Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 1.djvu/628

 610 CHIOS. was alflo a wine-gnming tract (Virg. Georg, ii. d7, " rex ipse Phanaens," &g.) ; there was a story that the people of this island churned to be the discoverers of the art of wine making. (Theopomp. quoted by Athen. p. 26, ed. Cas.) Thetrenot {TravfUa into iht Levaniy Engl. TnuisL part i. p. 93, &c) found the wine thick; but he must have been ill served, or have got hold of some vino cotto. Chandler (TVo- wU in Asia Minor ^ c. 16), who was treated by an English resident, found the wines excell^t. Another chief product of the island was the gum mastic (Plin. ziL 17), which was in great repute in ancient times, and still forms one of the chief products of the island. This resin is got from the Lentiscus by making incisions, and collecting the fluid when it has hardened. The mode of getting it is described bj Thevenot and Toumefort. Chios was also noted for its figs (Varr. de KILi. 41), which had been transplanted into Italy. The island contained a clay adapted for pottery (Strab. p. 317). In Thevenot's time all the earthenware that was used iu the island, was made at a village named Armolia. The island is healthy. The beauty of the women is ce> lebrated by ancient writers and modem travellers. The growth of the vine, olive, lemon, orange, citron, and palm, show what the temperature is. Thevenot says that the island is subject to earthquakes ; and the fall of a school-house recorded by Herodotus (vi. 27) may have been owing to an earthquake. (Sueton. Tib, 8.) The town or the island of Chios was one of the places that clauned to be the birth-place of Homer, and the natives show a place on the north coast of the island, at some distance from the town, which they call Homer's school. Chandler supposed the place to have been a temple of Cybele, open at the top, and situated on the summit of a rock. It is of an oval form, and iu the centre was the figure of the goddess, which wanted the h«id and arm when Chandler saw it She was represented sitting, and on each side of the chair, and also behind, was the figure of a lion. Bound the inside is a kind of seat Pococke changed the goddess into Homer, and the two lions on the sides aS the chair into Muses. It is a rude piece of workmanship, perhaps of great an- tiquity, and cut in the rock (Chandler, c 16, and the note in the French edition). The distinguished natives of Chios were Ion, the tragic vrriter, Theo- pompus, the historian, and the sophist Theocritus. (Strabo.) Also^ Metrodorus, and the geographer Scyranus. The chief town of Chios, as already observed, had the name of Chios, though Strabo does not mention the name of the city, but the passage is probably corrupt. (See Groskurd's note, vol. iii. p. 26.) It was on the east side of the island, and is now named SciOj though it seems to be called Kaatro in some maps. The city and its environs are like Genoa and its territory in miniature. Some autliorities (Dionys. Perieg. 535) place it at the foot of Pellenaeus, which seems to be the same name as Strabo's Pelinaeus. Probably the name of the high range of Pelinaeus may have extended as far south as the town of Chios. Chandler could not see either stadium, odeum or theatre, the usual accompaniments of every Greek town, and we know that Chios had a theatre. As there was a marble quarry in the vicinity, there was abundance of building materials. The stones of the old Greek town have, doubtless, been used for building the modem town, for marbles and bas- relie& are seen in the walls of the town and of the <f -V'.'b./;^. CHIOS. houses. On the east side of the island was a town Delphinium, in a strong position, with harbours, and not far bom Chios (Thuc. viii. 88 ; Xen. HeiL i. 5. § 15). The modem site is indicated by the name Delphino. Bolissus (Thuc. viii. 24) is Fo- li880 on the NW. coast, south of Cape S. Nicoh. Stephanns (s. v. BoXurtrii) has made a mistake in placing it in Aeolis, though he quotes Thncydides {iv ^^7), and says that the historian calls it Boliscus.' Thucydides (viii. 24) also mentions % phice called Leuconium {AxvKiiviov the site of which does not appear to be known. Cardamyle, also mentioned by Thucydides (viii. 24), as a place where the Athenians landed to attack the people of Chios, is Khardamlif a little distance from the NE. coast of the island. According to Thevenot there is a good harbour at Cardamila^ as he writes it, which he places two miles from the coast. The coontty round Cardaroyle is fertile, abounds in springs, and is well adapted for the cultivation of the vine. The situation of Caucasa (Herod, v. 33), and Polichne (Herod, vi. 26), are not determined. Caucasa waa probably on the west side of the island. The situ- ation of the place called Coela (rh KoiXa, Herod, vi. 26) is uncertain. The oldest inhabitants of the island were Pelasgi, according to one tradition (Eustath. ad DUm. Perieg, 533); and Strabo affirms (p. 621) that the Chiana considered the Peksgi from Thessaly, as "their settlers," whidi, if it has any exact meaning, is a statement that they were descendants of Thessalian Pelasgi. In another passage (p. 632) he gives the statement of Pherecydes, that Leieges originally possessed the Ionian coast north of Ephesus, as far as Phocaea, Chios, and Samus.by which is perhaps meant that Leieges occupied Chios, from which they were ejected by the lones. Ion, a native of Chios, following, we may suppose, local tradition, knew of no inhabitants of Chios before the three sons of Posd- don, who were bom in the island: then came Oeno- pion and his sons from Crete, who were followed by Carians, and Abantes from Euboea. Other settlers came from Histiaea in Euboea under Amphiclns. Hector, the fourth in descent from Amphiclns, fought ^ith the Abantes and Carians, killed some of them, and made terms with the rest for their quitting the island. Things being settled, it came into Hector's mind that the people of Chios ought to join the lonians in their religious festival at Pan- ionium. (Pans. viL 4. § 8.) But Ion, as Pausanias observes, has not said how the Chians came to be included in the Ionian confederation. Chios is enu- merated by Herodotus (i. 18,142) among the insular states of the Ionian confederation, and as having the same peculiar dialect or variety of the Greek lan- guage as the people of Erythrae on the opposite mainland. At the time of the conquest of Ionia by Cyrus (B.C. 546), the Chians wore protected by their insular position, for the Persians at that time- had no navy. They obtained from the Persians at that time a grant of the Ataroeus [Atakneus], for delivering up to them Pactyes, a Lydian. The Chians joined the rest of the lonians in the revolt against the Persians (b. o. 499), and they had 100 ships in the great sea-fight off Miletus. After the defeat of the confederates, the Persians landed in Chios, burnt the cities and temples, and carried off all the most beautiful girls (Herod, vi. 8, 32). When Xerxes (b. c. 480) invaded Greece. tJie lonians had 100 ships in the Persian navy, but it is not said which states supplied them. (Herod, vii. 94.)