Samos
Samos is a Greek island in the eastern Aegean Sea, south of Chios, north of Patmos and the Dodecanese archipelago, and off the coast of western Turkey, from which it is separated by the Mycale Strait. It is also a separate regional unit of the North Aegean region.
In ancient times, Samos was an especially rich and powerful city-state, particularly known for its vineyards and wine production. It is home to Pythagoreion and the Heraion of Samos, a UNESCO World Heritage Site that includes the Eupalinian aqueduct, a marvel of ancient engineering. Samos is the birthplace of the Greek philosopher and mathematician Pythagoras, after whom the Pythagorean theorem is named, the philosophers Melissus of Samos and Epicurus, and the astronomer Aristarchus of Samos, the first known individual to propose that the Earth revolves around the Sun. Samian wine was well known in antiquity and is still produced on the island.
The island was governed by the semi-autonomous Principality of Samos under Ottoman suzerainty from 1835 until it joined Greece in March 1913.
Etymology
derived the name from the Phoenician word ??? .Geography
The area of the island is, and it is long and wide. It is separated from Anatolia by the approximately Mycale Strait. While largely mountainous, Samos has several relatively large and fertile plains.A great portion of the island is covered with vineyards, from which Muscat wine is made. The most important plains other than the capital, Vathy, in the northeast, are those of Karlovasi, in the northwest, Pythagoreio, in the southeast, and Marathokampos in the southwest. The island's population is 33,814, which makes it the 9th most populous of the Greek islands. The Samian climate is typically Mediterranean, with mild rainy winters, and warm rainless summers.
Samos's relief is dominated by two large mountains, Ampelos and Kerkis. The Ampelos massif is the larger of the two and occupies the centre of the island, rising to. Mt. Kerkis, though smaller in area, is the taller of the two, and its summit is the island's highest point, at. The mountains are a continuation of the Mycale range on the Anatolian mainland.
Fauna
Samos is home to many species including the golden jackal, stone marten, wild boar, flamingos and monk seal.Climate
Samos has a hot-summer Mediterranean climate, with mild, rainy winters and hot, dry summers. The highest temperature ever recorded is while the lowest is. July is the hottest and driest month followed by August while February is the coldest month and December records the highest amount of precipitation. Samos receives about of rainfall annually while the average annual temperature is. Humidity is lowest during the summer and highest at the end of autumn.History
Early and Classical antiquity
In classical antiquity, the island was a centre of Ionian culture and luxury, renowned for its Samian wines and its red pottery. Its most famous building was the Ionic order archaic Temple of goddess Hera—the Heraion.Concerning the earliest history of Samos, literary tradition is singularly defective. At the time of the great migrations, it received an Ionian population which traced its origin to Epidaurus in Argolis: Samos became one of the twelve members of the Ionian League. By the 7th century BC, it had become one of the leading commercial centres of Greece. This early prosperity of the Samians seems largely due to the island's position near trade routes, which facilitated the import of textiles from inner Asia Minor, but the Samians also developed an extensive oversea commerce. They helped to open up trade with the population that lived around the Black Sea as well as with Egypt, Cyrene, Corinth, and Chalcis. Among the colonies the Samians founded, most of them in the sixth century BC, were Bisanthe, Perinthus, and Samothrace, Cydonia, Nagidos and Kelenderis, Dicaearchia, and Oasis Polis. The trade caused them to become bitter rivals with Miletus. Samos was able to become so prominent despite the growing power of the Persian empire because of the alliance they had with the Egyptians and their powerful fleet. The Samians are also credited with having been the first Greeks to reach the Straits of Gibraltar.
The feud between Miletus and Samos broke out into open strife during the Lelantine War, with which a Samian innovation in Greek naval warfare may be connected, the use of the trireme. The result of this conflict was to confirm the supremacy of the Milesians in eastern waters for the time being; but in the 6th century, the insular position of Samos preserved it from those aggressions at the hands of Asiatic kings to which Miletus was henceforth exposed. About 535 BC, when the existing oligarchy was overturned by the tyrant Polycrates, Samos reached the height of its prosperity. Its navy not only protected it from invasion but also ruled supreme in Aegean waters. The city was beautified with public works, and its school of sculptors, metal-workers and engineers achieved high repute.
Eupalinian aqueduct
In the 6th century BC, Samos was ruled by the famous tyrant Polycrates. During his reign, two working groups under the leadership of the engineer Eupalinos dug a tunnel through Mount Kastro to build an aqueduct to supply the ancient capital of Samos with fresh water, as this was of the utmost defensive importance. Eupalinos's tunnel is particularly notable because it is the second earliest tunnel in history to be dug from both ends in a methodical manner. With a length of over, Eupalinos's subterranean aqueduct is today regarded as one of the masterpieces of ancient engineering. The aqueduct is now part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Pythagoreion.Persian Wars and Persian rule
After Polycrates's death, Samos suffered a severe blow when the Persian Achaemenid Empire conquered and partly depopulated the island. It had regained much of its power when in 499 BC it joined the general revolt of the Ionian city-states against Persia; but owing to its long-standing jealousy of Miletus, it rendered indifferent service, and at the decisive battle of Lade, part of its contingent of sixty ships was guilty of outright treachery. In 479BC, the Samians led the revolt against Persia, during the Battle of Mycale, which was part of the offensive by the Delian League.Samian War
In the Delian League, Samos held a position of special privilege and remained actively loyal to Athens until 440 BC, when a dispute with Miletus, which the Athenians had decided against them, induced them to secede. With a fleet of sixty ships, they held their own for some time against a large Athenian fleet led by Pericles himself, but after a protracted siege, they were forced to capitulate. Samos was punished, but Thucydides tells readers not as harshly as other states which rebelled against Athens. Most in the past had been forced to pay tribute, but Samos was only told to repay the damages that the rebellion had cost the Athenians: 1,300 talents, to pay back in instalments of 50 talents per annum.Peloponnesian War
During the Peloponnesian War, Samos took the side of Athens against Sparta, providing their port to the Athenian fleet. At the end of the Peloponnesian War, Samos appears as one of the most loyal dependencies of Athens, serving as a base for the naval war against the Peloponnesians and as a temporary home of the Athenian democracy during the revolution of the Four Hundred at Athens, and in the last stage of the war was rewarded with the Athenian franchise. This friendly attitude towards Athens was the result of a series of political revolutions, which ended in the establishment of a democracy. After the downfall of Athens, Samos was besieged by Lysander and again placed under an oligarchy.In 394 BC, the withdrawal of the Spartan navy induced the island to declare its independence and re-establish a democracy, but by the peace of Antalcidas, it fell again under Persian dominion. It was recovered by the Athenians in 366 after a siege of eleven months, and received a strong body of military settlers, the cleruchs, which proved vital in the Social War. After the Lamian War, when Athens was deprived of Samos, the vicissitudes of the island can no longer be followed.
Famous Samians of antiquity
Perhaps the most famous persons ever connected with classical Samos were the philosopher and mathematician Pythagoras and the fabulist Aesop. In 1955, the town of Tigani was renamed Pythagoreio in honour of the philosopher.Other notable personalities include the philosophers Melissus of Samos and Epicurus, who were of Samian birth, and the astronomer Aristarchus of Samos, whom history credits with the first recorded heliocentric model of the Solar System. The historian Herodotus, known by his Histories, resided in Samos for a while.
There was a school of sculptors and architects that included Rhoecus, the architect of the Temple of Hera, and the great sculptor and inventor Theodorus, who is said to have invented with Rhoecus the art of casting statues in bronze.
The vases of Samos were among the most characteristic products of Ionian pottery in the 6th century.
Hellenistic and Roman eras
For some time, Samos served as a base for the Egyptian fleet of the Ptolemies; at other periods, it recognized the overlordship of Seleucid Syria. In 189 BC, it was transferred by the Romans to their vassal, the Attalid dynasty's Hellenistic kingdom of Pergamon, in Asia Minor.Enrolled from 133 in the Roman province of Asia Minor, Samos sided with Aristonicus and Mithridates against its overlord, and consequently forfeited its autonomy, which it only temporarily recovered between the reigns of Augustus and Vespasian. Nevertheless, Samos remained comparatively flourishing and was able to contest with Smyrna and Ephesus the title "first city of lonia"; it was chiefly noted as a health resort and for the manufacture of pottery. Since Emperor Diocletian's Tetrarchy, it became part of the Provincia Insularum, in the diocese of Asiana in the eastern empire's pretorian prefecture of Oriens.