city state · Greece and the Aegean

Aegina

900 BCE – 431 BCE (approx.) · capital Aegina

Island state in the Saronic Gulf that minted some of the first Greek coins and was the great commercial rival of Athens until 431 BCE.

Origins

Aegina, an island between Attica and the Argolid, was settled from the Neolithic and had a strong Bronze Age town at Kolonna. In the early Iron Age it was resettled by Dorians from Epidaurus, and by the 7th century BCE it had become one of the busiest trading states of the Greek world.

Rule and society

Aegina struck silver 'turtle' coins from c. 550 BCE, and its weight standard spread across much of Greece. Its merchants traded at Naucratis in Egypt, and its oligarchic elite built the temple of Aphaia, whose pediment sculptures are now in Munich. Aegina gave earth and water to Persia in 491 BCE, but its ships won the prize for valour at Salamis in 480 BCE.

Decline and legacy

Long wars with Athens ended in 457 BCE, when Aegina was forced into the Delian League. In 431 BCE Athens expelled the Aeginetans and settled colonists; Sparta gave the exiles land at Thyrea. Lysander restored survivors in 405 BCE, but the island never regained its former power.

Connections (2)

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Cite this page
APA
The Epoch Institute. (2026). Aegina. In The Epoch Institute States Register. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/aegina
MLA
“Aegina.” The Epoch Institute States Register, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/aegina. Accessed .
Chicago
The Epoch Institute. “Aegina.” The Epoch Institute States Register. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/aegina.
Harvard
The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Aegina’, The Epoch Institute States Register. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/aegina (Accessed: ).

Last reviewed October 2026Random state ↻