he second and during the third century AD" by Jews fleeing the Barbarian Invasions of the time in Greece.
Byzantine period
Aegina belonged of the East Roman (Byzantine) Empire after the division of the Roman Empire in 395. It remained in Byzantine hands during the period of crisis in the 7th–8th centuries, when most of the Balkans and the Greek mainland were overrun by Slavic invasions. Indeed, according to the Chronicle of Monemvasia, the island served as a refuge for the Corinthians fleeing these incursions. The island flourished in the early 9th century, as evidenced by church construction activity, but suffered greatly from Arab raids originating from Crete. Various hagiographies record a large-scale raid ca. 830, that led to the flight of much of the population to the Greek mainland. During that time, the population sought refuge in the island's interior, establishing the settlement of Palaia Chora.
According to the 12th-century bishop of Athens, Michael Choniates, by his time the island had become a base for pirates. This is corroborated by Benedict of Peterborough's graphic account of Greece, as it was in 1191, where he states that many of the islands were uninhabited from fear of pirates and that Aegina, along with Salamis and Makronesos, were their strongholds.
Frankish rule after 1204
After the dissolution and partition of the Byzantine Empire by the Fourth Crusade in 1204, Aegina was accorded to the Republic of Venice. In the event, it came under the control of the Duchy of Athens. The Catalan Company seized control of Athens, and with it Aegina, in 1317, and in 1425 the island came under Venetian control, when Alioto Caopena, at that time ruler of Aegina, placed himself with treaty under the Republic's protection in order to escape the danger of a Turkish raid. The island must then have been fruitful, for one of the conditions under which Venice accorded him her protection, was that he should supply grain to
