Lelantine War

Lelantine War

Hypothetical alliances of Chalcis (blue) and Eretria (red) during the Lelantine War.[1]
Datec. 710–650 BC
Location
Euboea island, Greece
Result Chalcidian victory (probably)
Territorial
changes		 Eretria lost control of Andros, Tenos, Kea islands
Belligerents
Eretria and allies Chalcis and allies

The Lelantine War was a military conflict between the two ancient Greek city states Chalcis and Eretria in Euboea which took place in the early Archaic period, between c. 710 and 650 BC.[2] The reason for war was, according to tradition, the struggle for the fertile Lelantine Plain on the island of Euboea. Due to the economic importance of the two participating poleis, the conflict spread considerably, with many further city states joining either side, resulting in much of Greece being at war. The historian Thucydides describes the Lelantine War as exceptional, the only war in Greece between the mythical Trojan War and the Persian Wars of the early 5th century BC in which allied cities rather than single ones were involved.[3]

Ancient authors normally refer to the War between Chalcidians and Eretrians (ancient Greek: πόλεμος Χαλκιδέων καὶ Ἐρετριῶν pólemos Chalkidéon kaì Eretriōn).[3]

The war between Chalcis and Eretria was the one in which most cities belonging to the rest of Greece were divided up into alliances with one side or the other.

— Thucydides (I. 15, 3)

The length of the war, as well as the cities involved, and even the historicity of the Lelantine War remain debated among modern historians.[4]

  1. ^ Hall, History of the Archaic Greek World, pp. 2, 3.
  2. ^ 19th-century historians preferred an early dating, in the late 8th century; more recent scholars have gravitated towards later dates: older datings are noted in Donald W. Bradeen, "The Lelantine War and Pheidon of Argo", Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association 78 (1947:223-241) p. 223 note 1.: Bradeen links the extension of the war to the rise of Pheidon at Argos.
  3. ^ a b Thucydides I. 15.
  4. ^ Hall, History of the Archaic Greek World, pp. 1–8, writes "In short, we do not know when – or even whether – the Lelantine War occurred."