Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 2.djvu/106

 EBETBIA. toiy strength of the 8t«te was attested by an inacrip- tion, presenred in the temple of the Amarynthian Artemis, aboot a mUe from the city, recording that in the procession to that temple tiie Eretrians had been accostomed to march with 3000 hoplites, 600 hotsemen, and 60 chariots. (Strab. /. c.) Eretria and Chalcis were early engaged in ?par with each other. These wars seem to have been oc- casioned by disputes respecting the division of the plain of Lelantnm, which hiy Iwtween the two cities. (Strab. Lo.) In one of these early ware some of the most powerfd states of Greece, such as Miletos and Samos, took part. (Thnc i. 15; Herod, y. 99; Spanheim, ad Gallim. Del 289.) In gratitude for the assistance which the Eretrians had received (m this occasion from Miletus, they sent five ships to the Athenian fleet which sailed to support Miletus and the other Ionic cities in their revolt from Persia, B.C. 500^ (Herod. L c.) But this step caused their ruin; for, in b.c. 490, a Persian force, under Datis and Artaphemes, sent to punish the Athe- nians and Eretrians, laid siege to Eretria, which was betrayed to the Pereians after they had invested the place for six days. The town was razed to the ground, and the inhabitants carried away to Penia; but their lives were spared by Darius, who allowed them to settle in the Gissian territory. (Herod, vi. 125.) The old town continued in ruins, but a new town was rebuilt a little more to the south, which soon became a place of considerable import- ance. In B. c. 411, the Athenians were defeated by the Spartans in a sea-fight off the harbour of Ere- tria; and those of the Athenians who took refuge in Eretria, as a city in alliance with them, were put to death by the Eretrians, who therefore joined the rest <^ the Euboeana in their revolt from Athens. (Thuc viiL 95.) After the Peloponnesian War we ^find Eretria in the hands of tyrants. One of these,'^named Themi- son, assisted the exiles of Oropus in recovering pos- session of their native city from the Athenians in B. a 366. (Diod. xv. 76 ; comp. Dem. de Cor. p. 256; Xen. HeU. viL 4. § 1.) Themison appeare to have been succeeded in the tyranny by Plntarchns, who applied to the Athenians in B. c. 354 for aid against his rival, Callias of Chalds, who had allied hunself with Philip of Macedon. The Athenians sent a force to his assistance under the command of Phocion, who defeated Callias at Tamynae; but Phocion, suspecting Plntarchus of treachery, ex- pelled him from Eretria. [See Did. ofBiogr. vol. i. p. 429.] Popular government was then esta- blished; but shortly afterwards Philip sent a force, which destroyed Porthmus, the harbour of Eretria, and made Gleitaichus tyrant of the city. Glei- tarchus governed the city in Philip's interests till B. o. 341, when CIdtarchns was expelled by Phocion, who had been sent into Euboca on the proposition of Demosthenes for the purpose of putting down the Macedonian interest in the island. [^Dict, o/Biogr. vol. i. p. 784.] Eretria was subsequently subject to Macedonia; but in the war with Philip V. it was taken by the combined fleets of the Romans, At- tains, and Rhodians, upon which occasion a great number of paintings, statues, and other works of art fell into the hands of the victors. (Liv. xxxii. 16.) After the battle of Gynoscephalae, Eretria was de- clared free by the Roman senate. (Polyb. xviiL 30.) Eretria was the seat of a celebrated school tit philosophy founded by Menedemus, a native of this cityf and a disciple of Platoi IDioL o/Biogr. vol. ERETUM. 847 IL p. 1037.] The philosophers of this school mm called Eretrid (*EperpiKo(, Strab. x. p. 448 ; Diog. LaSrt i. 17, m 126 ; Athen. ii. p. 55, d. ; Gic Acad. ii. 42, de Orat. uL 17, Tuio. v. 39.) The tragic poet Achaens, a contemporary of Aeschylus, was a native of Eretria. It appears from the comic poet Sopater that Eretria was celebrated for the excellence of its flour (ap. Athen. iv. p. 160). Strabo says that Old Eretria was opposite Oropus, and the passage across the strait 60 stadia ; and that New Eretria was opposite Delphinium, and the passage across 40 stadia (ix. p. 403). Thucydides makes the passage from Oropus to New Eretria 60 stadia (viii. 95). New Eretria stood at Kagtri, and Old Eretria in the neighbourhood of Vath^^ There are considerable remains of New Eretria. of the Acropolis still subsist on a rocky hdght, which is separated firom the shore by a manhy plain. At the foot of the hill are remains of the theatre, and in the plain a large portion of the town walls, with many foundations oif buildings in the inclosed place. The situation was defended to the west by a river, and on the opposite side by a marsh." (LeakcL Northern Greece^ vd. ii. pp. 443, 445.) Jt7*^JInu»^ . ^^tlfiuC, V// A t 'i'i- 2.& The territory of EretriA extended from sea rosea. ^ Between Old Eretria and New Eretria was Ama- RYMTHUS ; south of Old Eretria, Taktkajb ; and further south, Porthmus. In the interior were Dystus and Oechaua. The annexed coin represents on the obverse the head of Artemis, who was worshipped in the ndgh- bouring town of Amarynthus : the bull on the reverse probably has reference to the. braaen bu ll which the Eretrians dedicated at Olym nia. (Jfaus^ v. 27. § 9 ; Eckhei; voLirp. 324.) jfeiy^^^^/^i^y^ COIN OF KRETRIA IN EUBOSA. 2. A town of Thessaly, in the district Phthiotis, near Pharsalus. It was here that Quintius Flami- ninus halted at the end of the flr^t day's march from Pherae towards Scotnssa, in b.c. 197. Leake pbices it at the village of TJanffU, where he found the mined walls of an ancient city. ^ A long and narrow table-summit formed the citadel, of which the lower courses of the walls still exist in their whole circuit. The town walls are still better pre- served, and are extant in some parts on the eastern side to the height of IS or 20 feet Here also are two door-ways still perfect" (Strab. ix. p. 434, X. p. 447 ; Polyb. xviii. 3, liv. xxxiii. 6, xxxii. 13; Steph. b. 8. V. 'Eperpta ; Leake, Northern Grtece, vol. iv. p. 466.) ERETUM CHpir^v: Eth. 'HinrrTvos: Grotta Maroxga a town of the Sabines, situated on the Via SaUria, at its junction with the Via Nomentana, a short distance from the Tiber, and about 18 miles from Rome. From the mention of its name by Virgil among the Sabine dties which joined in the war against Aeneas (Aen, vii. 71 1), we may presume that it was considered as an andent town, and one of some importance in early dmea ; but it never heart
 * The entire drcuit of the ruined walls and toward