Ischia
Ischia or Archipelago Campano is a volcanic island in the Tyrrhenian Sea. It lies at the end of the Gulf of Naples. It is the largest of the Phlegrean Islands, roughly trapezoidal, it measures approximately 10 km east to west and 7 km north to south and has about 34 km of coastline and a surface area of 46.3 square kilometres. It is almost entirely mountainous, the highest peak is Mount Epomeo, the island is very densely populated, with 60,000 residents. Ischia is the name of the comune of the island. The other comuni of the island are Barano dIschia, Casamicciola Terme, Lacco Ameno, the roughly trapezoidal island is formed by a complex volcano immediately southwest of the Campi Flegrei area at the western side of the Bay of Naples. The eruption of the trachytic Green Tuff ignimbrite about 56,000 years ago was followed by caldera formation, the highest point of the island, Monte Epomeo, is a volcanic horst consisting of a Green Tuff ignimbrite deposit that was submerged after its eruption and uplifted.
Many small monogenetic volcanoes were formed around the uplifted block, volcanism during the Holocene produced a series of pumiceous tephras, tuff rings, lava domes, and lava flows. The latest eruption of Ischia, in 1302, produced a cone and the Arso lava flow. Special researches on local cetaceans have been conducted to monitor and protect this bio-diversity, Virgil poetically referred to it as Inarime and still as Arime. Martianus Capella followed Virgil in this name, which was never in common circulation, the Romans called it Aenaria. Arime and Pithekousai both appear to derive from words for monkey, Pliny derives the Greek name from the local ceramic clay deposits, not from píthēkos, he explains the Latin name Aenaria as connected to a landing by Aeneas. If the island actually was, like Gibraltar, home to a population of monkeys, an acropolis site of the Monte Vico area was inhabited from the Bronze Age, as Mycenaean and Iron Age pottery finds attest. Euboean Greeks from Eretria and Chalcis arrived in the 8th century BC to establish an emporium for trade with the Etruscans of the mainland and this settlement was home to a mixed population of Greeks and Phoenicians.
The ceramic Euboean artifact inscribed with a reference to Nestors cup was discovered in a grave on the island in 1953, engraved upon the cup are a few lines written in the Greek alphabet. Dating from c.730 BC, it is one of our most important testimonies to the early Greek alphabet, according to certain scholars the inscription might be the oldest written reference to the Iliad. In 474 BC, Hiero I of Syracuse came to the aid of the Cumaeans and he occupied Ischia and the surrounding Parthenopean islands and left behind a garrison to build a fortress before the city of Ischia itself. This was still extant in the Middle Ages, but the garrison fled before the eruptions of 470 BC
Writing system
A writing system is any conventional method of visually representing verbal communication. While both writing and speech are useful in conveying messages, writing differs in being a form of information storage. The processes of encoding and decoding writing systems involve shared understanding between writers and readers of the meaning behind the sets of characters that make up a script, the general attributes of writing systems can be placed into broad categories such as alphabets, syllabaries, or logographies. Any particular system can have attributes of more than one category, in the alphabetic category, there is a standard set of letters of consonants and vowels that encode based on the general principle that the letters represent speech sounds. In a syllabary, each symbol correlates to a syllable or mora, in a logography, each character represents a word, morpheme, or other semantic units. Other categories include abjads, which differ from alphabets in that vowels are not indicated, alphabets typically use a set of 20-to-35 symbols to fully express a language, whereas syllabaries can have 80-to-100, and logographies can have several hundreds of symbols.
Systems will enable the stringing together of these groupings in order to enable a full expression of the language. The reading step can be accomplished purely in the mind as an internal process, writing systems were preceded by proto-writing, which used pictograms and other mnemonic symbols. Proto-writing lacked the ability to capture and express a range of thoughts. Soon after, writing provided a form of long distance communication. With the advent of publishing, it provided the medium for a form of mass communication. Writing systems are distinguished from other possible symbolic communication systems in that a system is always associated with at least one spoken language. In contrast, visual representations such as drawings and non-verbal items on maps, such as contour lines, are not language-related. Some other symbols, such as numerals and the ampersand, are not directly linked to any specific language, every human community possesses language, which many regard as an innate and defining condition of humanity.
However, the development of writing systems, and the process by which they have supplanted traditional oral systems of communication, have been sporadic, once established, writing systems generally change more slowly than their spoken counterparts. Thus they often preserve features and expressions which are no current in the spoken language. One of the benefits of writing systems is that they can preserve a permanent record of information expressed in a language. In the examination of individual scripts, the study of writing systems has developed along partially independent lines, the terminology employed differs somewhat from field to field
Cumae
Cumae was an ancient city of Magna Graecia on the coast of the Tyrrhenian Sea. Founded by settlers from Euboea in the 8th century BC, Cumae was the first Greek colony on the mainland of Italy, the ruins of the city lie near the modern village of Cuma, a frazione of the comune Bacoli in the Province of Naples, Italy. Cumae is perhaps most famous as the seat of the Cumaean Sibyl and her sanctuary is now open to the public. In Roman mythology, there is an entrance to the underworld located at Avernus, a lake near Cumae. They were already established at Pithecusae, they were led by the paired oecists Megasthenes of Chalcis and its name refers to the peninsula of Cyme in Euboea. It spread its influence throughout the area over the 7th and 6th centuries BC, gaining sway over Puteoli and Misenum and, all these facts were recalled long afterwards, Cumaes first brief contemporary mention in written history is in Thucydides. The growing power of the Cumaean Greeks led many indigenous tribes of the region to organize against them, notably the Dauni, contact between the Romans and the Cumaeans is recorded during the reign of Aristodemus.
Livy states that prior to the war between Rome and Clusium, the Roman senate sent agents to Cumae to purchase grain in anticipation of a siege of Rome. Also Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, the last legendary King of Rome, lived his life in exile with Aristodemus at Cumae after the Battle of Lake Regillus, during the reign of Aristodemus, the Cumaean army assisted the Latin city of Aricia to defeat the Etruscan forces of Clusium. The combined fleets of Cumae and Syracuse defeated the Etruscans at the Battle of Cumae in 474 BC, the Greek period at Cumae came to an end in 421 BC, when the Oscans broke down the walls and took the city, ravaging the countryside. Cumae came under Roman rule with Capua and in 338 was granted partial citizenship, in the Second Punic War, in spite of temptations to revolt from Roman authority, Cumae withstood Hannibals siege, under the leadership of Tib. At the end of the 4th century, the temple of Zeus at Cumae was transformed into a Christian basilica, the first historically documented bishop of Cumae was Adeodatus, a member of a synod convoked by Pope Hilarius in Rome in 465.
Misenus was excommunicated on his return but was rehabilitated and took part as bishop of Cumae in two synods of Pope Symmachus. Pope Gregory the Great entrusted the administration of the diocese of Cumae to the bishop of Misenum, both Misenum and Cumae ceased to be residential sees and the territory of Cumae became part of the diocese of Aversa after the destruction of Cumae in 1207. Accordingly, Cumae is today listed by the Catholic Church as a titular see, in 1207, forces from Naples, acting for the boy-King of Sicily, destroyed the city and its walls, as the stronghold of a nest of bandits. The seaward side of the rise on which Cumae was built was used as a bunker. Not to be confused with the namesake Cuma in Asia Minor A bishopric was established around 450 AD, in 700 it gained territory from the suppressed Diocese of Miseno. In 1207 it was suppressed itself, its territory being divided and merged into the Roman Catholic Diocese of Aversa, saint Massenzio Rainaldo Giovanni Gregorio Leone In 1970, the diocese was nominally restored as a Latin titular see
Gulf of Naples
The Gulf of Naples, called the Bay of Naples, is a roughly 15-kilometer-wide gulf located along the south-western coast of Italy. It opens to the west into the Mediterranean Sea and it is bordered on the north by the cities of Naples and Pozzuoli, on the east by Mount Vesuvius, and on the south by the Sorrentine Peninsula and the main town of the peninsula, Sorrento. The Peninsula separates the Gulf of Naples from the Gulf of Salerno, the islands of Capri and Procida are located in the Gulf of Naples. The area is a tourist destination, with the seaside Roman ruins of Pompeii and Herculaneum at the foot of Mount Vesuvius, along with the island of Ischia and gulfs of Pozzuoli and Gaeta, local waters are home to varieties of whales and dolphins including fin and sperm whales. It is said that The Roman emperor Caligula built a bridge of boats across the bay, the Gulf of Naples hosted the sailing events for the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome. Purcell, N. R. Talbert, T. Elliott, cS1 maint, Multiple names, authors list
Runes
The Scandinavian variants are known as futhark or fuþark, the Anglo-Saxon variant is futhorc or fuþorc. Runology is the study of the runic alphabets, runic inscriptions, runology forms a specialised branch of Germanic linguistics. The earliest runic inscriptions date from around 150 AD, the characters were generally replaced by the Latin alphabet as the cultures that had used runes underwent Christianisation, by approximately 700 AD in central Europe and 1100 AD in northern Europe. However, the use of runes persisted for specialized purposes in northern Europe, until the early 20th century, runes were used in rural Sweden for decorative purposes in Dalarna and on Runic calendars. The three best-known runic alphabets are the Elder Futhark, the Anglo-Saxon Futhorc, and the Younger Futhark, the Younger Futhark is divided further into the long-branch runes, short-branch or Rök runes, and the stavlösa or Hälsinge runes. The Younger Futhark developed further into the Medieval runes, and the Dalecarlian runes, the runic alphabet is a derivation of the Old Italic scripts of antiquity, with the addition of some innovations.
Which variant of the Old Italic family in particular gave rise to the runes is uncertain, suggestions include Raetic, Etruscan, or Old Latin as candidates. At the time, all of these scripts had the same angular letter shapes suited for epigraphy, the process of transmission of the script is unknown. The oldest inscriptions are found in Denmark and northern Germany, not near Italy, a West Germanic hypothesis suggests transmission via Elbe Germanic groups, while a Gothic hypothesis presumes transmission via East Germanic expansion. The runes were in use among the Germanic peoples from the 1st or 2nd century AD, no distinction is made in surviving runic inscriptions between long and short vowels, although such a distinction was certainly present phonologically in the spoken languages of the time. Similarly, there are no signs for labiovelars in the Elder Futhark The term runes is used to distinguish these symbols from Latin and it is attested on a 6th-century Alamannic runestaff as runa and possibly as runo on the 4th-century Einang stone.
The name comes from the Germanic root run-, meaning secret or whisper, in Old Irish Gaelic, the word rún means mystery, intention or affectionate love. Similarly in Welsh and Old English, the word rhin and rūn respectively means mystery, secret writing, or sometimes in the sense of the word. Ogham is a Celtic script, similarly carved in the Norse manner, the root run- can be found in the Baltic languages, meaning speech. In Lithuanian, runoti means both to cut and to speak, according to another theory, the Germanic root comes from the Indoeuropean root *reuə- dig. The Finnish term for rune, means scratched letter, the Finnish word runo means poem and comes from the same source as the English word rune, it is a very old loan of the Proto-Germanic *rūnō. The runes developed centuries after the Old Italic alphabets from which they are historically derived. The formation of the Elder Futhark was complete by the early 5th century, the Raetic alphabet of Bolzano is often advanced as a candidate for the origin of the runes, with only five Elder Futhark runes having no counterpart in the Bolzano alphabet
Archaic Greek alphabets
The system now familiar as the standard 24-letter Greek alphabet was originally the regional variant of the Ionian cities in Asia Minor. It was officially adopted in Athens in 403 BC and in most of the rest of the Greek world by the middle of the 4th century BC, the green type is the most archaic and closest to the Phoenician. The red type is the one that was transmitted to the West and became the ancestor of the Latin alphabet. The blue type is the one from which the standard Greek alphabet emerged, *Upsilon is derived from waw. The green type uses no additional letters beyond the Phoenician set, the aspirated plosives /pʰ/, /kʰ/ are spelled either simply as Π and Κ respectively, without a distinction from unaspirated /p/, /k/, or as digraphs ΠΗ, ΚΗ. Likewise, the clusters /ps/, /ks/ are simply spelled ΠΣ and this is the system found in Crete and in some other islands in the southern Aegean, notably Thera and Anaphe. The red type lacks Phoenician-derived Ξ for /ks/, but instead introduces a supplementary sign for that sound combination at the end of the alphabet, in addition, the red alphabet introduced letters for the aspirates, Φ = /pʰ/ and Ψ = /kʰ/.
Note that the use of Χ in the red set corresponds to the letter X in Latin, while it differs from the standard Greek alphabet, where Χ stands for /kʰ/, only Φ for /pʰ/ is common to all non-green alphabets. The red type is found in most parts of central mainland Greece, as well as the island of Euboea, the light blue type still lacks Ξ, and adds only letters for /pʰ/ and /kʰ/. Both of these correspond to the standard alphabet. The light blue system thus still has no letters for the clusters /ps/, /ks/. In this system, these are typically spelled ΦΣ and ΧΣ and this is the system found in Athens and several Aegean islands. The dark blue type, finally, is the one that has all the consonant symbols of the standard alphabet, in addition to Φ and Χ, it adds Ψ. This system is found in the cities of the Ionian dodecapolis, Knidos in Asia Minor, in the psilotic dialects of Anatolia and adjacent eastern Aegean islands, as well as Crete, vocalic Η was used only for /ɛː/. In a number of Aegean islands, notably Rhodes, Milos and Paros, in Knidos, a variant letter was invented to distinguish the two functions, Η was used for /h/, and for /ɛː/.
In south Italian colonies, especially Taranto, after c.400 BC and this latter symbol was turned into the diacritic sign for rough breathing by the Alexandrine grammarians. The normal letter epsilon was used exclusively for the latter, while a new special symbol stood both for short /e/ and for /ɛː/, the letter Digamma for the sound /w/ was generally used only in those local scripts where the sound was still in use in the spoken dialect. During the archaic period, this includes most of mainland Greece, as well as Euboea, in Athens and in Naxos it was apparently used only in the register of poetry
Latin alphabet
The Latin alphabet is the most widely used alphabetic writing system in the world. It is the script of the English language and is often referred to simply as the alphabet in English. It is an alphabet which originated in the 7th century BC in Italy and has changed continually over the last 2500 years. It has roots in the Semitic alphabet and its offshoot alphabets, the Phoenician, the phonetic values of some letters changed, some letters were lost and gained, and several writing styles developed. Two such styles, the minuscule and majuscule hands, were combined into one script with alternate forms for the lower and upper case letters, due to classicism, modern uppercase letters differ only slightly from their classical counterparts. The Latin alphabet started out as uppercase serifed letters known as roman square capitals, the lowercase letters evolved through cursive styles that developed to adapt the formerly inscribed alphabet to being written with a pen. Throughout the ages, many stylistic variations of each letter have evolved that are still identified as being the same letter.
From the Cumae alphabet, the Etruscan alphabet was derived, the Latins ultimately adopted 21 of the original 26 Etruscan letters. Gaius Julius Hyginus, who recorded much Roman mythology, mentions in Fab, the Parcae, Clotho and Atropos invented seven Greek letters — A B H T I Y. Others say that Mercury invented them from the flight of cranes, palamedes, son of Nauplius, invented eleven letters, too, invented four letters — Ó E Z PH, Epicharmus of Sicily, two — P and PS. The Greek letters Mercury is said to have brought to Egypt, Cadmus in exile from Arcadia, took them to Italy, and his mother Carmenta changed them to Latin to the number of 15. Apollo on the added the rest. The original Latin alphabet was, The oldest Latin inscriptions do not distinguish between /ɡ/ and /k/, representing both by C, K and Q according to position, K was used before A, Q was used before O or V, C was used elsewhere. This is explained by the fact that the Etruscan language did not make this distinction, C originated as a turned form of Greek Gamma and Q from Greek Koppa.
In Latin, K survived only in a few such as Kalendae, Q survived only before V. G was invented to distinguish between /ɡ/ and /k/, it was simply a C with an additional diacritic. C stood for /ɡ/ I stood for both /i/ and /j/, V stood for both /u/ and /w/. K was marginalized in favour of C, which stood for both /ɡ/ and /k/
Europe
Europe is a continent that comprises the westernmost part of Eurasia. Europe is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, yet the non-oceanic borders of Europe—a concept dating back to classical antiquity—are arbitrary. Europe covers about 10,180,000 square kilometres, or 2% of the Earths surface, Europe is divided into about fifty sovereign states of which the Russian Federation is the largest and most populous, spanning 39% of the continent and comprising 15% of its population. Europe had a population of about 740 million as of 2015. Further from the sea, seasonal differences are more noticeable than close to the coast, Europe, in particular ancient Greece, was the birthplace of Western civilization. The fall of the Western Roman Empire, during the period, marked the end of ancient history. Renaissance humanism, exploration and science led to the modern era, from the Age of Discovery onwards, Europe played a predominant role in global affairs. Between the 16th and 20th centuries, European powers controlled at times the Americas, most of Africa, Oceania.
The Industrial Revolution, which began in Great Britain at the end of the 18th century, gave rise to economic and social change in Western Europe. During the Cold War, Europe was divided along the Iron Curtain between NATO in the west and the Warsaw Pact in the east, until the revolutions of 1989 and fall of the Berlin Wall. In 1955, the Council of Europe was formed following a speech by Sir Winston Churchill and it includes all states except for Belarus and Vatican City. Further European integration by some states led to the formation of the European Union, the EU originated in Western Europe but has been expanding eastward since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. The European Anthem is Ode to Joy and states celebrate peace, in classical Greek mythology, Europa is the name of either a Phoenician princess or of a queen of Crete. The name contains the elements εὐρύς, broad and ὤψ eye, broad has been an epithet of Earth herself in the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European religion and the poetry devoted to it.
For the second part the divine attributes of grey-eyed Athena or ox-eyed Hera. The same naming motive according to cartographic convention appears in Greek Ανατολή, Martin Litchfield West stated that phonologically, the match between Europas name and any form of the Semitic word is very poor. Next to these there is a Proto-Indo-European root *h1regʷos, meaning darkness. Most major world languages use words derived from Eurṓpē or Europa to refer to the continent, in some Turkic languages the originally Persian name Frangistan is used casually in referring to much of Europe, besides official names such as Avrupa or Evropa
Italy
Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a unitary parliamentary republic in Europe. Located in the heart of the Mediterranean Sea, Italy shares open land borders with France, Austria, San Marino, Italy covers an area of 301,338 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate and Mediterranean climate. Due to its shape, it is referred to in Italy as lo Stivale. With 61 million inhabitants, it is the fourth most populous EU member state, the Italic tribe known as the Latins formed the Roman Kingdom, which eventually became a republic that conquered and assimilated other nearby civilisations. The legacy of the Roman Empire is widespread and can be observed in the distribution of civilian law, republican governments, Christianity. The Renaissance began in Italy and spread to the rest of Europe, bringing a renewed interest in humanism, exploration, Italian culture flourished at this time, producing famous scholars and polymaths such as Leonardo da Vinci, Galileo and Machiavelli. The weakened sovereigns soon fell victim to conquest by European powers such as France and Austria.
Despite being one of the victors in World War I, Italy entered a period of economic crisis and social turmoil. The subsequent participation in World War II on the Axis side ended in defeat, economic destruction. Today, Italy has the third largest economy in the Eurozone and it has a very high level of human development and is ranked sixth in the world for life expectancy. The country plays a prominent role in regional and global economic, military and diplomatic affairs, as a reflection of its cultural wealth, Italy is home to 51 World Heritage Sites, the most in the world, and is the fifth most visited country. The assumptions on the etymology of the name Italia are very numerous, according to one of the more common explanations, the term Italia, from Latin, was borrowed through Greek from the Oscan Víteliú, meaning land of young cattle. The bull was a symbol of the southern Italic tribes and was often depicted goring the Roman wolf as a defiant symbol of free Italy during the Social War. Greek historian Dionysius of Halicarnassus states this account together with the legend that Italy was named after Italus, mentioned by Aristotle and Thucydides.
The name Italia originally applied only to a part of what is now Southern Italy – according to Antiochus of Syracuse, but by his time Oenotria and Italy had become synonymous, and the name applied to most of Lucania as well. The Greeks gradually came to apply the name Italia to a larger region, excavations throughout Italy revealed a Neanderthal presence dating back to the Palaeolithic period, some 200,000 years ago, modern Humans arrived about 40,000 years ago. Other ancient Italian peoples of undetermined language families but of possible origins include the Rhaetian people and Cammuni. Also the Phoenicians established colonies on the coasts of Sardinia and Sicily, the Roman legacy has deeply influenced the Western civilisation, shaping most of the modern world
Old Italic script
Old Italic is one of several now extinct alphabet systems used on the Italian Peninsula in ancient times for various Indo-European languages and non-Indo-European languages. The alphabets derive from the Euboean Greek Cumaean alphabet, used at Ischia, various Indo-European languages belonging to the Italic branch originally used the alphabet. Faliscan, Umbrian, North Picene, and South Picene all derive from an Etruscan form of the alphabet, the Germanic runic alphabet was derived from one of these alphabets by the 2nd century AD. It is not clear whether the process of adaptation from the Greek alphabet took place in Italy from the first colony of Greeks and it was in any case a Western Greek alphabet. In the alphabets of the West, X had the value, Ψ stood for, in Etruscan. Until about 600 BC, the form of the Etruscan alphabet remained practically unchanged. From the 6th century, the alphabet evolved, adjusting to the phonology of the Etruscan language and its origin is disputed, it may have been an altered B or H or an ex novo creation.
Its sound value was /f/ and it replaced the Etruscan FH, some letters were, on the other hand, falling out of use, B and D were apparently considered superfluous over P and T. K was dropped in favour of G. O disappeared and was replaced by U, in the course of its simplification, the redundant letters showed some tendency towards a syllabary, C, K and Q were predominantly used in the contexts CE, KA, QU. This classical alphabet remained in use until the 2nd century BC when it began to be influenced by the rise of the Latin alphabet, soon after, the Etruscan language itself became extinct. U came to be used to represent Oscan o, while Ú was used for actual Oscan u, the Nucerian alphabet is based on inscriptions found in southern Italy. It is attested only between the 6th and the 5th century BC, the most important sign is the /S/, shaped like a fir tree, and possibly a derivation from the Phoenician alphabet. U /u/ and V /w/ are distinguished, Θ is probably for /t/ and X for /g/. There are claims of a related script discovered in Glozel, the alphabet of Sanzeno, about 100 Raetic inscriptions.
The alphabet of Magrè, east Raetian inscriptions, alphabet of Este, Similar but not identical to that of Magrè, Venetic inscriptions. Inscripted abecedarium on rock engraves in Valle Camonica, the South Picene alphabet, known from the 6th century BCE, is most like the southern Etruscan alphabet in that it uses Q for /k/ and K for /g/. It is, ⟨. ⟩ is a reduced ⟨o⟩ and ⟨, ⟩ is a reduced ⟨8⟩, the Old Italic alphabets were unified and added to the Unicode Standard in March,2001 with the release of version 3.1. The Unicode block for Old Italic is U+10300–U+1032F without specification of a particular alphabet, writing direction varies based on the language and even the time period
Euboea
Euboea or Evia is the second-largest Greek island in area and population, after Crete. The narrow Euripus Strait separates it from Boeotia in mainland Greece, in general outline it is a long and narrow, seahorse-shaped island, it is about 180 kilometres long, and varies in breadth from 50 kilometres to 6 kilometres. It forms most of the unit of Euboea, which includes Skyros. Its ancient and current name, Εὔβοια, derives from the words εὖ good, the phrase στὸν Εὔριπον to Evripos, rebracketed as στὸ Νεὔριπον to Nevripos, became Negroponte in Italian by folk etymology, the ponte bridge being interpreted as the bridge of Chalcis. That name entered common use in the West in the 13th century, with variants being Egripons, Negripo. Under Ottoman rule, the island and its capital were known as Eğriboz or Ağriboz, Euboea was believed to have originally formed part of the mainland, and to have been separated from it by an earthquake. This is fairly probable, because it lies in the neighbourhood of a fault line, in the neighbourhood of Chalcis, both to the north and the south, the bays are so confined as to make plausible the story of Agamemnons fleet having been detained there by contrary winds.
At Chalcis itself, where the strait is narrowest at only 40 m, the extraordinary changes of tide that take place in this passage have been a subject of note since classical times. At one moment the current runs like a river in one direction, a bridge was first constructed here in the twenty-first year of the Peloponnesian War. Geography and nature divide the island itself into three parts, the fertile and forested north, the mountainous centre, with agriculture limited to the coastal valleys. The main mountains include Dirfi, Pyxaria in the northeast and Ochi, the neighboring gulfs are the Pagasetic Gulf in the north, Malian Gulf, North Euboean Gulf in the west, the Euboic Sea and the Petalion Gulf. At the 2001 census the island had a population of 198,130, the history of the island of Euboea is largely that of its two principal cities and Eretria, both mentioned in the Catalogue of Ships. Both cities were settled by Ionian Greeks from Attica, and would eventually settle numerous colonies in Magna Graecia and Sicily, such as Cumae and Rhegium and this opened new trade routes to the Greeks, and extended the reach of western civilization.
The classicist Barry B. Powell has proposed that Euboea may have been where the Greek alphabet was first employed, 775-750 BC, and that Homer may have spent part of his life on the island. Chalcis and Eretria were rival cities, and appear to have been equally powerful for a while, one of the earliest major military conflicts in Greek history took place between them, known as the Lelantine War, in which many other Greek city-states took part. Following the infamous battles of Thermopylae and Artemisium, Persian forces captured and sacked Athens, and took Euboea, Boeotia, in 490 BC, Eretria was utterly ruined and its inhabitants were transported to Persia. Though it was restored nearby its original site after the Battle of Marathon, both cities gradually lost influence to Athens, which saw Euboea as a strategic territory. Euboea was an important source of grain and cattle, and controlling the island meant Athens could prevent invasion, Athens invaded Chalcis in 506 BC and settled 4,000 Attic Greeks on their lands
