DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4098#0616
ISLAND OF iEGINA. 561
also mentions a magnificent theatre, with a contiguous stadium, of
all of which no certain remains are at present to be seen.
Auxesia and Lamia were also goddesses, who, according to
Herodotus1 and Pausanias, were particularly venerated in this island.
The latter author mentions the temple of Apheia,2 on the way from
the capital to the temple of Jupiter Panhellenios. The great festival
of iEgina, the Ai-yivyTwv sopr-v, was celebrated in honour of Neptune ;
but Pausanias does not mention his temple.
Strabo3 gives one hundred and eighty stadia to the circuit of
iEgina, and Pliny4 twenty miles. It is however about twenty-two, in
reckoning from cape to cape, without calculating the indentations
and sinuosities of its bays and ports.
In the period of its glory it probably commanded some of the
neighbouring islands, and, like Ithaca, had ports upon the continent;
otherwise we must form but an humble opinion of the JEacideia
Regno Is However this may be, the illustrious6 island does not
merit the contemptuous appellation of the Mginetan Rock, as it is
frequently designated by one of our most elaborate historians ;7 and
it is highly probable, that those who are termed merchant pirates by
the same author, were the first people in Greece who were fami-
liarized with nautical concerns, and who introduced into the sur-
rounding states the advantages of commercial intercourse, and of a
circulating medium.
The island of iEgina, owing to its central situation and its local
advantages, became thickly inhabited at an early period, by a rich,
powerful, and industrious people. Indeed, as their population soon
increased beyond the resources of the island, they relieved them-
selves of their superfluous numbers8 by forming settlements in
distant countries. They were, according to Strabo9 and iElian,10
1 B. 5. c. 82 and 83.; it is written Damia by this author. " lepov.
3 B. 8. p. 375. 4 Nat. Hist. b. 4. c. 12. s Qvid. Metam. b. 7. v. 472,
0 AtcnrptTTta raw. Pindar, Isth. 5. v. 56. 7 Mitford, Hist, of Greece.
8 Strabo, b. 8. p. 376. ° Loc. cit. io Var. Hist. b. 12. c. 10.
VOL. I. 4 C
also mentions a magnificent theatre, with a contiguous stadium, of
all of which no certain remains are at present to be seen.
Auxesia and Lamia were also goddesses, who, according to
Herodotus1 and Pausanias, were particularly venerated in this island.
The latter author mentions the temple of Apheia,2 on the way from
the capital to the temple of Jupiter Panhellenios. The great festival
of iEgina, the Ai-yivyTwv sopr-v, was celebrated in honour of Neptune ;
but Pausanias does not mention his temple.
Strabo3 gives one hundred and eighty stadia to the circuit of
iEgina, and Pliny4 twenty miles. It is however about twenty-two, in
reckoning from cape to cape, without calculating the indentations
and sinuosities of its bays and ports.
In the period of its glory it probably commanded some of the
neighbouring islands, and, like Ithaca, had ports upon the continent;
otherwise we must form but an humble opinion of the JEacideia
Regno Is However this may be, the illustrious6 island does not
merit the contemptuous appellation of the Mginetan Rock, as it is
frequently designated by one of our most elaborate historians ;7 and
it is highly probable, that those who are termed merchant pirates by
the same author, were the first people in Greece who were fami-
liarized with nautical concerns, and who introduced into the sur-
rounding states the advantages of commercial intercourse, and of a
circulating medium.
The island of iEgina, owing to its central situation and its local
advantages, became thickly inhabited at an early period, by a rich,
powerful, and industrious people. Indeed, as their population soon
increased beyond the resources of the island, they relieved them-
selves of their superfluous numbers8 by forming settlements in
distant countries. They were, according to Strabo9 and iElian,10
1 B. 5. c. 82 and 83.; it is written Damia by this author. " lepov.
3 B. 8. p. 375. 4 Nat. Hist. b. 4. c. 12. s Qvid. Metam. b. 7. v. 472,
0 AtcnrptTTta raw. Pindar, Isth. 5. v. 56. 7 Mitford, Hist, of Greece.
8 Strabo, b. 8. p. 376. ° Loc. cit. io Var. Hist. b. 12. c. 10.
VOL. I. 4 C