Euboea is the second-largest Greek island in population after Crete, located across the Euripus Strait from Boeotia on mainland Greece. The 110-mile-long island is known to be long and narrow, and it is traversed by a mountain range. Its name means "Land of the well-fed oxen" in Greek, and it was settled by Ionian Greeks from Attica, who founded the cities of Chalcis and Eretria. The Euboeans founded several colonies across the Greek world, most notably Reggio in southern Italy. Around 750 BC, the Greek alphabet was first employed on the island. In 506 BC, Athens invaded Chalcis and settled 4,000 Attic Greeks on their lands, turning Euboea into an Athenian dependency. In 490 BC, the Persians utterly ruined Eretrira, and its inhabitants were transported to the Middle East; Chalcis was left as the dominant city on the island. By 410 BC, the island succeeded in regaining its independence during the Peloponnesian War, and Euboea was conquered by Macedon in 338 BC and by the Roman Republic during the 2nd century BC. In 466 and 475, the Vandals rarided the island, and the Arabs launched a failed raid on Chalcis in 873. In 1157, a Sicilian force destroyed all coastal towns on Euboea, and the Venetians burned Chalcis to the ground in 1171. After 1204, a number of Lombard families arrived, dividing it into three baronies. In 1390, the Venetians secured full sovereignty over the island, which was conquered by the Ottomans in 1470. After the end of the Greek War of Independence in 1830, Euboea became a part of independent Greece, and it had a population of 191,206 in 2011.
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