Aegina is a Greek island located in the Saronic Gulf, 17 miles from Athens. Aegina was named for Aegina, mother of Aeacus, who was born on the island. The island was colonized by Minoans in 2000 BC and was later conquered by the Mycenaeans, whose culture survived into the 9th century BC, well after the Dorian invasion. The island was then colonized by Epidaurians from Argolis, and, in 700 BC, King Pheidon of Argos established a mint on Aegina, which became the first city-state to issue coins in Europe. In 570 BC, the Aeginetes entered into a blood feud with Athens after the Aeginetes ceased making offerings to Athena, and Aegina submitted to Achaemenid Persia in 491 BC. In 458 BC, Pericles led the Athenian conquest of Aegina, and, at the start of the Peloponnesian War in 431 BC, the Athenians expelled the Aeginetans to Sparta. At the end of the war, Lysander resettled these exiles on Aegina, which was used by Sparta as a naval base during the Corinthian War with Athens. During the Roman era, a community of Greek Jews emerged on Aegina, and their synagogue leader Crispus became a Christian bishop during the 1st century AD after being baptized by Saint Paul. During the 7th-8th centuries, Corinthian refugees fleeing Slavic raids resettled on Aegina, which itself suffered from Cretan Arab raids, forcing the majority of the population to flee to the mainland in 830. The island became a pirate haven, and it was annexed by the Republic of Venice in 1204, before being ruled by the Duchy of Athens, the Catalan Company, and again by Venice from 1451 to 1537, when the Ottoman Turks conquered Aegina, massacred its adult population, and carried away 6,000 women and children as slaves. In 1654, the Venetian doge Francesco Morosini desolated the island during the Cretan War, and it was temporarily recaptured by Venice from 1687 to 1715. The island was liberated by Greece in 1821 and was a center of revolutionary activity during the Greek War of Independence. By 2011, Aegina had a population of 13,056 people.
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