Aegina’s son by ZEUS, Aeacus, was an important figure in numerous mythical GENEALOGIES. The Athenian Philaidae clan, which included MILTIADES THE ELDER, traced their ancestry back to AEACUS and Aegina (6.35.1).
SEE ALSO: Ajax; Asopus River (Boeotia); Thebes (Boeotian)
FURTHER READING
1 Gantz, EGM, 219–20.
2 Hornblower, Simon, ed. 2013. Herodotus: Histories Book V, 226–31. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
AEGIROESSA (Αἰγιρόεσσα, ἡ)
CHRISTOPHER BARON
University of Notre Dame
An Aeolian city in Asia Minor, location unknown. Herodotus lists Aegiroessa (1.149.1) among the twelve Aeolian CITIES of the mainland conquered by the Persians in the time of CYRUS (II).
SEE ALSO: Aeolians; Conquest
FURTHER READING
1 IACP no. 802 (1039).
AEGIUM (Αἴγιον, τὸ)
CHRISTOPHER BARON
University of Notre Dame
A city on the northern coast of the PELOPONNESE (BA 58 C1; Müller I, 743–44), one of the twelve CITIES/regions (merē) of the Achaeans. Herodotus names Aegium as one of the original twelve cities of the IONIANS, before they were forced to migrate to Asia Minor by the Achaeans (1.145). In the Hellenistic and Roman period the council of the Achaean League met at the sanctuary of ZEUS Homarios in the territory of Aegium (Strabo 8.7.5/C387; Paus. 7.24.4). The name survives in the modern town of Aigio (Egio).
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. 231 (480).
AEGLEIA (Αἰγλείη, ἡ)
CHRISTOPHER BARON
University of Notre Dame
An ISLAND belonging to the Styreans, a community on the west coast of EUBOEA across the channel from MARATHON in Attica (BA 55 G4, Aigilia?; Müller I, 397). After sacking ERETRIA in 490 BCE, the Persian expedition, guided by the exiled Athenian tyrant HIPPIAS, deposited their captives on Aegleia (Aigil(e)ia in some MANUSCRIPTS) as they sailed toward Marathon (6.107.2).
SEE ALSO: Aegilea; Datis; Prisoners of War; Styra
FURTHER READING
1 Scott, Lionel. 2005. Historical Commentary on Herodotus Book 6, 373. Leiden and Boston: Brill.
AEGLIANS (Αἰγλοί, οἱ)
CHRISTOPHER BARON,
University of Notre Dame
In providing a list of the provinces (archai or SATRAPIES, 3.89.1) into which DARIUS I divided the Persian Empire, Herodotus states (3.92.2) that the Aeglians were the limit of the twelfth administrative district (νομός, nome) which consisted of the BACTRIANS. The Aeglians’ exact location is unknown, nor is it clear in which direction the limit they placed on the Bactrians lies. Modern editors print the reading Αἰγλῶν (“of the Aeglians”); a different manuscript family reads Λιγδῶν (“of the Ligdians,” equally unknown), which some scholars connect with the LIGYANS mentioned (7.72) in the CATALOGUE of XERXES’ invasion force (Dan 2013, 114). In the original Greek, these names could have been easily mistaken: ΑΙΓΛΩΝ, ΛΙΓΔΩΝ, ΛΙΓ⊖ΩΝ.
SEE ALSO: Manuscripts; Persia
REFERENCE
1 Dan, Anca. 2013. “Achaemenid World Representation in Herodotus’ Histories: Some Geographic Examples of Cultural Translation.” In Herodots Wege des Erzählens: Logos und Topos in den Historien, edited by Klaus Geus, Elisabeth Irwin, and Thomas Poiss, 83–121. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.
AEGOSPOTAMI (Αἰγὸς ποταμοἱ, οἱ)
MEHMET FATIH YAVUZ
Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University
Aegospotami (“Goat’s Rivers”) was the name of two small streams (probably now Münip Bey Deresi and Kozludere) on the Hellespontine CHERSONESE (Gallipoli Peninsula) that, after joining 500 meters from the coast, emptied their water into the HELLESPONT opposite LAMPSACUS (BA 51 H4; Müller II, 771–72). At the end of the PERSIAN WARS, the Athenians captured ARTAŸCTES, the Persian hyparkhos (governor) of the Chersonese, near Aegospotami (9.119.2).
The mouth of Aegospotami was famous in antiquity as the site of the final battle of the PELOPONNESIAN WAR that led to the fall of the ATHENIAN EMPIRE in 404 BCE (Xen. Hell. 2.1.21–30; Diod. Sic. 13.105–6).
SEE ALSO: Athens; Date of Composition; End of the Histories
FURTHER READING
1 Hale, John R. 2009. Lords of the Sea: The Epic Story of the Athenian Navy and the Birth of Democracy, 233–43. New York: Viking.
2 Strauss, Barry. 1987. “A Note on the Topography and Tactics of the Battle of Aegospotami.” AJPh 108.4: 741–45.
AEIMNESTUS (Ἀείμνηστος, ὁ)
CHRISTOPHER BARON
University of Notre Dame
Herodotus credits the “renowned” (logimos) Spartan Aeimnestus with killing the Persian general MARDONIUS during the Battle of PLATAEA in 479 BCE, which fulfills an ironic and unintended PROPHECY delivered earlier by XERXES (see 8.114). Herodotus also notes that, later, Aeimnestus and 300 men under his command were annihilated by the MESSENIANS at STENYCLERUS (9.64.2). This occurred during the HELOT revolt of 465–462 (Thuc. 1.101–3), thus marking one of the handful of references Herodotus makes (clustered especially in Book 9) to events after the PERSIAN WARS.
The major MANUSCRIPTS of the Histories read Arimnēstos or Aimnēstos, but the most recent editors believe the variant reading Aeimnēstos is more likely correct (Wilson 2015, 183). In 427 BCE, a man named Lacon, son of Aeimnestus, was the Spartan PROXENOS at Plataea (Thuc. 3.52.5); it is possible that the father was named for the renowned
