La concessione dell'epigamia agli Eubei

This paper, focusing on the date and the exact intent of the grant of epigamia (intermarriage) by Athens to Euboea, is divided in two parts. The first section is concerned with the analysis of Lysias’ Against the Subversion of the Ancestral Constitution of Athens, which is the only piece of evidence about that grant. Through the analysis of Lysias and other epigraphic and literary data, it is argued that epigamia was accorded to Euboea in the last part of V century BC. In the second section, it is suggested that some verses of Euripides’ Ion are related to that grant. Through a parallel between Lysias, Thucydides and Ion, it is argued that Athens accorded the epigamia to Euboea to ensured loyalty and control on that crucial island before its defection at the beginning of the Decelean war.