Calydon
（
Καλυδών). A city of Aetolia, below the river Evenus, and
between that stream and the sea. It was famed in Grecian story on account of the boar-hunt in
its neighbourhood (see
Meleager), the theme of
poetry from Homer to Statius. We are told by mythologists that Oeneus, the father of Meleager
and Tydeus, reigned at Calydon, while his brother Agrius settled in
Pleuron. Frequent wars, however, arose between them on the subject of contiguous lands. Some
time after the Peloponnesian War, we find Calydon in the possession of the Achaeans. It is
probable that the Calydonians themselves invited over the Achaeans, to defend them against the
Acarnanians (Pausan. iii. 10). Their city was, in consequence, occupied by an Achaean
garrison, until Epaminondas, after the battle of Leuctra, compelled them to evacuate the
place. It was still a town of importance during the Social War, and as late as the time of
Caesar. Augustus accomplished its downfall by removing the inhabitants to Nicopolis.
