Calydon was the most celebrated city of Aetolia in the Heroic Age. It was situated on a rocky height that controlled in a fertile plain near the river Evinos. The earliest residents were always at war with the Curetes of Pleuron, so the local heroes were famous throughout Greece for their prowess and martial spirit. Calydon was ruled by Oeneus, at whose time Artemis sent a monstrous boar that ravaged the land. The town rarely appears in the historical record. The Achaeans and the Aetolians often fought for its control. At the time of Julius Caesar it was still a prosperous place, but Augustus removed its inhabitants to Nicopolis after 31 BCE and Calydon was abandoned.