Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/918

 898 SAMOS. this part of the island, has probably given rise to the name bv which it is now called (^ KaToiSaTTJ). The position of Samos was nearly opposite the boundary-line of Caria and Ionia; and its early traditions connect it, first with Carians and Leleges, and then with lonians. The first Ionian colony is said to have consisted of settlers from Epidaurus, who were expelled from thence by the Argives. However this may be, we find Samos at an early period in the position of a powerful member of the Ionic confederacy. At this time it was highly dis- tinguished in maritime enterprise and the science of navigation. Tlmcydides tells us (i. 13) that the Samians were among the first to make advances in naval construction, and that for this purpose they availed themselves of the services of Ameinocles the Corinthian shipbuilder. The story of Pliny (vii. 57), that either they or I'ericles the Athenian first con- structed transports for the conveyance of horses, though less entitled to literal acceptance, is well woi-tliy of mention ; and Samos will always be famous for the voyage of her citizen Colaeus, who, '•not without divine direction" (Herod, iv. 152), first penetrated through the Pillars of Hercules into the Ocean, and thus not only opened out new fields of Commercial enterpri.se, but enlarged the geographical ideas of the Greeks by making them for the first time familiar with the phenomenon of the tides. Under the despot Polycrates, Samos was in fact the greatest Greek maritime power. This famous man, about ten years after the taking of Sardis by Cyrus, held Samos in a position of proud independ- ence, when Lesbus and Chios had submitted to the Persians. He had 1000 bowmen in his pay; he possessed 100 shi[)s of war, and made considerable conque.'its both among the islands and the mainland. He fought successfully against the Jlilesians ar.d Lesbians, and made a treaty with Amasis, king of Egypt. Whether we are to take the story in the poetical form in which it is presented to us by He- rodotus, or to attribute the change to the more probable motive of self-interest, this treaty was broken off for an alliance with Cambyses. In con- nection with this monarch's expedition to the Nile, some Samian malcontents were so treacherously tieated by Polycrates, that they sought and obtained assistance from Greece. A joint force of Lacedae- monians and Corinthians besieged Polycrates in Samos for forty days : but in this struggle also he was successful. At last his own cupidity, acted on by the fraud of Oroetes, a neighbouring satrap, brought liim to a wretched death on the mainland. The time which succeeded was full of crime and calamity for Samos. In the end, Syloson, the brother of Polycrates (whose association with Cambyses is the subject of another romantic story in Herodotus), landed with a Persian army on Samos, and became a tributary despot; but not till his native island had been so depopulated as to give rise to the proverb fKT]Ti 'ZuXoTuvTos ivpvx'^p'^V- For details .see the lives of Polycrates and Syloson in the Diet, of Biography. It was at this period that Pythagoras, who was a native of Samos, left the island to travel in foreign countries, being partly urged to leave his home (according to Plutarch, Placit. i. 3) through discontent under the government of Polycrates, who, however, was a patron of literature, and had Anacreon many years at his court. For the chro- nology of this period see Clinton, Fast. Hell. vol. ii. note B. pp. 230—232. Samos was now Persian. It was from Samos that SAMOS. Datis sailed to Marathon, taking Nasos on his way. But the dominion of the Persians did not last long. When their fleet was gathered at Samos again, after the battle of Salamis, to the number of 400 .sail, it was in a great measure the urgency of Samian en- voys which induced the commanders of the (-Ireek fleet at Delos to go across to the eastern side of the Aegaean. Then followed that battle in the strait, which completed the liberation of the Greeks. In the maritime confederacy which was organi^ed soon afterwards under Athenian rule, Samos beems to have been the most powerful of the three islands which were exempted from paying tribute. It was at the instance of her citizens that the common treasure was removed from Delos to Athens. But this friendship with Athens was turned into bitter enmity in consequence of a conflict with Miletus about the territory of Priene. Samos openly re- volted ; and a large force was despatched from Athens against it under the command of ten generals, two of whom were Sophocles and Pericles. The latter pronounced in the Cerameicus the funeral oration over those who had fallen in the war which, after .'i resistance of nine months, reduced Samos to complete subjection. From 439 to 412 Samos remained without forti- fications and without a fleet. But about this latter date it became the hinge upon which all the con- cluding events of the Peloponnesian War really turned. The first movements towards the establishment of an oligarchy at Athens began at Samos through the intrigues of Alcibiades ; and yrt this island was practically the home of the Athenian democracy during the struggle which ensued. It was at Samos that Alcibiades rejoined his fellow-citizens ; and from Samos that he finally sailed for the Peiraeus in 407. Even till after the battle of Arginu.^ae Samos was, more than any other place, the bead- quarters and base of operations for the Athenian fleet. Our notices of the island now become more frag- mentary. After the death of Alexander the Great it was for a time subject to the kings of Egypt. (Polyb. V. 35.) Subsequently, it took the part of Antiochus the Great in his war with Rome. It also acted with !Mithridates against Home ; but was finally united with the province of Asia b. c. 84. After the battle of Actium, Augustus passed the winter there. Under the Roman emperors it was on the whole a place of no great importance, though it had the honour of being li free state. (Plin. v. 37.) This privilege was taken away under Vespasian. (Suet. Vesp.8.) In the division of the Empire contained in the Synecdemus we find it placed with Rhodes, Cos, Chios, &c., in the Province of the Islands. In the later division into themes, it seems to be again raised to a distinguished position. It gave its name to a separate theme, which included a large portion of the mainland, and was divided into the two tunns of Ephesus and Adramyttium, the governor having his residence {■n^)aiTupioi') at Smyrna; and this ar- rangement is spoken of in such a way (Const. Por- phyrog. de Them. I. c.) as distinctly to connect it with the ancient renown of Samos. It would be difiicult to follow the fortunes of Samos through the middle ages. (See Finlay's History of the Byzantine and Greek Empires, vol. ii. p. 112.) There are .some points of considerable in- terest in its modern history. In 1550, after being sacked by the Ottomans, it was given by Selim to the Capitan Pacha Ochiali, who introduced colonists