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Calydon was an ancient Greek
Greece

Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , is a country in southeastern Europe, situated on the southern end of the Balkans. It has borders with Albania, Bulgaria and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia to the north, and Turkey to the east....
 city in Aetolia
Aetolia

Aetolia is a mountainous region of Greece on the north coast of the Gulf of Corinth, forming the eastern part of the modern prefectures of Greece of Aetolia-Acarnania....
, situated on the west bank of the river Evenus
Evenus

The Evinos, Evenus, or Euenos is a river in Aetolia-Acarnania, Greece. It rises in the mountains near Artotina, and empties 92 km later into the north side of the Gulf of Patras near Krioneri, east of the Messolonghi lagoon....
. According to Greek mythology
Greek mythology

Greek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the Ancient Greece concerning their List of Greek mythological figures#Immortals and Greek hero cult, Cosmology#Metaphysical cosmology, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices....
, the city took its name from its founder Calydon, son of Aetolus
Aetolus, son of Endymion

Aetolus was, in Greek mythology, a son of Endymion and the nymph Ne?s, or Iphianassa. According to Pausanias, his mo?ther was called Asterodia, Chromia, or Hyperippe....
. Close to the city stood Mount Zygos
Zygos

Zygos : ?????; is a village member of the municipality of Filippoi in the Kavala Prefecture, Greece. Population 3,827 ....
, the slopes of which provided the setting for the hunt of the Calydonian Boar
Calydonian Boar

The Calydonian Boar is one of the monsters of Greek mythology that had to be overcome by heroes of the Olympian age. Sent by Artemis to ravage the region of Calydon in Aetolia because its king failed to honor her in his rites to the gods, it was killed in the Calydonian Hunt, in which many male heroes took part, but also a powerful wom...
. The city housed the important Aetolian sanctuary
Sanctuary

Sanctuary has multiple meanings. A sanctuary is the consecrated area of a church or temple around its church tabernacle or altar. An animal sanctuary is a place where animals live and are protected....
 known as the Laphrion, dedicated to Artemis Laphria
Artemis

In Greek mythology, Artemis was the daughter of Zeus and Leto, and the twin sister of Apollo. She was the Hellenic goddess of forests and hills, child birth/virginity/fertility, the hunt and was often depicted as a huntress carrying a bow and arrows.....
 and Apollo Laphrios
Apollo

In Greek mythology and Roman mythology, Apollo , is one of the most important and many-sided of the Twelve Olympians. The ideal of the kouros , Apollo has been variously recognized as a god of light and the sun; truth and prophecy; archery; medicine and healing; music, poetry, and the arts; and more....
. In 31 BC, the Roman
Roman Empire

The Roman Empire was the Roman Republic phase of the Ancient Rome, characterised by an autocracy form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
 Emperor
Emperor

An emperor is a monarch, usually the sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. Empress is the female equivalent. As a title, "empress" may indicate the wife of an emperor or a woman who rules in her own right ....
 Octavian removed the population of the city to the new colony of Nicopolis
Nicopolis

Nicopolis or Actia Nicopolis was an ancient city of Epirus , founded 31 BC by Caesar Augustus in memory of his victory over Mark Antony and Cleopatra VII of Egypt at Actium....
, founded to commemorate his victory at the Battle of Actium
Battle of Actium

The Battle of Actium was the final engagement in the Final War of the Roman Republic. It was fought between the forces of Augustus and the combined forces of Mark Antony and Cleopatra VII....
 earlier that year.






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Calydon was an ancient Greek
Greece

Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , is a country in southeastern Europe, situated on the southern end of the Balkans. It has borders with Albania, Bulgaria and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia to the north, and Turkey to the east....
 city in Aetolia
Aetolia

Aetolia is a mountainous region of Greece on the north coast of the Gulf of Corinth, forming the eastern part of the modern prefectures of Greece of Aetolia-Acarnania....
, situated on the west bank of the river Evenus
Evenus

The Evinos, Evenus, or Euenos is a river in Aetolia-Acarnania, Greece. It rises in the mountains near Artotina, and empties 92 km later into the north side of the Gulf of Patras near Krioneri, east of the Messolonghi lagoon....
. According to Greek mythology
Greek mythology

Greek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the Ancient Greece concerning their List of Greek mythological figures#Immortals and Greek hero cult, Cosmology#Metaphysical cosmology, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices....
, the city took its name from its founder Calydon, son of Aetolus
Aetolus, son of Endymion

Aetolus was, in Greek mythology, a son of Endymion and the nymph Ne?s, or Iphianassa. According to Pausanias, his mo?ther was called Asterodia, Chromia, or Hyperippe....
. Close to the city stood Mount Zygos
Zygos

Zygos : ?????; is a village member of the municipality of Filippoi in the Kavala Prefecture, Greece. Population 3,827 ....
, the slopes of which provided the setting for the hunt of the Calydonian Boar
Calydonian Boar

The Calydonian Boar is one of the monsters of Greek mythology that had to be overcome by heroes of the Olympian age. Sent by Artemis to ravage the region of Calydon in Aetolia because its king failed to honor her in his rites to the gods, it was killed in the Calydonian Hunt, in which many male heroes took part, but also a powerful wom...
. The city housed the important Aetolian sanctuary
Sanctuary

Sanctuary has multiple meanings. A sanctuary is the consecrated area of a church or temple around its church tabernacle or altar. An animal sanctuary is a place where animals live and are protected....
 known as the Laphrion, dedicated to Artemis Laphria
Artemis

In Greek mythology, Artemis was the daughter of Zeus and Leto, and the twin sister of Apollo. She was the Hellenic goddess of forests and hills, child birth/virginity/fertility, the hunt and was often depicted as a huntress carrying a bow and arrows.....
 and Apollo Laphrios
Apollo

In Greek mythology and Roman mythology, Apollo , is one of the most important and many-sided of the Twelve Olympians. The ideal of the kouros , Apollo has been variously recognized as a god of light and the sun; truth and prophecy; archery; medicine and healing; music, poetry, and the arts; and more....
. In 31 BC, the Roman
Roman Empire

The Roman Empire was the Roman Republic phase of the Ancient Rome, characterised by an autocracy form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
 Emperor
Emperor

An emperor is a monarch, usually the sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. Empress is the female equivalent. As a title, "empress" may indicate the wife of an emperor or a woman who rules in her own right ....
 Octavian removed the population of the city to the new colony of Nicopolis
Nicopolis

Nicopolis or Actia Nicopolis was an ancient city of Epirus , founded 31 BC by Caesar Augustus in memory of his victory over Mark Antony and Cleopatra VII of Egypt at Actium....
, founded to commemorate his victory at the Battle of Actium
Battle of Actium

The Battle of Actium was the final engagement in the Final War of the Roman Republic. It was fought between the forces of Augustus and the combined forces of Mark Antony and Cleopatra VII....
 earlier that year. At the same time, the Romans removed most of the art and treasures of the city to Patras
Patras

Patras is Greece's third largest urban centre and the capital of the prefecture of Achaea, located in northern Peloponnese, 215 kilometers west of Athens....
, including the gold
Gold

Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and atomic number 79. It is a highly sought-after precious metal, having been used as money, as a store of value, in jewelry, in sculpture, and for ornamentation since the beginning of recorded history....
 and ivory
Ivory

File:Ivory decoration.jpgIvory is formed from dentine and constitutes the bulk of the teeth and tusks of animals such as the elephant, hippopotamus, walrus, mammoth and narwhal....
 cultic statue of Artemis.Strabo
Strabo

Strabo was a Ancient Greeks history, geography and philosophy....
, in his Geographia, comments on the former beauty of Calydon, which by his time lay desolate: '...Calydon and Pleuron, which are now indeed reduced, though in early times these settlements were an ornament to Greece.'