Samos Island
History
Inhabited since the 3rd millennium. Under an aristocratic government
and, later under the tyranny of Polycrates, Samos became one of the
chief Islands in the Ionian; allied with Corinth against Miletus, it
founded colonies, especially in the Propontis, at the same time
achieving a great degree of prosperity.
Conquered by the Persians, Samos took part in the Ionian revolt. It
later joined the Athenian league; then after a rising, was besieged and
captured by Pericles (439 BC) who endowed it with a democratic form of
government. At the end of the Peloponnesian War, it fell under the
influence of Sparta and was seized again by Athens in 366 BC. Autonomous
from 322 to 205 BC but subjected to the influence of the diadochi (the
Ptolemys, in particular), it was conquered by Philip V of Macedonia.
Given by the Romans to the kings of Pergamus and, finally attached to
the Province of Asia in 129 B.C. Pillaged in 92 BC by C. Licinius Verres,
it enjoyed a period of relative calm under the protection of Quintus
Cicero in Asia (62 BC), but was plundered again in 39 BC by Marc-Antony.
Augustus who restored liberty to the island, but Vespanian subdued it
once more.
From
its shores in AD 960, the expedition of Nicephorus Phocas set out
against Crete. Its decline was accentuated day by day. Samos appears to
have been spared the occupation of the Venetians; invaded by the Turks
in 1453, it lost a large part of its population,
which did not return
until the 17th century. It was administered, at that time, by an
archbishop. When the news of the assassination of the patriarch Gregory
(1821)
became known. Insurrection broke out. The Samians successfully resisted
Turkey, for whom going to Samos became synonymous with going to meet
death. An uninterrupted sequence of triumphs lead to Samos being
accorded in a special status 1832, under the administration of a prince
chosen by the Sublime Porte from among the Christians of the island, it
also had its own flag, its own police force, customs, service and
judiciary. A period of reconstruction began. The capital was moved from
Chora to Vathy, roads were constructed, education organised, health care
began and the arts and athletics were revitalised.
However during the eighty years that this situation lasted, the Samiots
never forgot their passion to be united with Greece. Elections for the
local Assembly took place on September 30. On November 11, 1912,
The
official union of Samos with Greece was celebrated on March 2, 1913
