This summer, I studied again the Histories of Herodotus, the father of history. I join those who are of the opinion that Herodotus legacy and works --as compared to Thucydides for example -- are not appropriately valued. I heartily recommend to anyone who wishes to better study ancient Greece as well as the history of other nations, countries , peoples and regions of the Middle East and Northern Africa, to study Herodotus.
I discovered a noteworthy historical fact that has remained unknown to most. Besides, we are only four years away from the 2,500 anniversary of the Naval Battle of Salamis; in 2010 we celebrated the 2,500 anniversary of the Battle of Marathon.
In the South Evian Gulf, across from Marathon, roughly one mile from the port of Styra in Euboea, there is an uninhabited small island called Aigilia. Its name dates back to the Persian wars.
When the second Persian invasion against Greece was launched in 490 BC, Aigilia belonged to the Styrians (Herodotus, Histories, "Erato"). Darius, also called the great King, had decided to subdue Greece, on the pretext that he was attacking those who had not surrendered "earth and water". At the head of this mottled, multiracial, and bustling army were Datis, and Darius' nephew, Artaphernes. "Darius [...], instructed them to enslave Athens and Eretria and to bring back the captive slaves into his presence [...]" (Herodotus, 92-95).
The Persian fleet was approximately six hundred (600) triremes strong, and some estimate that it consisted of 500,000 men. The number is excessive, considering the capacity of the vessels at the time. However, the historical confirmation of the strength of the Persians is not the critical issue of our story.
On its way to the sacred island of Delos, the Persian army burned Naxos. Datis next sailed to Eretria, a town in the island of Euboea, directly across from Attica.
As they made their rounds of the islands, the Persians arrived at Karystos, the southern end of the island of Euboea. The Karystians had refused to submit. They had also refused to surrender "earth and water" and to ally with the invaders against their neighbors, the Eretrians. The Persians besieged the city and ravaged the land until the Karystians were forced to succumb.
As Herodotus writes, the huge Persian fleet started sailing up the South Evian gulf. From the start, the goal had been to destroy the fortified Eretria. Darius wanted to take revenge for the destruction of Sardis a few years before.
In my opinion, so far, the most comprehensive recent book on Herodotus is Robert Strassler's , "The Landmark Herodotus - The Ηistories", (first edition 2007, Pantheon Books, New York). It is an exceptional and thorough work. I read it during my tenure in Washington. I am studying it once again now.
Back then, this area and sea was called "Eretrian" ( Eretriki in greek). The Persians put in their ships at Tamynai (Aliveri), Aigilia (across from today's village of Styra) and Choereai (probably between Eretria and Aliveri).
It is historically known that the small number of Eretrians barricaded themselves within the strong walls and held against the Persian assaults for six days. On the seventh day, two prominent Eretrians, Euphorbos and Philagros betrayed their city. After entering the city, the Persians plundered and set fire to the temples and sanctuaries, exacting vengeance for the destruction of Sardis, and enslaved the people.
Here starts a unique adventure-story for the 1000 Eretrians--the number is not reported by Herodotus, so let's consider it arbitrary--whom the Persians took as slaves.
After their conquest of Eretria, the Persians sailed for Marathon. Before anchoring at Marathon, they made the Eretrian slaves disembark on the arid island called Aigilia. According to Herodotus, after the battle of Marathon, the Persians retrieved the Eretrians from Aigilia, and loaded them back on their ships. Next, they sailed for Sounion, towards Athens. They were hoping to arrive in Athens before the Athenians--who were worn out from the battle. But the Athenians beat them to Athens.
After the Persian fleet returned to Asia, Datis and Artaphernes led the captured Eretrians to King Darius at Susa. According to Herodotus and his later historians and students, King Darius took pity of them despite his initial anger and rage. He settled them at his royal lands in the area of Kissia , then called Arderikka.
I have studied the maps of the 18th and early 19th centuries, trying to find the exact location of Arderikka. I concluded that this must be near today's town Tikrit in Iraq. Let it be noted that the Encyclopedia Iranica (which I also consulted ) mentions that there exist two ancient villages under the name Arderikka. We support with certainty that Arderikka mentioned herein was about 40 kilometers--or miles according to others--from Susa. Herodotus writes that it was "210 stadia ''? away. In Assyrian, the area has been recognized as Urdalika (Assurbanipal, Prisma Rassam, col. V, line 51).
As the French historian M. Rollin mentions in his classic twelve-volume "Histoire Ancienne", the famous post-Pythagorean philosopher Apollonius of Tyana confirms the existence of Eretrian descendants at Arderikka 600 years later, around 100 AD. -and their forced settlement in the area (Rolling, third volume, p. 151, ed. Estienne, Paris, 1736). The exact same description is also given by John Gillies in "The History of Ancient Greece", London, 1786, (p.108).
In "Erato", Herodotus had already noted that Eretrians lived in this region at the time, maintaining their Greek language. Allow me to add here that according to John Gillies, the Eretrians ''managed to preserve their European characteristics for centuries''.
Imagine the surprise of Alexander the Great and his generals when, on their way to Mesopotamia, Babylon and Susa, they met the descendants of the Eretrians at Arderikka.
I was surprised too, when I read in "Erato" a very clear and detailed report of how they extracted oil near Arderikka, where the Eretrians had settled!
According to Herodotus, there was a well there that supplied three types of products: bitumen, salt and oil, which was drawn from the well in the following way:
"[...] A shadoof is used, to which is fastened half a wineskin to serve as a bucket. They dip this into the well and draw up the liquid and pour it into a container, from which it is then poured into another, where it is diverted into three separate channels. The bitumen and salt immediately congeal, while the oil is collected into vessels. The Persians call this oil rhadinake. It is black and has a very heavy acrid odor. [...]" ( Strassler, Herodotus,).
Today, as we approach the 2,500 anniversary of the battles that saved Greece (Battle of Thermopylae, Sea Battle of Salamis, and Battle of Plataea), democracy, humanitarian values and what we used to call western civilization , I think that:
It is certain that some of these distant descendants of the Eretrians who lived in Mesopotamia and in modern Iraq for over 2,500 years, have now fled from the areas of Babylon and Tikrit, becoming fugitives and refugees.
Among these refugees, who now try to cross into the continent called -- already since Herodotus -- Europe, there must be some, probably just a few, who come from the ancient region of Arderikka.
2,500 years after the Battle of Marathon, they seek their own dignity and salvation, not as slaves, but as free people. Refugees, but free.
They too follow the road of migration, of return to places they had never known before. Today, some of them may be found at the Ionian coasts of Asia Minor; others wait for Europe to open its gates.
Yes, to our Europe, the one that believed that it is still dedicated to the same humanistic values for which the Eretrians fought and were enslaved.
I am not sure whether some have actually grasped the powerful symbolism of the uninhabited island of Aigilia.
It is a unique historical and symbolic monument, an unbroken link between the past and the present.
And while everything else has changed, Aigilia, the arid island across from Styra and Marathon, with the antiquities that lay at the sea bed of its south-western natural bay practically visible to the naked eye, still connects 2500 years later Herodotus' Greece with Mesopotamia Iraq and Persia, with today's European Union of national walls.