Mythology Staphylus (), the beloved son of god
Dionysus, lived in Thasos.
Prehistory Lying close to the coast of
Eastern Macedonia, Thasos was inhabited from the
Palaeolithic period onwards, but the earliest settlement to have been explored in detail is that at Limenaria, where remains from the Middle and Late
Neolithic relate closely to those found at the mainland's
Drama plain. In contrast, Early
Bronze Age remains on the island align it with the
Aegean culture of the
Cyclades and
Sporades, to the south; at Skala Sotiros for example, a small settlement was encircled by a strongly built defensive wall. Even earlier activity is demonstrated by the presence of large pieces of '
megalithic'
anthropomorphic stelai built into these walls, which, so far, have no parallels in the Aegean area. There is then a gap in the archaeological record until the end of the Bronze Age, , when the first burials took place at the large cemetery of Kastri in the interior of the island. Here tombs covered with small mounds of earth were typical until the end of the
Iron Age. In the earliest tombs there was a small quantity of locally imitated
Mycenaean pottery, but the majority of the hand-made pottery with incised decoration reflects connections eastwards, with
Thrace and beyond.
Antiquity The island was colonised at an early date by
Phoenicians, attracted probably by its gold mines; they founded a temple to the god
Melqart, whom the
Greeks identified as "
Tyrian Heracles", and whose cult was merged with Heracles in the course of the island's
Hellenization. In the 5th century BC,
Herodotus visited a sanctuary of Heracles on Thasos, presumably the Heracleion still visible today, and reported that it had been built by the Phoenicians. An
eponymous Thasos or
Thasus, son of
Phoenix (or of
Agenor, as Pausanias reported) was said to have been the leader of the Phoenicians, and to have given his name to the
island. Around 650 BC, or a little earlier, Greeks from
Paros founded a colony on Thasos. A generation or so later, the poet
Archilochus, a descendant of these colonists, wrote of casting away his shield during a minor war against an indigenous Thracian tribe, the Saians. Thasian power extended to the mainland, where the Thasians owned gold mines even more valuable than those of the island; their combined annual revenues amounted to between 200 and 300
Attic talents. Herodotus says that the best mines on the island were those opened by the Phoenicians on the east side, facing
Samothrace. Archilochus described Thasos as "an ass's backbone crowned with wild wood." The island's capital,
Thasos, had two harbours. Besides its gold mines, the wine, nuts and marble of Thasos were well known in antiquity. Thasian wine was quite famous. Thasian coinage bore images of the wine-god
Dionysos and grape bunches. During the
Ionian revolt against
Persia, Thasos was under Persian domination. After the capture of
Miletus (494 BC),
Histiaeus, the
Ionian leader, laid siege to Thasos, without success. In response, the Thasians built warships and strengthened their fortifications, but this provoked the suspicions of
Darius I of Persia, who compelled them to surrender their ships and pull down their walls. After the defeat of
Xerxes I the Thasians joined the
Delian League but left in a disagreement over their mainland mines and markets. struck in Thasos .
Satyr on the obverse and dolphins on the reverse The
Athenians eventually defeated Thasos's navy, and took the capital after a two-year siege. The Thasians were made to destroy their walls, surrender their ships and their mainland possessions, and pay a regular indemnity. In 411 BC, during a period of political instability at Athens, Thasos accepted a
Lacedaemonian governor; but in 407 BC the partisans of Lacedaemon were expelled, and the Athenians under
Thrasybulus were admitted. After the
Battle of Aegospotami (405 BC), Thasos again fell into the hands of the Lacedaemonians under
Lysander but the Athenians must have recovered it, for it formed one of the subjects of dispute between them and
Philip II of Macedonia. In the embroilment between
Philip V of Macedonia and the
Romans, Thasos submitted to Philip, but received its freedom at the hands of the Romans after the
Battle of Cynoscephalae (197 BC), and it was still a nominally "free" state in the time of
Pliny. Excavations of various island sites between March and May 1887 by Theodore and
Mabel Bent uncovered an 'Arch of Caracalla', and the collapsed remains of a unique portrait-statue of the emperor
Hadrian's wife, the empress
Flavia Vibia Sabina, with an inscription dedicated to her as a "high priestess".
Middle Ages Thasos was part of the
Eastern Roman Empire, now known as the
Byzantine Empire, from 395 on. According to the 6th century
Synecdemus, it belonged to the province of
Macedonia Prima, although the 10th century
De thematibus claims that it was part of
Thracia. The island was a major source of marble until the disruption of the
Slavic invasions in the late 6th/7th centuries, and several churches from
Late Antiquity have been found on it. Under Ottoman rule, the island was known in
Ottoman Turkish as طاشوز -
Taşöz. Between 1770 and 1774, the island was briefly occupied by a
Russian fleet. By this time its population had gravitated to the inland villages as a protective measure. Nearly 50 years later, a revolt against Ottoman rule arose in 1821, at the outbreak of the
Greek War of Independence, led by Hatzigiorgis Metaxas, but it failed. The
Ottoman Census of 1831 states that the island was populated exclusively by Greeks and that there were 1,821 Greek males fit to fight. This register excluded women, orphans, Christians below the age of puberty, the mentally or physically incapacitated as well as high-ranking officials, so the actual population would have been over double this. The island had been given in 1813 by the Sultan
Mahmud II to the Ottoman Albanian ruler
Muhammad Ali of Egypt as a personal fiefdom, as a reward for his
intervention against the Wahhabites. On 20 October 1912 during the
First Balkan War, the Greek navy invaded Thasos and annexed it into Greece after more than 350 years of Ottoman Turkish rule.
Modern era During the
Axis occupation (April 1941October 1944) Thasos, along with the region of
East Macedonia and Thrace, was assigned by the Nazis to their
Bulgarian allies. The Bulgarian government renamed the island "Tasos" and closed its schools. Thasos's mountainous terrain facilitated resistance activity, mainly led by the left-wing
National Liberation Front (EAM). After the end of the war and the withdrawal of Axis troops in 1944, the island was caught up in the
Greek Civil War. The leader of the communist naval faction, Sarantis Spintzos, was a native of Thasos. Skirmishes and
communist guerilla attacks continued until 1950, almost a year after hostilities had ended on the Greek mainland. In the post-war decades, another native of Thasos, Costas Tsimas, was to attain national recognition; a friend of Prime Minister
Andreas Papandreou, he was appointed Director of the
National Intelligence Service, the first civilian to hold that post.
Thasos, the capital, informally known as Limenas, or "the port", is served by a ferry route to and from
Keramoti a port close to
Kavala International Airport, and has the shortest possible crossing to the island. Scala Prinos 20 km south of Thassos town is served by a ferry route to and from
Kavala. ==Administration==