Listed 32 sub titles with search on: History for wider area of: "LESVOS Prefecture NORTH AEGEAN" .
LESVOS (Island) NORTH AEGEAN
MITHYMNA (Ancient city) LESVOS
Now after he (Thrasybulus) had accomplished these things and had won over the Calchedonians also as friends, he sailed back out of the Hellespont. And finding that all the cities in Lesbos except Mytilene were on the side of the Lacedaemonians, he went against none of them until he had marshalled in Mytilene the four hundred hoplites from his own ships and all the exiles from the Lesbian cities who had fled for refuge to Mytilene, and had also added to this force the stoutest of the Mytilenaeans themselves; nor, furthermore, until he had suggested hopes, firstly to the Mytilenaeans, that if he captured the cities they would be the leaders of all Lesbos, secondly to the exiles, that if they proceeded all together against each single one of the cities, they would be able, acting in unison, to accomplish their restoration to their native states, and again to his marines, that by making Lesbos likewise friendly to their state they would at once obtain a great abundance of money. Then, after giving them this encouragement and marshalling them in line of battle, he led them against Methymna. Therimachus, however, who chanced to be the Lacedaemonian governor, on hearing that Thrasybulus was coming against him, took the marines from his own ships, the Methymnaeans themselves, and all the Mytilenaean exiles who chanced to be there, and went to meet the enemy at the borders. A battle was fought in which Therimachus was killed on the spot and many of the others were killed as they fled.
This extract is from: Xenophon, Hellenica. Cited Sept 2003 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlink
In this year (392 BC) the Athenians chose Thrasybulus general and sent him to sea with forty triremes. He sailed to Ionia, collected funds from the allies, and proceeded on his way; and while tarrying at the Chersonesus he made allies of Medocus and Seuthes, the kings of the Thracians. After some time he sailed from the Hellespont to Lesbos and anchored off the coast at Eresus. But strong winds arose and twenty-three triremes were lost. Getting off safe with the other ships he advanced against the cities of Lesbos, with the intention of winning them over; for they had all revolted with the exception of Mitylene. First he appeared before Methymna and joined battle with the men of the city, who were commanded by the Spartan Therimachus. In a brilliant fight he slew not only Therimachus himself but no small number of the Methymnaeans and shut up the rest of them within their walls; he also ravaged the territory of the Methymnaeans and received the surrender of Eresus and Antissa. After this he gathered ships from the Chian and Mitylenaean allies and sailed to Rhodes.
This extract is from: Diodorus Siculus, Library (ed. C. H. Oldfather, 1989). Cited Oct 2003 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains comments & interesting hyperlinks.
ANTISSA (Ancient city) LESVOS
In 167 B.C. the Romans destroyed Antissa, and gave her territory to Methymna.
LEMNOS (LIMNOS) (Island) NORTH AEGEAN
Miltiades (1) son of Cimon took possession of Lemnos in this way:
When the Pelasgians (2) were driven out of Attica by the Athenians, whether justly
or unjustly I cannot say, beyond what is told; namely, that Hecataeus the son
of Hegesandrus declares in his history that the act was unjust; for when the Athenians
saw the land under Hymettus, formerly theirs, which they had given to the Pelasgians
as a dwelling place in reward for the wall that had once been built around the
acropolis when the Athenians saw how well this place was tilled which previously
had been bad and worthless, they were envious and coveted the land, and so drove
the Pelasgians out on this and no other pretext. The Pelasgians departed and took
possession of Lemnos, besides other places. This is the Athenian story; the other
is told by Hecataeus.
These Pelasgians dwelt at that time in Lemnos and desired vengeance
on the Athenians. Since they well knew the time of the Athenian festivals, they
acquired fifty-oared ships and set an ambush for the Athenian women celebrating
the festival of Artemis at Brauron. They seized many of the women, then sailed
away with them and brought them to Lemnos to be their concubines . These women
bore more and more children, and they taught their sons the speech of Attica and
Athenian manners. These boys would not mix with the sons of the Pelasgian women;
if one of them was beaten by one of the others, they would all run to his aid
and help each other; these boys even claimed to rule the others, and were much
stronger. When the Pelasgians perceived this, they took counsel together; it troubled
them much in their deliberations to think what the boys would do when they grew
to manhood, if they were resolved to help each other against the sons of the lawful
wives and attempted to rule them already. Thereupon the Pelasgians resolved to
kill the sons of the Attic women; they did this, and then killed the boys' mothers
also. From this deed and the earlier one which was done by the women when they
killed their own husbands who were Thoas' companions, a "Lemnian crime"
has been a proverb in Hellas for any deed of cruelty.
But when the Pelasgians had murdered their own sons and women, their
land brought forth no fruit, nor did their wives and their flocks and herds bear
offspring as before. Crushed by hunger and childlessness, they sent to Delphi
to ask for some release from their present ills. The Pythian priestess ordered
them to pay the Athenians whatever penalty the Athenians themselves judged. The
Pelasgians went to Athens and offered to pay the penalty for all their wrongdoing.
The Athenians set in their town-hall a couch adorned as finely as possible, and
placed beside it a table covered with all manner of good things, then ordered
the Pelasgians to deliver their land to them in the same condition. The Pelasgians
answered, "We will deliver it when a ship with a north wind accomplishes
the voyage from your country to ours in one day"; they supposed that this
was impossible, since Attica is far to the south of Lemnos. (3)
At the time that was all. But a great many years later (4), when the
Chersonese on the Hellespont was made subject to Athens, Miltiades son of Cimon
accomplished the voyage from Elaeus on the Chersonese to Lemnos with the Etesian
winds (5) then constantly blowing; he proclaimed that the Pelasgians must leave
their island, reminding them of the oracle which the Pelasgians thought would
never be fulfilled. The Hephaestians obeyed, but the Myrinaeans would not agree
that the Chersonese was Attica and were besieged, until they too submitted. Thus
did Miltiades and the Athenians take possession of Lemnos.
Commentary
(1) Meyer suggest...that the conquest of Lemnos... was not the work of the great
Miltiades, but of his namesake and predecessor, the son of Cypselus, oekist of
the Chersonese. If so, he acted as the agent of Pisistratus in seizing Lemnos
and expelling the Pelasgi. This would fit in with the prediction, which regards
the conqueror of Lemnos as representing Athens. Meyer urges that there was no
time for the conquest and Hellenizing of the island during the troubled period
of the Ionic revolt, so that he would in any case date the settlement of Attic
cleruchs there, even if ascribed to Miltiades II, to the period of Pisistratid
rule, before the Persian conquest of the islands. But Herod. distinctly says that
up to that time the Pelasgi still dwelt there. It seems therefore better to accept
the solution of Busolt that the Pelasgi, already weakened by the Persian conquest,
were expelled by Miltiades after 500, who settled the island as tyrant of the
Chersonese, and that the Attic cleruchy in Lemnos (Thuc. vii. 57; C. I. A. i.
443, 444) is to be connected with the reduction of the tribute circ. 447 B. C.
Previously, as in the Chersonese, there had been settlers from Attica, not a formal
Attic colony.
(2) The Pelasgians were driven into Attica by the Boeotian immigration, about
sixty years after the Trojan war according to legend. On the Pelasgi cf. App.
XV. 5. E. Meyer holds that there was no old Attic tradition about the Pelasgi,
the story given here being a mere reply to Hecataeus.
(3) The legend invented to justify Athenian dominion over Lemnos treats these
Attic boys as its natural lords and masters.
(4) Five hundred years before the Ionian revolt.
(5) The Etesian winds: North-east winds, blowing in July, August, and September.
This extract is from: Herodotus. The Histories (ed. A. D. Godley, 1920), Cambridge. Harvard University Press. Cited Dec 2003 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains comments & interesting hyperlinks.
MYTILINI (Ancient city) LESVOS
Lesbos joined the Greek revolt against Rome in the Mithridatic war and in 88 B.C. the Romans destroyed Mytilene and extended Roman domination over the whole island.
In 427, after a siege, the Athenians gained control of Mytilene, and divided a large section of the island among 2700 Athenians cleruchs, after harshly punishing the instigators of the revolt.
LESVOS (Island) NORTH AEGEAN
No trace of the ancient city (Ilium at Troad) survives; and naturally
so, for while the cities all round it were sacked, but not completely destroyed,
yet that city was so utterly demolished that all the stones were taken from it
to rebuild the others. At any rate, Archaeanax of Mitylene is said to have built
a wall round Sigeium with stones taken from there. Sigeium was seized by Athenians
under Phrynon the Olympian victor, although the Lesbians laid claim to almost
the whole of the Troad. Most of the settlements in the Troad belong, in fact,
to the Lesbians, and some endure to this day, while others have disappeared. Pittacus
of Mitylene, one of the Seven Wise Men, as they are called, sailed against Phrynon
the general and for a time carried on the war, but with poor management and ill
consequences. It was at this time that the poet Alcaeus says that he himself,
being sorely pressed in a certain battle, threw away his arms. He addresses his
account of it to a certain herald, whom he had bidden to report to the people
at home that "Alcaeus is safe, but his arms have been hung up as an offering to
Ares by the Attic army in the temple of Athena Glaucopis." But later, on being
challenged to single combat by Phrynon, he took up his fishing-tackle, ran to
meet him, entangled him in his fishing net, and stabbed and slew him with trident
and dagger. But since the war still went on, Periander was chosen by both sides
as arbiter and ended it.
This extract is from: The Geography of Strabo (ed. H. L. Jones, 1924), Cambridge. Harvard University Press. Cited Jan 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains comments & interesting hyperlinks.
Following the end of the Late Bronze Age there was a 400 year hiatus at the site (Troy) until it was resettled at ca. 700 B.C. by Greek colonists, possibly from Lesbos or Tenedos.
Sestus, a colony of the Lesbians, as is also Madytus, as the Geographer says, is a Chersonesian city thirty stadia distant from Abydus, from harbor to harbor (Strabo Fr.55b)
MITHYMNA (Ancient city) LESVOS
The acropolis of Assos was occupied in the Bronze Age, but first began to expand in the 8th and 7th centuries B.C. when Aeolian colonists from Methymna on Lesbos replaced the Carian inhabitants.
Myrsilus says that Assus was founded by the Methymnaeans (Stabo 13,1,58)
MYTILINI (Ancient city) LESVOS
Amasis became a philhellene, and besides other services which he did
for some of the Greeks, he gave those who came to Egypt the city of Naucratis
to live in; and to those who travelled to the country without wanting to settle
there, he gave lands where they might set up altars and make holy places for their
gods. Of these the greatest and most famous and most visited precinct is that
which is called the Hellenion, founded jointly by the Ionian cities of Chios,
Teos, Phocaea, and Clazomenae, the Dorian cities of Rhodes, Cnidus, Halicarnassus,
and Phaselis, and one Aeolian city, Mytilene.
Throughout its long history, Lesvos has to show for a plethora of
intellectuals. The most famous among the ones who lived and worked on the island
are: Terpandros (700 B.C.), poet and musician the father of ancient lyrical poetry,
Pittakos (648 B.C.) politician and one of the seven wise men of Ancient Greece,
Arion (625 B.C.), a charismatic lyrical poet and mucisian, Alcaeus (600 B.C.),
one of the best known lyrical poets of ancient Greece, and finally Sappho (620
B.C.), the most famous ancient Greek poetesses whose poems, distinguished for
their stylistic elegance, passion and depth of feeling, won her the name the "tenth
Muse". Other significant personalities are Theophrastus (372 B.C.) philosopher
and botanist - known as the father of botany - and Theophanes (100 B.C.), a significant
historian who accompanied Pompey in his Asia Minor expeditions.
During the Roman and Byzantine periods the island’s intellectual
life is relatively stagnant. During the years of the Turkish occupation, the cultural
life declines but during the 15th century the Monastery of Lemonas becomes the
center of the island’s intellectual revival.
In the 18th century significant personalities appear: Ignatius of
Hungary - Wallachia and Benjamin the Lesvian, who is numbered among a group of
18th and 19th century scholars known as the "teachers of the race".
In the 19th century, the brothers Dimitrios and Gregorios Vernardakis,
Georgios Aristedis and Christoforos Leilios support Greek education and the intellectual
life of the island.
Later, during the 20th century, Argyris Eftaliotis blows new breath
into Greek Literature, while the great novelists Stratis Myrivilis and Elias Venezis
send pacifistic and humanistic messages to an international reading public. F.Kontoglou,
K.Makistos, S.Paraskevaedis, P.Samaras, A.Panselinos, M.Kountouras, V.Archontides
and the poet and Nobel laureate Odysseas Elytis, whose poetry along with that
of Sappho made the beauty of the island’s nature famous, contributed to
a flourishing of the letters that came to be known as the "Lesvian Spring".
Certainly, intellectual production could not be limited to literature
and poetry. At the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th F.Kontoglou,
Iakovides, Protopatsis, O.Kanellis, the famous folk painter Theophilos Chatzimichael
and the art critic and inspired editor of art-books Stratis Eleftheriadis - Teriad
each makes his own contribution to art.
To this day - at the dawn of the 21st century - cultural life on the
island is rich and many creative people as well as cultural societies still contribute
to the ongoing intellectual Spring of Lesvos.
This text is cited May 2003 from the Prefecture of Lesvos URL below, which contains images.
LEMNOS (LIMNOS) (Island) NORTH AEGEAN
At Dawn on 19 June 1807, off Lemnos, ten Russian ships attacked a
Turkish fleet of 14 ships. During the battle the Raphael became dismasted and
drifted towards the Turkish line. The Tverdoi came up in support but was soon
also unmanageable. Superior Russian gunnery gradually won the day, however, and
the Turks began to withdraw losing their flag ship, the Sedd-ul-Bakir, to the
Russians. The battle had lasted some hours when a calm set in, and the fleets
drifted apart. All night the Russians tried to close with the enemy but by next
morning the Turks fell off towards Thasos. In the insuing chase the Russians managed
to overtake and destroy a ship of the line and 2 frigates and the Turks abandoned
and burned another ship of the line and frigate. Turkish losses were 3 ships of
the line (Sedd-ul-Bakir captured and 2 more burned), and 3 frigates. The Turks
lost over 500 men on one ship alone while the Russians had 135 killed and 409
wounded. Lemnos was the major Russian naval engagement and victory for the Napoleonic
era.
LESVOS (Island) NORTH AEGEAN
Arginusae (Arginousai). Three small islands off the coast of Aeolis, opposite Mytilene in Lesbos, celebrated for the naval victory of the Athenians over the Lacedaemonians under Callicratidas, B.C. 406.
MOUDROS (Small town) LEMNOS (LIMNOS)
LEMNOS (LIMNOS) (Island) NORTH AEGEAN
The pre-historical period
The first people who definitely lived in Lemnos were of the Middle
neolithic period during the 5th millenium BC. They most probably came from Asia
Minor and it seems that they colonized all the island because at many points were
found neolithic period communities, like in Axia, Ifestia,
Komi and others.
They were able to develop a remarkable civilization with duration
and continuation at Poliochni
where over 1500 years the community that started as a small neolithic period village,
ended-up as a prosperous city of the copper-governed period where it dominated
not only on the island but also other sea areas around it. Poliochni was suddenly
destroyed around 1300 BC probably by an earthquake.
After the destruction of Poliochni the capital and center of the island
became Mirina whose name
originated from the queen of the island Mirina the wife of king Thoas.
The era of Trojan war
During the era of the Trojan war (12th or 13th century BC) on Lemnos
governed the Minies with king Evino and capital city was Mirina. Homer specifically
mentions that the people of Lemnos had business dealing with the Achaians , and
also offered hospitality to the wounded Filoktiti.
During the 11th century BC the island was governed by the Pelasgians
and the Minies that abandoned the island went to live in Trifilia
close to Pylos.
The classical years
During the Persian wars went to war against Darius but around 512
BC they submitted to the persian general Otani. The first persian occupation lasted
until 510 BC when the island came under the government of Athens. The second persian
occupation during 493-479 BC ended up with the naval war of Mikali.
The people of the island mixed with the Athenian governors and around
the 4th century BC the island has a parliament, assembly and political activities
similar to those of the Athenians.
During this era Lemnos was called Dipolis (Double-City) which originated
from the existence of the two major cities Mirina and Ifestia.
The Roman era
Lemnos was conquered by the Romans in the 166 BC and the island met
a period of calm and peace and an upraise and maximum potential with the appearance
of the family of sophists, the Filostrati family.
Byzantium
There aren't many detailed information about the island during the
Byzantine period. In 325 the bishop of Lemnos Stratigios took place in the first
Universal Congress. The next bishop of Lemnos named Silouanos appeared in 680
at the sixth Universal Congress.
During the era of Constantine the Great, the island belonged to the
subject of eastern Illirium. From the 7th until 11th century the Byzantine used
the island to repair their ships and also as a naval base.
During the middle Byzantine years the island belonged to the subject
of Greece and later came under the subject of the Aegean. During 11th century
it went under the control of Thessaloniki.
The conquest of the Byzantine was interrupted many times by the Arabs,
the Venetian and the Genouates. The Turks never conquered the island. Whenever
they attempted they faced the heroic resistance of the island's people. Their
greatest victory was in the battle of Kotsinas in 1475 when Maroula of Lemnos
was distinguished.
To the Turks the island was handed over by the Venetian in 1456 initially
and later definitely in 1479.
Turkish occupation
The first appearance of the Turks on the island is mentioned around
1442 when they sieged it for 27 days. Among the sieged people were Constantine
Paleologos and his second wife Caterina Gatelouzou who died from the hardship
and a difficult pregnancy.
During the years that followed the island declined until the year
1700 when it passed into a period of calmness and reconstruction. Already the
capital city of the island is Castro (castle) today's Mirina. In 1770 after a
revolution under the leadership of the Russian general Orlof the island id destroyed
again by the Turks and begins a period of persecutions, disasters and rooting
out.
In 1821, Lemnos because of its position close to the Dardanelles didn't
join in with the revolution despite that many Lemnians joined and gave battle
inland and at sea.
In 1854 during the period of the Krimaican war an attempt for freedom
was made but it was impeded violently by the English navy.
Liberation
Lemnos was liberated on October 8th 1912 by the Greek navy just three
days after the initiation of the 1st Balkan war. Admiral Koundouriotis conquered
the island and developed a naval base which controlled the exit of the Dardanelles.
During the 1st World War and after 1925 during the expedition of Kallipolis,
Lemnos became an English military base and the bay of Moudros was used as a naval
base by the English.
In 1922, 4500 immigrants from Turkey entered Lemnos to whom land was
distributed from the Turkish estates and the inheritance of the monasteries.
During the 2nd World War the Germans occupied Lemnos on April 25th
1941 and remained on the island until October 16th 1944.
After the 2nd World War Lemnos became an exile island for many years.
During this period many people migrated to Australia, Canada, USA, South Africa
etc and the population started to decline. From the 24.018 people of the 1951
census only 15.721 registered in 1981.
This text is cited May 2003 from the Limnos Medical Association URL below.
LESVOS (Island) NORTH AEGEAN
LEMNOS (LIMNOS) (Island) NORTH AEGEAN
In that battle Antidorus of Lemnos, the only one of the Greeks siding with the Persian, deserted to the Greeks, and for that the Athenians gave him land in Salamis (Hdt. 8.11.1)
With this ship that deserted at Salamis and the Lemnian which deserted earlier at Artemisium, the Hellenic fleet reached its full number of three hundred and eighty ships, for it had fallen short of the number by two ships(Hdt. 8.82.1)
LESVOS (Island) NORTH AEGEAN
In 499 B.C. Lesbos joined the Ionian revolt against the Persians, and in 494 took part in the battle of Lade with 70 triremes.
MYTILINI (Ancient city) LESVOS
Near the outlet of the Hebrus, which has two mouths, lies the city Aenus, on the Melas Gulf; it was founded by Mitylenaeans and Cumaeans, though in still earlier times by Alopeconnesians.
On the next stretch of coast one comes to the villages of the Mitylenaeans, I mean Coryphantis and Heracleia
ARISVI (Ancient city) LESVOS
The city of Arisba was independent before the time of Herodotos, but was soon taken over by Methymna.
ERESSOS (Ancient city) LESVOS
He gathered a force of mercenaries, manned three hundred ships, and pursued the conflict vigorously. He secured Chios, and then coasting along to Lesbos easily mastered Antissa and Methymna and Pyrrha and Eressus.
LESVOS (Island) NORTH AEGEAN
From about 546 to 479 B.C. Lesbos was ruled by the Persians
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