Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 21.djvu/270

Rh 250 S A M S A M this time therefore Samos became a mere dependency of Athens, and continued in this subordinate condition throughout the Peloponnesian War ; but after the victory of the Spartans at ^Egospotami, the city was besieged and taken by Lysander (404), and as usual an oligarchy was set up under Spartan control Other revolutions, however, quickly followed. The victory of Conon at Cnidus in 394 restored the democracy, but the peace of Antalcidas shortly afterwards (387) placed the island under the government of a Persian satrap, and thus exposed it to the attacks of the Athenians, who sent an expedition against it under Timotheus, one of their ablest generals, who after a siege of eleven months reduced the whole island and took the capital city. A large part of the inhabitants were expelled, and their place supplied by Athenian emigrants (366). From this time we hear but little of Samos. It passed without resistance under the yoke of Alexander the Great, and retained a position of nominal autonomy under his successors, though practically dependent, sometimes on the kings of Egypt, sometimes on those of Syria. After the defeat of Antiochus the Great at the battle of Magnesia (190), it passed with the rest of Ionia to the kings of Per- gamum, but, having in an evil hour espoused the cause of the pretender Aristonicus, it was deprived of its freedom, and was united with the Roman province of Asia (129). Henceforth it of course held only a subordinate position, but it seems to have always continued to be a flourishing and opulent city. We find it selected by Antony as the headquarters of his fleet, and the place where he spent his last winter with Cleopatra, and a few years later it became the winter quarters of Augustus (21-20), who in return restored its nominal freedom. Its autonomy, however, as in many other cases under the Roman empire, was of a very fluctuating and uncertain character, and after 70 A.D. it lapsed into the ordinary condition of a Roman provincial town. Its coins, however, attest its continued importance during more than two centuries, and it was even able to contest with Smyrna and Ephesus the proud title of the " first city of Ionia." It still figures prominently in the de- scription of the Byzantine empire by Constantino Porphyro- genitus, but little is known of it during the Middle Ages. During the Greek War of Independence Samos bore a conspicu- ous part, and it was in the strait between the island and Mount Mycale that Canaris achieved one of his most celebrated exploits by setting fire to and blowing up a Turkish frigate, in the presence 01 the army that had been assembled for the invasion of the island, a success that led to the abandonment of the enterprise, and Samos held its own to the very end of the war. On the conclusion of peace the island was indeed again handed over to the Turks, but since 1835 has held an exceptionally advantageous position, being in fact self-governed, though tributary to the Turkish empire, and ruled by a Greek governor nominated by the Porte, who bears the title of "Prince of Samos," but is supported and controlled by a Greek council and assembly. The prosperity of the island bears witness to the wisdom of this arrangement It now contains a popu- lation of above 40,000 inhabitants, and its trade has rapidly in- creased. Its principal article of export is its wine, which was celebrated in ancient times, and still enjoys a high reputation in the Levant It exports also silk, oil, raisins, and other dried fruits. The ancient capital, which bore the name of the island, was situated on the south coast, directly opposite to the promontory of Mycale, the town itself adjoining the sea and having a large artificial port, the remains of which are still visible, as are the ancient walls that surrounded the summit of a hill which rises immediately above it, and now bears the name of Astypalaea. This formed the acropolis of the ancient city, which in its flourishing times occupied a wide extent, covering the slopes of Mount Ampelus down to the shore. From thence a road led direct to the far-famed temple of Hera (Juno), which was situated close to the shore, where its site is still marked by a single column, but even that bereft of its capital. This miserable fragment, which has given to the neighbouring headland the name of Cano Colonna, is all that remains of the temple that was extolled by Herodotus as the largest he had ever seen, and which vied in splendour as well as in celebrity with that of Diana at Ephesus. But, like the Ephesian Artemis, the goddess worshipped at Samos was really a very different divinity from the one that presided over Argos and other purely Greek cities, and was unquestionably in the first instance a native Asiatic deity, who was identified, on what grounds we know not, with the Hera of the Olympic mythology. Her image, as we learn from coins, much resembled that of the Ephesian goddess, and was equally remote from any Greek conception of the beautiful and stately Hera. Though so little of the temple remains, the plan of it has been ascertained, and its dimensions found fully to verify the assertion of Herodotus, as compared with all other Greek tem- ples existing in his time, though it was afterwards surpassed by the later temple at Ephesus. The modern capital of the island was, until a recent period, at a place called Khora, about two miles from the sea, and the same distance from the site of the ancient city ; but since the change in the political condition of Samos the capital has been transferred to Vathy, situated at the head of a deep bay on the north coast, which has become the residence of the prince and the seat of government. Here a new town has grown up, well built and paved, with a con- venient harbour, and already numbers a population of 6000. Samos was celebrated in ancient times as the birth-place of Pythagoras, who, however, spent the greater part of his life at a distance from his native country. His name and figure are found on coins of the city of imperial date. It was also conspicuous in the history of art, having produced in early times a school of sculptors, commencing with Rhjecus and Theodorus, who are said to have invented the art of casting statues in bronze, and to have introduced many other technical improvements. The architect Rhaecus also, who built the temple of Hera, was a native of the island. At a later period Samos was noted for the manufacture of a particular kind of red earthenware, so much valued by the Romans for domestic purposes that specimens of it generally occur wherever there are remains of Roman settlements. All the particulars that are recorded concerning Samos In ancient times are collected by Panofka (Ret Samiorum, Berlin, 1822). A full description of the island, as it existed tn his time, will be found In Tournefort ( Voyage du Levant, 4to, Paris, 1717), and more recent accounts in the works of Ross (Reisen aufden Oriechitchen Jtiseln, vol. ii., Stuttgart, 1843) and Gudrin (Patmos el Samoi, Paris, 1856). (E. B. B.) SAMOTHRACE was the ancient name of an island in the northern part of the JEgean Sea, nearly opposite to the mouth of the Hebrus, and lying north of Imbros and north-east of Lemnos. It is still called Samothraki, and though of small extent is, next to Mount Athos, by far the most important natural feature in this part of the ^Egean, from its great elevation the group of mountains which occupies almost the whole island rising to the height of 5240 feet. The highest summit, named by Pliny Saoce, is estimated by him at an elevation of 10 Roman miles. Its conspicuous character is attested by a well-known passage in the Iliad (xiii. 12), where the poet represents Poseidon as taking post on this lofty summit to survey from thence the plain of Troy and the contest between the Greeks and the Trojans. This mountainous character and the absence of any tolerable harbour Pliny, in enumerating the islands of the ^Egean, calls it " importuos- issima omnium" prevented it from ever attaining to any political importance, but it enjoyed great celebrity from its connexion with the worship of the CABIRI (q.v.), a mysterious triad of divinities, concerning whom very little is really known, but who appear, like all the similar deities venerated in different parts of Greece, to have been a remnant of a previously existing Pelasgic mythology, wholly distinct from that of the Greeks. Herodotus expressly tells us that the " orgies " which were celebrated at Samothrace were derived from the Pelasgians (ii. 51). These mysteries, and the other sacred rites connected there- with, appear to have attracted a large number of visitors, and thus imparted to the island a degree of importance which it would not otherwise have attained. The only occasion on which its name is mentioned in history is during the expedition of Xerxes (B.C. 480), when the Samo- thracians sent a contingent to the Persian fleet, one ship of which bore a conspicuous part in the battle of Salamis (Herod., viii. 90). But the island appears to have always enjoyed the advantage of autonomy, probably on account of its sacred character, and even in the time of Pliny it ranked as a free state. Such was still the reputation of its mysteries that Germanicus endeavoured to visit the island, but was driven off by adverse winds (Tac., Ann., ii. 54).