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Updated: June 6, 2025
Artemisium is in Euboea, beyond the city of Histiaea, a sea-beach open to the north; most nearly opposite to it stands Olizon, in the country which formerly was under Philoctetes; there is a small temple there, dedicated to Diana, surnamed of the Dawn, and trees about it, around which again stand pillars of white marble; and if you rub them with your hand, they send forth both the smell and color of saffron.
The island of Euboea is here separated from the mainland by a narrow strait, which in one part is only two miles and a half in breadth; and accordingly it is easy, by defending this part of the sea with a fleet, to prevent an enemy from landing troops at the southern end of the pass. It was, however, only a small land-force that was sent to the defence of Thermopylae.
But what is the condition of Thessaly? Are not the cities of Euboea even now ruled by tyrants, and that in an island that is neighbour to Thebes and Athens?
But when things came at last to war, Philip on the one side being not able to live in peace, and the Athenians, on the other side, being stirred up by Demosthenes, the first action he put them upon was the reducing of Euboea, which, by the treachery of the tyrants, was brought under subjection to Philip.
The king, having thus got possession of the capital of Euboea, the other cities of the island did not even refuse to obey his authority; and he seemed to himself to have signalized the commencement of the war by an important acquisition, in having brought under his power so great an island, and so many cities conveniently situated.
From a passage in Thucydides we may learn that the Athenians derived part of their supply of corn from Euboea; this passage is also curious as exhibiting a surprising instance of the imperfection of ancient navigation.
For, as to Euboea, as well as the Boeotians and Thessalians, who can doubt that, having no strength of their own, they will ever court the power that is present; and will make use of the same fear, which governs their councils, as an argument for obtaining pardon? That, as soon as they shall see a Roman army in Greece, they will turn away to that government to which they have been accustomed?
They immediately put a large force on board their fleet, armed and equipped for the expedition. This was at the time when Xerxes was just about crossing the Hellespont. The fleet sailed from the port of Athens, passed up through the narrow strait called Euripus, lying between the island of Euboea and the main land, and finally landed at a favorable point of disembarkation, south of Thessaly.
Although the present debate turned chiefly on these points, Hannibal, being called on by name to give his opinion, led the king, and those who were present, into the consideration of the general conduct of the war, by a speech to this effect: "If I had been employed in your councils since we came first into Greece, when you were consulting about Euboea, the Achaeans, and Boeotians, I would have offered the same advice which I shall offer you this day, when your thoughts are employed about the Thessalians.
Outside the strait of Thermopylae, towards the north, lie Epirus, Perrhaebia, Magnesia, Thessaly, the Achaean Phthiotis, and the Malian bay; on the inside, towards the south, the greater part of Aetolia, Acarnania, Phocis, Locris, Boeotia, and the adjacent island of Euboea, the territory of Attica, which stretches out like a promontory into the sea, and, behind that, the Peloponnesus.
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