Qualla: Oreus https://qualla.com/oreus en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:30 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/s/w/b/m/oreus-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Oreus https://qualla.com/oreus Oreus: Introduction https://qualla.com/oreus/ Photo credit Johny SYSEL, CC BY-SA 3.0. In 1965, workers expanding the small port at Oreoi in northern Euboea hauled something extraordinary out of the water: a marble bull more than three meters long and weighing over six tons, its surface so finely worked that the sculptor had used a claw chisel to render the play of muscle and hide. The horns, fitted separately, may once have been bronze or ivory. Carved in the late third century BC as funerary sculpture, the bull had lain on the seabed for centuries before the harbor gave it back. It is the most arresting reminder that this quiet coastal village was once a city Homer himself knew by name.

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Image: Johny SYSEL | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sun, 14 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/w/b/m/oreus-wp/swbm-oreus-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Oreus: Rich in Grapes https://qualla.com/oreus/ Photo credit Johny SYSEL, CC BY-SA 3.0. Before the fifth century BC, the city was called Histiaia, and it was among the most ancient on Euboea. Homer lists it in the Catalogue of Ships in the Iliad and gives it a memorable epithet: polystaphylos, "rich in grapes," a nod to the fertile plain it commanded at the entrance...

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Image: Johny SYSEL | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sun, 14 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/w/b/m/oreus-wp/swbm-oreus-rich-in-grapes.mp3 0:06 2 full Oreus: The City That Changed Its Name https://qualla.com/oreus/ Photo credit Johny SYSEL, CC BY-SA 3.0. After the Battle of Artemisium in 480 BC, when the Greek fleet withdrew south against the Persian advance, Histiaia was occupied by the Persians and from that moment its name shifts in the records to Oreus, originally just a deme, a district, dependent on the older city. The chan...

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Image: Johny SYSEL | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sun, 14 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/w/b/m/oreus-wp/swbm-oreus-the-city-that-changed-its-name.mp3 0:06 3 full Oreus: A Prize in Every War https://qualla.com/oreus/ Photo credit Johny SYSEL, CC BY-SA 3.0. Position and fortifications made Oreus a recurring target. In the wars of Alexander's successors, Cassander besieged it but had to withdraw when Ptolemy, general of Antigonus, came to its relief. When Rome entered Greek affairs, the city changed hands again: betrayed to the Roman...

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Image: Johny SYSEL | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sun, 14 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/w/b/m/oreus-wp/swbm-oreus-a-prize-in-every-war.mp3 0:06 4 full Oreus: The Fortress on the Strait https://qualla.com/oreus/ Photo credit Johny SYSEL, CC BY-SA 3.0. Strabo placed Oreus on a lofty hill called Drymus, and the historian Livy described two citadels one overhanging the sea, the other inland. That seaward height never lost its usefulness. Centuries later the Venetians built a fortress on the site of the ancient acropolis to contro...

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]]> Sun, 14 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/w/b/m/oreus-wp/swbm-oreus-the-fortress-on-the-strait.mp3 0:06 5 full