User:T8612/Samos (polis)

Samos was an ancient Greek city-state located on the namesake island in the eastern Aegean Sea and the coast of Asia Minor. It was one of the most important poleis of the Archaic and Classical Era.

Archaic era
Samos was inhabited since at least 2700 and settled c.1500 by the Myceneans; some Minoan remains have also been found. Between the 11th and 9th century, a long migration called the Ionian Migration took place from mainland Greece to Asia Minor through the Aegean islands. The Samians later considered they mainly came from Epidauros, a city in the eastern Peloponnese, under the leadership of Procles. The Greek geographer Pausanias mentions that during the reign of Leogoros (Procles' son), the Samians went to war with the Ephesians, who accused them of conspiring with Carians, the indigenous people of southeastern Asia Minor. The story may be ahistorical, but could tell that the island was not empty and the colonisation of the island by the mainland Greeks was made in partnership with locals.

At the end of the Dark Ages, Pythagoreion became the principal settlement of the island, on the southern coast. Not far to the west, one of the first temples of the Greek world was built in th 790s at the Heraion. Dedicated to Hera, it took the name Hecatompedon because it was 100 feet in length, which make it one of the most impressive buildings of the Greek world at the time. The size of the building denotes a strong political organisation and the will to display the city's power at an early date.

Dated shortly before 700, the war against Melia is the first historical event related to Samos, which is found in a Greek coalition with Priene, Miletos, and Colophon. Located on the mainland opposite to Samos, Melia had probably been founded by Colophon, but was ethnically Carian. Melia presumably triggered a religious war from its neighbours, fueled by racial hatred between Greeks and Carians. The Greeks emerged victorious and Melia was completely destroyed, while its land was shared between the victors. Samos received a significant territory on the mainland, which it held with some changes throughout its existence, and therefore ceased to be an island. The area was principally used for growing wheat.

During the 7th century, Samos embarked in colonisation ventures in several directions. On the southern coast of Asia Minor, it founded Nagidos and Kellenderis in Cilicia. Their main purpose was to serve as trading posts for the trade with the East, especially Cyprus, although they also engaged in piracy. Both the conquest of Melia and the colonies aimed at reducing the demographic pressure on the island. Following a short-lived invasion of Ionia by the Cimmerians c.640, Samos' mainland inhabitants temporarily lost their possessions and were later reluctant to return, because the area is difficult to defend. These people were likely the colonists that followed the poet Semonides to the island of Amorgos, probably between 620 and 600. Amorgos was a good stopping point for travels to Crete, Kyrene, and the Western Mediterranean. Besides, a Samian is recorded in the colonisation of Thera to Kyrene. Samos was furthermore active in the Propontis area, which connected the Aegean with the Black Sea. Perinthos was the fist colony there, founded in c.602, followed by Bisanthe and Heraion Teichos on the same shore. Samos was also able to capture the nearby island of Proconnesus (now the island of Marmara) from Kyzikos, itself a colony of Miletos.

In the early 7th century, the Greek world was torn in two groups, each led by each of the main poleis of Euboea island: Chalkis and Eretria, in a conflict known as the Lelantine War. The Greek cities united against Malia ended, as Samos supported Chalkis, while its neighbours Miletos and Erythrai supported Eretria. These regional rivalries continued for centuries.

The 7th century saw a major constitutional change in Samos, with the transition from a monarchy to an oligarchy, perhaps as a result of the failure against Aegina. The new oligarchic group was called the Geomoroi ("land-owners"), which implies that they were, or claimed to be, descendants of the first settlers. A similar name and meaning occurred at the same time in Syracuse in Sicily.

Ancient sources

 * Pausanias, Description of Greece (translation by W. H. S. Jones and H. A. Ormerod).

Modern sources

 * Graham Shipley, A History of Samos, 800–188 BC, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1987. ISBN 0198148682