Listed 6 sub titles with search on: Information about the place for destination: "AMORGOS Island KYKLADES".
Island SE of Naxos with three areas of habitation, centering on Aigiale
(modern Vigla), Minoa (Katapola), and Arkesine (Kastri). Many Early Bronze Age
burials and rich grave goods have been known since the 19th c., and recently neighboring
islets, Ano Kouphonesi, Donousa, Herakleia, Keros, and Schoinoussa have yielded
extensive finds. Donousa also had a fortified Geometric settlement.
The Greek inhabitants may have come from Samos and perhaps Naxos.
The Amorgians participated collectively in the Athenian Empire from 437 B.C. on,
and in the Second Athenian Confederacy (Athens garrisoned Arkesine ca. 357); they
issued coins (cf. Lambros) and certified amphoras, and their cloth was especially
fine. The Battle of Amorgos ended the Lamian War in 322. Amorgos belonged at various
times to the Island League, and was later attached to the Roman province of Asia,
though the island enjoyed autonomy which was reaffirmed by Antoninus Pius. It
was a place of exile under the Julio-Claudian emperors. Each of the three cities
had an independent constitution and magistrates at least from the 4th c. on, and
in the late 3d c. B.C. a Samian settlement existed at Minoa and a Milesian settlement
at Aigiale. The Naxian settlement at Arkesine is not certainly attested until
Imperial times.
Extensive remains have been recorded: architectural, sculptural, ceramic,
and epigraphic, from prehistoric to late Roman times, and finds continue. So-called
Hellenic towers and Roman tombs appear especially in the center and E of the island,
while at Arkesine, in the W, Greek walls surround an acropolis. Remains of temples
are cited from Minoa and. Aigiale, but no systematic descriptions have been published.
Some finds, are in the Katapola museum, others in Syros or Athens.
M. B. Wallace, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Nov 2002 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
Amorgos (Amorgos: Eth. Amorginos, also Amorgios, Amorgiies: Amorgo), an island of the Sporades in the Aegean sea, SE. of Naxos. It is rarely mentioned in history, and is chiefly celebrated as the birthplace of the iambic poet Simonides. (Strab. p. 487.) There was in Amorgos a manufactory of a peculiar kind of linen garments, which bore the name of the island, and which were dyed red. (Steph. B. s. v.; Eustath. ad Dionys. 526; Pollux, vii. 16.) In dyeing them use appears to have been made of a kind of lichen, which is still found in the island, and of which Tournefort has given an account. The soil of Amorgos is fertile. It produces at present corn, oil, wine, figs, tobacco, and cotton, all of good quality. Hence it was considered under the Roman empire one of the most favourable places for banishment. (Tac. Ann. iv. 30.) We learn from Scylax that Amorgos contained three towns, the names of which, according to Stephanus (s. v. Amorgos), were Minoa (Minoa, Minuia, Ptol. v. 2. § 33), the birthplace of Simonides, Arcesine (Arkesine), and Aegiale (Aigiale, Begialis, Ptol.). Remains of all these cities have been discovered, and a minute description of them is given by Ross, who spent several days upon the island. They are all situated on the western side of the island opposite Naxos, Aegiale at the N., and Arcesine at the S., while Minoa lies more in the centre, at the head of a large and convenient harbour, now called Ta Katapola, because it is kata ten polin. It appears, from the inscriptions found in the island, that it possessed other demes besides the above-mentioned towns. It is probable that Melania (Melania), which Stephanus in another passage (s. v. Arkesine) mentions as one of the three towns of Amorgos in place of Aegiale, may have been one of these demes. We learn from several inscriptions that Milesians were settled in Minoa and Aegiale, and that they formed in the latter town a separate community. (Bockh, Corp. Inscr. vol. ii. No. 2264; Ross, Inscr. Gr. Lined. vol. ii. No. 112, 120-122.) The island contains at present 3,500 inhabitants. (Tournefort, Voyage, &c. vol. ii. p. 182, seq.; Fiedler, Reise, &c. vol. ii. p. 325, seq.; and more especially Ross, Reisen auf den Griech. Inseln, vol. i. p. 173, seq., vol. ii. p. 39, seq.)
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited July 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
An island, one of the Sporades, and the birthplace of the poet Simonides. The Roman emperors used it as a place of banishment.
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