace now demanded its share and the home government ordered that at least one of the three inspectors should be a non-noble. , recording the visit of Antonio Barbaro, the Venetian captain of Nauplia, on 1 April 1533. Aegina had always been exposed to the raids of
corsairs and had oppressive governors during these last 30 years of Venetian rule. Venetian nobles were not willing to go to this island. In 1533, three rectors of Aegina were punished for their acts of injustice and there is a graphic account of the reception given by the Aeginetans to the captain of Nauplia, who came to command an enquiry into the administration of these delinquents (vid. inscription over the entrance of St. George the Catholic in Paliachora). The rectors had spurned their ancient right to elect an islander to keep one key of the money-chest. They had also threatened to leave the island en masse with the commissioner, unless the captain avenged their wrongs. To spare the economy of the community, it was ordered that appeals from the governor's decision should be made on Crete, instead of in Venice. The republic was to pay a
bakshish to the Turkish governor of the Morea and to the
voivode who was stationed at the frontier of Thermisi (opposite Hydra). The fortifications too, were allowed to become decrepit and were inadequately guarded.
16th century . Walls, houses, and castle have been destroyed, only the chapels were restored. After the end of the Duchy of Athens and the
principality of Achaia, the only Latin possessions left on the mainland of Greece were the papal city of Monemvasia, the fortress of
Vonitsa, the Messenian stations Coron and Modon, Lepanto, Pteleon, Navarino, and the castles of Argos and Nauplia, to which the island of Aegina was subordinate. In 1502–03, the new peace treaty left Venice with nothing but Cephalonia, Monemvasia and Nauplia, with their appurtenances in the Morea. And against the sack of Megara, it had to endure the temporary capture of the castle of Aegina by
Kemal Reis and the abduction of 2000 inhabitants. This treaty was renewed in 1513 and 1521. All supplies of grain from Nauplia and Monemvasia had to be imported from Turkish possessions, while corsairs rendered dangerous all traffic by sea. In 1537, sultan
Suleiman declared war upon Venice and his admiral
Hayreddin Barbarossa devastated much of the
Ionian Islands, and in October invaded the island of Aegina. On the fourth day Paliachora was captured, but the Latin church of St George was spared. Hayreddin Barbarossa had the adult male population massacred and took away 6,000 surviving women and children as slaves.
First Ottoman period (1540–1687) With the peace of 1540, Venice ceded Nauplia (including Aegina) and Monemvasia. In 1579, the island was repopulated by Greeks form the mainland and a small number
Albanians. The Albanians settled in the southwest of the island in the village of Perdika and would eventually assimilate into the Greek population. The island was attacked and left desolate by
Francesco Morosini during the
Cretan War (1654).
Second Venetian period (1687–1715) . In 1684, the beginning of the
Morean War between Venice and the
Ottoman Empire resulted in the temporary reconquest of a large part of the country by the Republic. In 1687 the Venetian army arrived in Piraeus and captured Attica. The number of the Athenians at that time exceeded 6,000, whilst in 1674 the population of Aegina did not seem to exceed 3,000 inhabitants, two thirds of which were women. The Aeginetans had been reduced to poverty to pay their taxes. A significant plague epidemic began in Attica during 1688, an occasion that caused the massive migration of Athenians toward the south; most of them settled in Aegina. In 1693 Morosini resumed command, but his only acts were to refortify the castle of Aegina, which he had demolished during the Cretan war in 1655, the cost of upkeep being paid as long as the war lasted by the Athenians, and to place it and Salamis under Malipiero as Governor. This caused the Athenians to send him a request for the renewal of Venetian protection and an offer of an annual tribute. He died in 1694 and Zeno was appointed at his place. In 1699, thanks to English mediation, the war ended with the
peace of Karlowitz by which Venice retained possession of the 7 Ionian islands as well as Butrinto and
Parga, the Morea,
Spinalonga and
Suda, Tenos,
Santa Maura and Aegina and ceased to pay a tribute for
Zante, but which restored Lepanto to the
Ottoman sultan.
Cerigo and Aegina were united administratively since the peace with Morea, which not only paid all the expenses of administration but furnished a substantial balance for the naval defense of Venice, in which it was directly interested.
Second Ottoman period (1715–1821) During the early part of the
Ottoman–Venetian War of 1714–1718 the Ottoman Fleet commanded by Canum Hoca captured Aegina. Ottomans rule in Aegina and the Morea was resumed and confirmed by the
Treaty of Passarowitz, and they retained control of the island with the exception of a brief Russian occupation
Orlov Revolt (early 1770s), until the beginning of the
Greek War of Independence in 1821. Throughout the 19th century, most Aeginitans spoke a distinct Greek dialect known as
Old Athenian, which was also found in neighboring Megara and Athens. A very small minority of Arvanites lived on the island, who were bilingual in
Arvanitika and Greek (spoken more by men and less by women), up until the early 20th century.
Greek Revolution During the
Greek War of Independence, Aegina became an administrative center for the Greek revolutionary authorities.
Ioannis Kapodistrias was briefly established here.
Modern times In the 19th century, pistachio production was introduced to island, with great success. In current times, Aegina is a popular tourist destination and there has been a construction boom of vacation homes. ==Landmarks==