AJPh 106.1: 49–74).
AEGAE (Αἰγαί, αἱ)
CHRISTOPHER BARON
University of Notre Dame
A city on the northern coast of the PELOPONNESE near the mouth of the CRATHIS RIVER (BA 58 C1; Müller I, 733; Paus. 8.15.9), one of the twelve CITIES/regions (merē) of the Achaeans. Herodotus names Aegae as one of the original twelve cities of the IONIANS, before they were forced to migrate to Asia Minor by the Achaeans (1.145). Aegae was abandoned and its population moved to neighboring AEGEIRA (Strabo 8.7.4/C386; Paus. 7.25.12) after c. 370 BCE.
SEE ALSO: Achaeans (Peloponnesian); Ethnicity; Migration
FURTHER READING
1 Anderson, J. K. 1954. “A Topographical and Historical Study of Achaea.” ABSA 49: 72–92.
2 IACP no. 229 (478–79).
AEGAEAE (Αἰγαῖαι, αἱ)
CHRISTOPHER BARON
University of Notre Dame
An Aeolian city in Asia Minor, between the HERMUS and CAÏCUS river valleys (BA 56 E4, Aegae). Herodotus lists Aegaeae (1.149.1) as one of the twelve Aeolian CITIES of the mainland conquered by the Persians in the time of CYRUS (II). Very little is known about the city before the Hellenistic period (Radt 1991). It did not become a member of the DELIAN LEAGUE and thus may have remained under Persian control after the wars, although XENOPHON in the early fourth century describes it as not subject to the king (Hell. 4.5.8). Xenophon and other later sources refer to it as “Aegae” (e.g., Ps.‐Scylax 98.2; Strabo 13.3.5/C621).
SEE ALSO: Aeolians; Persia
REFERENCE
1 Radt, Wolfgang. 1991. “Archaisches in Aigai bei Pergamon.” IstMitt 41: 481–84.
FURTHER READING
1 IACP no. 801 (1038–39).
AEGALEOS (Αἰγάλεως, ὁ)
VASILIKI ZALI
University of Liverpool
A range of mountains in Attica between the plains of ATHENS and ELEUSIS, opposite the island of SALAMIS (BA 59 B3). Herodotus mentions that XERXES watched the Battle of Salamis from Aegaleos (8.90.4; cf. Aesch. Pers. 466–67). At the western end of the range there was a peninsula, called Amphiale, which, according to STRABO (9.1.13/C395), was only two stades (about a quarter‐mile) away from Salamis. The southern coastal part of Aegaleos was called Corydallus (Strabo 9.1.14), while the part through which a road ran from the plain of Athens to that of Eleusis was called Poecilum (Paus. 1.37.7).
SEE ALSO: Viewing
FURTHER READING
1 Macan, Reginald Walter. 1908. Herodotus: The Seventh, Eighth, and Ninth Books. Vol. I.2, 499–500. London: Macmillan. Reprint, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013.
AEGE (Αἰγή, ἡ)
CHRISTOPHER BARON
University of Notre Dame
City on the PALLENE peninsula in northern Greece (BA 51 B5). XERXES’ fleet picks up troops from Aege and other CITIES in the region after it passes through the ATHOS canal in 480 BCE (7.123.1). Aege was a member of the DELIAN LEAGUE; nothing is known of it after the fifth century. It is now thought to have been located on Gyromiri hill near modern Polychrono (Tsigarida 2011, 145–46).
SEE ALSO: Neapolis (Pallene)
REFERENCE
1 Tsigarida, Bettina. 2011. “Chalcidice.” In Brill’s Companion to Ancient Macedon: Studies in the Archaeology and History of Macedon, 650 BC–300 AD, edited by Robin J. Lane Fox, 137–58. Leiden and Boston: Brill.
FURTHER READING
1 IACP no. 556 (821–22).
2 Vokotopoulou, Julia. 1996. “Cities and Sanctuaries of the Archaic Period in Chalkidike.” ABSA 91: 319–28.
AEGEAN SEA (τὸ Αἰγαῖον; ὁ Αἰγαῖος πόντος)
DAVID BRANSCOME
Florida State University
A bay of the MEDITERRANEAN Sea, lying between the Greek mainland and the western Anatolian coast and bounded to the south by the ISLANDS of CRETE and RHODES (2.97.1, 113.1; 4.85.4; 7.36.2, 55.1). Owing to Greeks’ sailing the waters of the Aegean Sea and inhabiting its numerous islands, Herodotus expects a ready familiarity from his readers as to the nature and location of this SEA (Ceccarelli 2016, 73–79). Most commonly, Herodotus refers to it with the neuter substantive “the Aegean” (to Aigaion), but in one passage he uses the phrase “the Aegean sea” (ho Aigaios pontos, 2.97.1; see Ceccarelli 2012, 29–31).
He employs the Aegean Sea as a device to help readers imagine the position of BRIDGES built by the Persian kings DARIUS I and XERXES. Regarding Darius’ bridge over the Thracian BOSPORUS, Herodotus moves progressively southward in his geographical description: Pontus (EUXINE or Black Sea), Bosporus, PROPONTIS, and finally HELLESPONT, which “issues out into the open sea called the Aegean” (4.85.2). Xerxes has two parallel bridges built across the Hellespont, one nearer to the Euxine, the other nearer the Aegean (7.36.2, 55.1).
Herodotus mentions the Aegean twice during his Egyptian LOGOS. It is when the Trojan ALEXANDER (Paris) is traveling from SPARTA to TROY—HELEN in tow—and is “on the Aegean” (2.113.1) that WINDS blow him off course to EGYPT. Elsewhere Herodotus asks readers to think of the CITIES of Egypt poking up from the NILE’s flood waters as resembling “the islands in the Aegean Sea” (2.97.1). Despite the well‐known MYTH (which may be no earlier than Hellenistic in date) about THESEUS’ father Aegeus leaping to his death in and thereby giving his name to the Aegean Sea, the aig‐ root may actually derive from the name of a pre‐Greek sea god (see Fowler 1988, 99–102).
SEE ALSO: Aegeus son of Pandion; Analogy; Geography; Ships and Sailing
REFERENCES
1 Ceccarelli, Paola. 2012. “Naming the Aegean Sea.” MHR 27: 25–49.
2 Ceccarelli, Paola. 2015. “Map, Catalogue, Drama, Narrative: Representations of the Aegean Space.” In New Worlds from Old Texts: Revisiting Ancient Space and Place, edited by Elton Barker,
