Editing Aegina (section)

====Rivalry with Athens (5th century BC)====
The known history of Aegina is almost exclusively a history of its relations with the neighbouring state of Athens, which began to compete with the [[thalassocracy]] (sea power) of Aegina about the beginning of the 6th century BC. [[Solon]] passed laws limiting Aeginetan commerce in Attica. The legendary history of these relations, as recorded by Herodotus (v. 79–89; vi. 49–51, 73, 85–94), involves critical problems of some difficulty and interest. He traces the hostility of the two states back to a dispute about the images of the goddesses [[List of Greek deities#Other deities|Damia]] and [[Auxesia (Greek mythology)|Auxesia]], which the Aeginetes had carried off from [[Epidaurus|Epidauros]], their parent state.

The Epidaurians had been accustomed to make annual offerings to the Athenian deities [[Athena]] and [[Erechtheus]] in payment for the Athenian olive-wood of which the statues were made. Upon the refusal of the Aeginetes to continue these offerings, the [[Athenians]] endeavoured to carry away the images. Their design was frustrated miraculously (according to the Aeginetan version, the statues fell upon their knees) and only a single survivor returned to Athens. There he became victim to the fury of his comrades' widows who pierced him with their [[peplos]] brooch-pins. No date is assigned by Herodotus for this "old feud"; writers such as [[J. B. Bury]] and R. W. Macan suggest the period between Solon and Peisistratus, {{circa|570 BC}}. It is possible that the whole episode is mythical. A critical analysis of the narrative seems to reveal little else than a series of aetiological traditions (explanatory of cults and customs), such as of the kneeling posture of the images of Damia and Auxesia, of the use of native ware instead of Athenian in their worship, and of the change in women's dress at Athens from the Dorian peplos to the [[Ionia]]n style [[Chiton (costume)|chiton]].
[[File:Expedition scientifique de Morée – Temple de Jupiter – Égine.jpg|thumb|Colour depiction of the [[Temple of Aphaea]], sacred to a mother goddess, particularly worshiped on Aegina.]]
[[File:Temple of Aphaia in February 2005 14.jpg|thumb|The [[Temple of Aphaea]] (about 490 BC)]]

In the early years of the 5th century BC the [[Ancient Thebes (Boeotia)|Thebans]], after the defeat by Athens about 507&nbsp;BC, appealed to Aegina for assistance.<ref>Herodotus</ref> The Aeginetans at first contented themselves with sending the images of the [[Aeacidae]], the [[tutelary deity|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 [[Sparta]]n intrigues for the restoration of [[Hippias]].

In 491&nbsp;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 [[Sunium]]. 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&nbsp;BC and the invasion of [[Datis]] and [[Artaphernes]] in 490&nbsp;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&nbsp;BC, nor does he distinguish between different wars during this period. Hence it would follow that the war lasted from soon after 507&nbsp;BC until the congress at the [[Isthmus of Corinth]] in 481&nbsp;BC
* It is only for two years (491 and 490&nbsp;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 [[battle of Marathon|Marathon]] and [[Battle of Salamis|Salamis]], since at the time of the Isthmian Congress the war was described as the most important one then being waged in Greece,<ref>Herod. vii. 145</ref>
* It is improbable that Athens would have sent twenty vessels to the aid of the Ionians in 499&nbsp;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.<ref>Herod. v. 89</ref> As the final victory of Athens over Aegina was in 458&nbsp;BC, the thirty years of the oracle would carry us back to the year 488&nbsp;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&nbsp;BC.<ref>Herod. vii. 144; [[Constitution of the Athenians (Aristotle)|Ath. Pol.]] r2. 7</ref> 
[[File:Temple of Apollo Aegina Greece.jpg|thumb|The ruins of the Temple of Apollo.]]
It is probable, therefore, that Herodotus is in error both in tracing back the beginning of hostilities to an alliance between Thebes and Aegina ({{circa|507 BC}}) and in claiming the episode of Nicodromus occurred prior to the battle of Marathon.

Overtures were unquestionably made by Thebes for an alliance with Aegina {{circa|507 BC}}, but they came to nothing. The refusal of Aegina was in the diplomatic guise of "sending the Aeacidae." 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&nbsp;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.

It may be noted, 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&nbsp;BC.<ref name="EB1911"/><ref>[[Eusebius of Caesarea|Eusebius]], ''Houston Chronicle''. Can. p.&nbsp;337</ref>