The Byzantium mare interim between Asia Minor, Greece and Crete, is characterized by a rugged coastline and many islands that differ widely in size, physical condition and economy. The larger islands are more densely populated than the smaller ones. Some islands (Crete, Lesbos, Lemnos) are rich in agricultural products. The amount of livestock has surprised many travelers to the islands.
The natural protection of the islands made them into places of refuge during the Slavo-Avar invasion, although some Slav boats penetrated to individual islands. The Arab onslaught changed the situation, especially when in the 820s they seized Crete. They deserted some islands, like Paros, and only occasional hermits inhabited them after that. From the tenth century onward the Byzantines constructed numerous fortresses to guard the islands: they built them on high rocks protected by nature and fortified with massive walls. Venice has made many economic inroads in the last century, to the point that many of the islands are now totally dependent on the merchants of that city.
In late antiquity they divided the islands between the provinces of Achaia and Insulae; by the late seventh century some were put under the command of the strategos of the Karabisianoi and later included in the theme of the Kibyrrhaiotai. The ninth century Taktikon of Uspenskij mentions the droungarioi of the Aegean Sea and of the Kolpos. At this time they divided the territory into two administrative units the Aegean Sea in the north, and Kolpos, centered around Samos and including most of the Cyclades. In the late eleventh century a krites administered the theme of Kyklades; which included Chios, Kos, Karpathos and Ikaria. In the twelfth century, Rhodes, Chios and Kos were separated from the theme, and each governed by a doux. Toward the end of that century a province called "Dodecanese" is known with its center in Naxos.
After 1204 most of the southern Aegean Sea falls under Venetian control, while the Latin Empire retains the islands along the coast of Asia Minor. The campaign of Licario against Euboea in 1275-76 restores much of the Aegean to Byzantine control, although the duchy of Naxos maintains Latin power on that island and Andros.
Crete is the largest of the Greek islands, measuring 260 km from east to west and between 14 km and 60 km from north to south. The island is dominated by a high range which, in antiquity, was forested with cypress, cedar, pine and oak. At the west end of the island are the White Mountains with Mt. Ida (2456 m), and to the east are the Lasithi Mountains, with the largest mountains being Mt. Dikti (2148 m). This eastern range is scored with cave systems and gorges. In addition, thereare a great many high upland plains on the island, such as the Lasithi plain, the Nidha plain on Mt Ida, and the Omalo plain in the White Mountains. Since the foothills on the north side of the island slope gently to the sea, habitation is concentrated on the north coast around and behind the great bays of Kastelli, Chania, Soudha, Rethymnon, Herakleion, and Mirabello.
In general, the climate of Crete is favorable; the northern end is Mediterranean and the south coast is sub-tropical. The island supports a great variety of flora and fauna with many species unique to the island. The richest arable land on Crete is found in the Mesara plain of Gortyn and Phaistos on the south coast, and is watered by the Ieropotamos stream. By contrast, the rest of the south coast cannot support a large population. Consequently,there is only one town there, Ieraptera. The diversity of its terrain and products have always allowed Crete the privelege of being self-sufficient.Throughout history, Crete has been an important influence in the Mediterranean both because of its strategic position and its self-sufficiency. Thus, Crete has a lengthy historical and mythological record.
The better ports are on the north side of the island, and although the north coast of Africa is only 333 km away, Crete faces the Aegean Archipelago rather than the open Libyan Sea. Crete has always been in an ideal position to trade throughout the Mediterranean. The upland plateaus of Crete, productive in cheese and cereals, make most overland communication difficult, but expand the amount of arable land on the island.
The centre of Euboea is largely occupied by an irregular mountain range, geographically the SE continuation of Ossa and Pelion and broken by valleys. The highest point is Mt Dhirfis (1745m). In the N half the mountains are clothed with forests of chestnuts, pines and planes. In the exuberantly fertile plains are grown corn in large quantities, as well as vines, figs, and olives. The most famous of these is the Lelantine Plain between Chalkis and Eretria. The mineral wealth is considerable, lignite and magnesite being exported. The marble and asbestos of Karystos were renowned in antiquity; here was the source of the cipollino extensively used for building in Rome in the Imperial era and later.
Euboea was peopled in remote antiquity by colonists from Thessaly who settled in tbe N (Ellopians), in the W (Abantes) and in the S (Dryopes). According to tradition the early settlers were joined by Ionians from Attica, Aeolians from Phthiotis, and Dorians from the Peloponnese. The island, also called Makris because of its length, was divided between seven independent city-states, of which the most important were Eretria and Chalkis, rivals for the possession of the fertile Lelantine Plain. These two rich and powerful merchant cities founded colonies on the coasts of Thrace, Italy and Sicily, as well as in the islands of the Aegean. After the expulsion of the Peisistratids, Chalkis joined Boeotia against Athens. In consequence, in 506 BC, the Athenians crossed the strait, defeated the Chalcidians and divided their land between 5000 cleruchs. Eretria had assisted in the Ionic revolt against Persia some ten years before the first great Persian invasion of Greece. The Persians, in retaliation, took the city by storm in 490, burned it, and enslaved the inhabitants. Although later rebuilt, Eretria never fully recovered her former power. After the Persian wars the whole of Euboea became subject to Athens. In 446 Euboea revolted, but was reconquered by Pericles. In 411 a second revolt, inspired by the defeat of the Athenian fleet at the hands of the Lacedaemonians, and coming at a time when Athens was weakened by the Sicillan disasters and internal faction, was more successful. The same year the inhabitants of Chalkis, with the cooperation of Boeotia, built a bridge over the Euripos and thereby hampered the maritime trade of Athens. In 378 the Athenians induced most of the Euboean cities to join their new maritime league; but, after the battle of Leuktra (371), the island passed under the suzerainty of Thebes. In 358 it was liberated by Chares, who restored it to the protection of Athens. It was incorporated in Macedonia after the battle of Chaironeia (338). In 194 it was taken trom Phihp V of Macedon by the Romans, who restored its cities to nominal independence. The island later came under the sway of Byzantium. In AD 1209 Euboea was divided into the three baronies of Chalkis, Karystos and Oreos, which owed allegiance to the king of Salonika. The Venetians held the ports and numerous minor Frankish nobles occupied the interior which they adorned with their castles.
A group of about 30 islands. They lie off Attica in the Aegean Sea.
The islands, which have a total land area of 976 square miles (2,528 square km), are peaks of the submerged mountain ranges of Greece. In antiquity they were the centre of a Bronze Age culture, the Cycladic, noted for its white marble idols. The name Cyclades means "encircling islands," and they are so named because they form a rough circle around the sacred island of Delos, which was the legendary birthplace of Artemis and her brother Apollo.
The earliest inhabitants of the Cyclades are believed to have been Carians (from the ancient district of Caria in southwestern Anatolia. According to the ancient Greek historian Thucydides, the Carians were expelled from the islands by King Minos. The Greek historian Herodotus says the Carians were subjects of Minos and that they were expelled from the islands much later, by the Dorians and the Ionians. A rich material culture of the Bronze Age is much in evidence throughout the islands, and on many of the islands are found remarkable and characteristic (mostly female) figurines. The Cyclades were colonized by Ionians in the 10th and 9th centuries BC and flourished in the 8th to 6th century BC, but later only Delos remained important. It served as the headquarters and treasury of the Athenian-led Delian League in the 5th century BC. Over time the Cyclades came under of the rule of virtually every power in the region, including the Crusaders, who in 1204 gave the islands to Venice.
Náxos, the largest and most fertile island, and the highest in elevation, produces fruits, nuts, and wheat. The island of Thera consists of the remains of a volcano that exploded about 1600 BC. The other major islands of the Cyclades include Andros, Íos, Kéa, Kímolos, Kíthnos, Melos (Mílos), Míkonos, Páros, and Tínos.
Small island in the Cyclades in the central Aegean sea, formerly a chief place of the cult of Apollo. In late antiquity there was a substantial community on the island, largely dependent on trade. From the seventh century onwards the island is largely abandoned.
One of the smallest of the Cyclades in Greece, an ancient centre of religious, political, and commercial life in the Aegean Sea. Now largely uninhabited, it is a rugged granite mass about 1.3 square miles (3.4 square km) in area. Also called Lesser Delos, it lies between Rinía (Rhenea), or Megáli Dhílos (Greater Delos), to the west and Míkonos Island to the east.
Among Delos' most noted sculptural artifacts are fragments of a colossal Apollo and nine marble lions. Four main groups of ruins are distinguishable on the west coast: the commercial port and small sanctuaries; the religious city of Apollo, a hieron (sanctuary); the sanctuaries of Mount Cynthos and the theatre; and the region of the Sacred Lake.
Behind the Sacred Harbour begins the paved Sacred, or Processional, Way, 42 feet (13 m) wide. To the west stood a sacred precinct, or shrine, and on the east a terrace with three important temples. The Doric temple of Apollo (mid-5th to 3rd century BC) has plain frieze motifs, scant sculptural decoration, and no interior colonnade. Adjoining it is a Doric Athenian temple (425-417 BC); the third is the Porinos Naos. Beyond this complex is a sanctuary, an unusual elongated structure in two sections. At the north end was an altar built of the horns of animal sacrifices.
Other features of the precinct included a broad road flanked with votive offerings and the precinct of Artemis, with three temples superimposed on one another, perhaps the oldest edifice of pre-Hellenic times. Outside the precinct of Apollo, on the south, was an open space; between this and the precinct was a house for priests; and within it, the tombs of the Hyperborean Maidens, worshipers of Artemis. To the east was the temple of Dionysus, on the other side a large commercial exchange that had a temple of Aphrodite and Hermes.
Behind the commercial harbour were docks and warehouses; behind them lay the private houses of the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC, each featuring a court surrounded by columns and many paved with mosaic. The theatre (early 3rd century BC) lay beyond the commercial harbour, on the lower slope of Mount Cynthus; its summit has remains of ancient Cycladic dwellings (3rd millennium BC) and a small precinct of Kýnthios Zeus (Cynthian Zeus) and Athena. Down the slope lay a sanctuary for foreign gods; the southern section reserved for Egyptian gods, the northern for Syrian.
To the north, on the south side of the Sacred Lake (now drained), was the Agora of Italians, with entrance arches of Doric columns, the most spacious structure in Delos. Nearby, between the lake and the Sacred Harbour, was the Agora of Theophrastos (late 2nd century BC). North of the lake was the Palaestra (gymnasium), a large court with Ionic peristyle, and a stadium about 540 feet (165 m) long.
There are many traditional accounts of Delos' origin. It was inhabited in the late 3rd millennium BC. In the 9th-10th century BC, Ionians brought the cult of Leto, who in legend gave birth there to Artemis and Apollo. The island was already a flourishing port and cult centre, famous for references to it in the Odyssey. After the Persian Wars, in 478 BC the Delian Confederacy was established there under the leadership of Athens, but at the close of the Peloponnesian War Sparta briefly gave Delos its independence.
For 150 years after the breakup of Alexander the Great's empire, Delos was independent. Under Rome after 166 BC, Delos became a free port. In 88 BC Menophaneses, a general of Mithradates VI of Pontus, sacked the island for remaining faithful to Rome; thousands of people were slaughtered. A pirate attack followed (69 BC), and, though Athenian control was restored by Rome in 42 BC, the Greek geographer Pausanias records that the island remained almost uninhabited. By the end of the 1st century AD, changes in trade routes ensured the commercial demise of Delos, and its cults were then or soon thereafter abandoned. From the seventh century onwards there is no evidence of the island being inhabited for long periods.
The largest of the Greek Cyclades islands in the Aegean Sea. The island's highest point is Mount Zeus (Zía Óros), which is about 3,290 feet (1,003 m) in elevation. The 165-square-mile (428-square-kilometre) island forms an eparkhía ("eparchy"). The capital and chief port, Náxos, on the west coast, is on the site of ancient and medieval capitals. In ancient times, Náxos was famous for its wines and was a centre of the worship of the god Dionysus. According to legend, Dionysus found Ariadne asleep on the island's shore after she had been deserted by Theseus. Náxos was inhabited in the early Bronze Age by Cretans, Carians, and Thessalians. The island's artists played an important role in the development of Archaic sculpture. In the 7th and 6th centuries BC, a white, deep-grained marble was exported for statuary, contributing much to the island's prosperity.
During the 6th century BC the tyrant Lygdamis ruled Náxos in alliance with the tyrant Peisistratus of Athens. In 490 the island was captured by the Persians and treated with severity; Náxos deserted Persia in 480, joining the Greeks at the Battle of Salamis and then joining the Delian League. After revolting from the league in 471, Náxos was immediately captured by Athens, which controlled it until 404. The duchy of Naxos was established in the wake of the Fourth Crusade, when the island was captured by the Venetian Marco Sanuclo. He took a number of other Aegean islands and set up a duchy that he rules from 1207 to 1227, keeping about eleven islands for himself and giving the rest in fief to other Venetians, who did homage to him.
In 313 AD, Christianity was officially recognized as the religion of the Roman Empire and from this time the new faith spread rapidly throughout the Greek islands. The eastern Christian empire of Byzantium exercised control over the isle of Patmos and in the 4th century the ancient shrine of Diana was torn down. Directly upon its foundations was erected a church dedicated to St. John but this church was itself destroyed sometime between the 6th and 9th centuries when the island was subjected to frequent raids by the Arabs. Left deserted after these raids, Patmos next entered history in 1088 when a Byzantine emperor granted the island to the monk Christodolous, whose intention it was to establish a monastery. Built upon the remains of the old church and the older shrine of Diana, the monastery of St. John has been in continuous operation for over 900 years. Subjected to raids by Saracens and Norman pirates during the 11th and 12th centuries, the monastery was frequently enlarged and fortified, giving it a castle-like appearance.
The island of Samothrace lies some 32km SW of Alexandroupolis and almost equidistant from the Gallipoli peninsula. The surrounding sea, swept by the prevailing N winds, is usually rough and stormy, making access difficult. There is only one anchorage. Save for a narrow coastal plain in the N and a region of rolling hills to the SW, the island, elliptical in shape and only 176 sq.km in area, consists of eroded granite mountains, rising in Mt Fengari to 1600m. Wild goats roam the mountainsides. Winters are hard, with heavy rains and thick snow. The island enjoys copious springs, and in classical times was probably much more fertile. Fruit is abundant. Few other Greek islands are as dramatic seen from the sea; the enormous mass of Mt Fengari (Saos) looms over your approaching fery like some higher celestial ship. The northern face of Samothrace resembles the mainland across the water: a relatively broad coastal plain, furrowed by streams and burgeoning with planes and beeches, preceding the sudden eruption of Fengari. The southern flanks of Fengari drop off equally steeply, sometimes sheerly, from Lakkoma to the Kipos cape, but heavily cultivated flatlands occupy the entire south western tip of the island. As with most large islands in the Aegean, the southern shore is warmer and drier, with primarily evergreen vegetation in uninhabited regions.
Samothrace, or the 'Samos of Thrace', was a place of pilgrimage for thousands of years, when supplicants were initiated into a mystery religion at the Sanctuary of the Great Gods, tucked into a small valley in the north eastern quarter of the island. These Great Gods or Kabiri were originally pre Olympian, local Thracian deities, later identified by the Samian colonists as the Dioskouroi; similarly, an Anatolian mother-goddess also revered here was syncretised with Demeter. As in the case of the rites of Eleusis, little is known about the ceremonies here, except that unusually they were open to all, including women and slaves, and that - in a foretaste of Christianity - confession, absolution and baptism were administered, along with a smattering of ethical precepts.
After the battle of Pydna, Perseus, the last king of Macedon, sought refuge in the island, only to be taken prisoner by the Romans. Aristarchus (fl. 155-143 BC), editor of Homer, was a native. In 84 BC the sanctuary was pillaged by Corsairs but soon revived under Roman patronage. The legend that Dardanos, the legendary founder of Troy, had come from Samothrace and that his descendant, Aeneas, had brought the cult to Rome, gave Samothrace a particular interest to the Romans. Varro and Piso (father-in-law of Julius Caesar) were initiates. The island, a natural port of call between the Troad and Neapolis, saw St. Paul on his way to Philippi. Hadrian visited Samothrace and though an earthquake c. AD 200 began its decline, the ancient religion survived to the 4th century.
The Sanctuary of the Great GodsThe religion of the Great Gods was a pre-Greek Chthonic cult. The Great Gods comprised the Great Mother of Axieros (related to Cybele and later identified with Demeter), an ithyphallic fertility god called Kadmilos (later identified with Hermes), the powerful Kabeiroi (Dardanos and Aetion), twin demons later fused with Dioskouroi, and Axiokersos and Axiokersa (Hades and Persephone). In later times Hekate, Aphrodite and kadmos and Harmonia were added by assimilation or confusion. Ancient writers fought shy of saying much about the Kabeiroi, whose wrath was considered implacable. They were Anatolian in origin and, save of Thebes, hardly known in mainland Greece. Towards the end of the Archaic period Samothrace overtook Lemnos in importance as their principal place of worship.The sanctuary had an extra-territorial character, apparently independent of the city-state that adjoined it, since at festivals this sent envoys like any other polis. Initiation into the mysteries, which was not essential for attendance at the sanctuary (unlike Eleusis), was open to anyone, regardless of nationality, sex, age or social status. Initiation could be obtained at any time and its two degrees (myesis and epoptia) could be taken without interval. A moral standard seems to have been required for the higher degree (which was not obligatory but, rather, exceptional) and some form of confession and absolution preceded it. Ceremonies apparently took place by torchlight. The early sanctuary, approached from the W, occupied the promontory between the E and central torrents. A sacrificial area of the 7th century BC underlies the Temenos and utilitarian structures were added piecemeal in the 5th century and early 4th century. The temple area was lavishly renewed in marble by the Ptolemies. A new access from the town side was provided by Ptolemy II Philadelphus, after which the site was extended to typically Hellenistic planned design on the promontory between the central and W streams. Excavations were begun in 1863 by Champoiseau, French consul at Adrianople, who discovered the famous Victory now in the Louvre in Paris. A French mission mapped the site in 1866. Austrian expeditions, directed by A. Conze in 1873 and 1875, uncovered the Ptolemaion; its marbles were divided between Austria and Turkey but only a few of those shipped to Gallipoli arrived in Turkey. A Swedish team worked on the site in 1923-25. In 1938 systematic exploration was begun by the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University. |
A group of Greek islands in the Aegean Sea, lying northeast of Euboea island, including Skíathos, Skópelos, Skyros, and Alónnisos, as well as neighboring islets. In antiquity these were known as the Thessalian, or Northern, Sporades, while the Thracian, or Eastern, Sporades included the island of Imvros, Samothrace, Thasos, Lemnos, and Áyios Evstrátios in the northeast Aegean. The Western Sporades were the scattered small islands of the southwestern Aegean, with the exception of the Cyclades and the islands of the Saronic Gulf; the Western Sporades included Hydra and Spétsai.
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