Samos

Samos, a mountainous island of the Archipelago lying near Cape St. Maria in Asia Minor, which has always been noted for its fertility. Its earliest inhabitants are said to have been Carians and Leleges, but it was colonised by AEolians from Lesbos and Ionians from Epidaurus. The Ionian element soon predominated, and the island was a powerful member of the Ionic confederacy. It acquired considerable maritime power, planted colonies in Asia Minor, Thrace, Crete, Sicily, and Italy, and, under the tyrant Polycrates (q.v.), established an extensive trade with Egypt and Cyrene. It became subject alternately to Persia and Athens, until it was nominally attached to the Graeco-Syrian monarchy. It joined Mithradates against Rome, and consequently became absorbed in the Roman Empire in 84 B.C. The island became tributary to Arabs, Venetians, Genoese, and eventually to the Turkish Empire. In the early period of Hellenic history Samos was famous for the special cult of Hera (Juno), for art, and in particular for the invention of casting in bronze, and generally for the highest Ionian civilisation. Towards the end of the Peloponnesian War this island became the asylum of the democratic party of Athens. From 1821 to 1824 the Samians maintained a successful resistance against the Turks. In the fifth century B.C. the capital city (Samos) was one of the finest cities of the world, and extensive ruins still mark its site.