Samothrace

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Samothrace

Samothrace is a Greek island in the northern Aegean Sea

Aegean Sea

The Aegean Sea is an elongated embayment of the Mediterranean Sea located between the southern Balkans and Anatolian peninsulas, i.e., between the mainlands of Greece and Turkey respectively....
. It is a self-governing deme in the prefecture of Evros. The island is long and is in size and has a population of 2,723 (2001 census). Its main industries are fishing

Fishing

Fishing is the activity of catching fish. Fishing techniques include Fish net, Fish trap, Spearfishing, angling and Gathering seafood by hand. The term fishing may be applied to catching other aquatic animals such as different types of shellfish, squid, octopus, turtles, Edible frog and some edible marine invertebrates....
and tourism

Tourism

Tourism is travel for recreational or leisure purposes. The World Tourism Organization defines tourists as people who "travel to and stay in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes not related to the exercise of an activity remunerated from...
. Resources on the island includes granite

Granite

Granite is a common and widely occurring type of Intrusion , felsic, igneous rock rock . Granite has a medium to coarse texture, occasionally with some individual crystals larger than the groundmass forming a rock known as Porphyry ....
and basalt

Basalt

Basalt is a common extrusive volcanic rock. It is usually gray to black and fine-grained due to rapid cooling of lava at the surface of a planet....
. Samothraki is one of the most rugged Greek islands, with Mt. Fengari rising to 1,611 m.

thrace was not a state of any political significance in Ancient Greece

Ancient Greece

The term Ancient Greece refers to the period of History of Greece lasting from the Greek Dark Ages ca. 1100 BC and the Dorian invasion, to 146 BC and the Roman Republic conquest of Greece after the Battle of Corinth ....
, since it has no natural harbour and most of the island is too mountainous for cultivation: Oros Fengari (Mount Moon) rises to .

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Encyclopedia

Samothrace is a Greek island in the northern Aegean Sea

Aegean Sea

Fishing

Tourism

Granite

Basalt

History

Antiquity

Samothrace was not a state of any political significance in Ancient Greece

Ancient Greece

Samothrace temple complex

The Samothrace Temple Complex, known as the Sanctuary of the Great Gods , Greek language Hieron ton Megalon Theon , is one of the principal Pan-Hellenic religious sanctuaries, located on the island of Samothrace within the larger Thrace....
, site of important Hellenic and pre-Hellenic religious ceremonies. Among those who visited this shrine to be initiated into the island cult were King Lysander

Lysander

Lysander was a Spartan General and the commander of the Spartan fleet in the Hellespont which was victorious against the Ancient Athens at battle of Aegospotami in 405 BC....
of Sparta

Sparta

Sparta was a city-state in ancient Greece, situated on the Eurotas River in the southern part of the Peloponnese. From circa 650 BC it rose to become the dominant military power in the region and as such was recognized as the overall leader of the combined Greek forces during the Greco-Persian Wars....
, Philip II of Macedon

Philip II of Macedon

Philip II of Macedon,...
and Cornelius Piso, father-in-law of Julius Caesar

Julius Caesar

'Gaius Julius Caesar' , July 13, 100 BC ? March 15, 44 BC,) was a Roman Republic military and political leader. He played a critical role in the transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire....
.

The ancient city, the ruins of which are called Palaeopoli ("old city"), was situated on the north coast. Considerable remains still exist of the ancient walls, which were built in massive Cyclopean style, as well as of the Sanctuary of the Great Gods, where mysterious rites took place which were open to both slaves and free people (in contrast to the Eleusinian Mysteries

Eleusinian Mysteries

The Eleusinian Mysteries were initiation ceremony held every year for the Cult of Demeter and Persephone based at Eleusis in ancient Greece. Of all the mysteries celebrated in ancient times, these were held to be the ones of greatest importance....
).

The traditional account from antiquity is that Samothrace was first inhabited by Pelasgians

Pelasgians

The name Pelasgians was used by some Ancient Greece writers to refer to populations that preceded the Greeks in Greece, "a hold-all term for any ancient, primitive and presumably autochthonous people in the Greek world." During the Classical Greece enclaves under that name resided in several locations of mainland Greece, Crete and other regi...
and Caria

Caria

Caria was a region of western Anatolia extending along the coast from mid-Ionia south to Lycia and east to Phrygia. The Ionians and Dorians Greeks colonized the west of it and joined the Carian population in forming Greek-dominated states there....
ns, and later Thracians

Thracians

The ancient Thracians were a group of Indo-European peoples who spoke the Thracian language - a scarcely attested branch of the Indo-European language family....
. At the end of the 8th century BC the island was colonised by Greeks

Greeks

The Greeks , also known as Hellenes, are a nation and ethnic group native to Greece, Cyprus and neighbouring regions, who can also be found in Greek diaspora communities around the world....
from Samos

Samos Island

Samos is a Greece island in the North Aegean sea, south of Chios, north of Patmos and the Dodecanese, and off the Ionian coast of Turkey....
, from which the name Samos of Thrace, that later became Samothrace; although Strabo

Strabo

Strabo was a Ancient Greeks history, geography and philosophy....
denies this. The archaeological evidence suggests that Greek settlement was in the sixth century BC.

The Persians

Persian Empire

The 'Persian Empire' was a series of successive Iranian or Persianization empires that ruled over the Iranian plateau, the original Persian homeland, and beyond in Southwest Asia, South Asia, Central Asia and the Caucasus....
occupied Samothrace in 508 BC, it later passed under Athenian control, and was a member of the Delian League

Delian League

The Delian League was an association of approximately 150 5th-century BC Ancient Greece city-states under the leadership of Classical Athens, whose purpose was to continue fighting the Persian Empire after the Greek victory in the Battle of Plataea at the end of the Greco?Persian Wars....
in the 5th century BC. It was subjected by Philip II

Philip II of Macedon

Philip II of Macedon,...
, and from then till 168 BC it was under Macedon

Macedon

Macedon or Macedonia was the name of a monarchy centred in the northernmost part of ancient Greece. The homeland of the ancient Macedonians, it was bordered by the kingdom of Epirus to the west and the region of Thrace to the east....
ian suzerainity. With the battle of Pydna

Battle of Pydna

The Battle of Pydna in 168 BC between Roman Republic and the Macedon Antigonid dynasty represents the ascendancy of Rome in the Ancient Greece/Hellenistic civilization world and the end of the Antigonid line of List of kings of Macedon, whose power traced back to Alexander the Great....
Samothrace became independent, a condition that ended when Vespasian

Vespasian

Titus Flavius Vespasianus, commonly known as Vespasian , was a Roman Emperor who reigned from 69 A.D. until his death in 79 A.D. Vespasian was the founder of the short lived Flavian dynasty, which ruled the Roman Empire between 69 A.D....
absorbed the island in the Roman Empire

Roman Empire

The Roman Empire was the Roman Republic phase of the Ancient Rome, characterised by an autocracy form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
in 70 AD.

Post-Roman Era

St. Theophanes died here in 818. The Byzantines

Byzantine Empire

Byzantine Empire and Eastern Roman Empire are conventional names used to describe the Roman Empire during the Middle Ages, centered on its capital of Constantinople....
ruled till 1204, when Venetians

Republic of Venice

The Most Serene Republic of Venice or Venetian Republic was a state originating from the city of Venice . It existed for over a millennium, from the late 7th century AD until the year 1797....
took their place, only to be dislodged by a Genoa

Genoa

Genoa is a city and an important seaport in northern Italy, the capital of the Province of Genoa and of the region of Liguria. The city has a population of about 610,000 and the urban area has a population of about 900,000....
n family in 1355, the Gattilusi. The Ottoman Empire

Ottoman Empire

The Ottoman Empire , also known by its contemporaries as the Turkish Empire or Turkey , was an empire that lasted from 1299?1923. It was Treaty of Lausanne by the Republic of Turkey, which was officially proclaimed on October 29, 1923....
conquered it in 1457 and was called ; an insurrection against them by the local population during the Greek War of Independence

Greek War of Independence

The Greek War of Independence was a successful war of independence waged by the Greek revolutionaries between 1821 and 1829, with later assistance from several Europe powers, against the Ottoman Empire, who were assisted by their vassal state, the Egypt under Muhammad Ali and his successors....
(1821-1831) led to the massacre of most of the population. The island returned to Greek rule in 1913 following the Balkan War. It was briefly occupied by Bulgaria

Bulgaria

The state of Bulgaria , Scientific transliteration Balgarija, officially the Republic of Bulgaria has played a significant role in the Balkans in south-eastern Europe for over fourteen centuries....
during the Second World War.

Today

The modern port town of Kamariotissa is on the north-west coast and provides ferry access to and from points in northern Greece such as Alexandroupoli

Alexandroupoli

Alexandroupoli is a city of Greece and the capital of the Evros Prefecture in Thrace. Names for the city in other languages include: Latin - Alexandropolis; Turkish language - Dedeaga?; and Bulgarian language: ????????, Dedeagach....
and Kavala

Kavala

Kavala , is the second largest city in northern Greece, the principal seaport of eastern Macedonia and the capital of Kavala prefecture. It is situated on the Bay of Kavala, across from the island of Thasos....
. There is no commercial airport on the island. Other sites of interest on the island include the ruins of Genoese forts, the picturesque Chora (old town), and several waterfalls.

Landmarks

The island's most famous site is the Sanctuary of the Great Gods

Samothrace temple complex

Greek language

Greek is an Indo-European languages native to the southern Balkan peninsula, the language of the Greek people. It forms an independent branch within Indo-European....
Hieron ton Megalon Theon ; the most famous artifact of which is the 2.5-metre marble statue of Nike

Nike (mythology)

In Greek mythology, Nike , was a goddess who personified triumph throughout the ages of the ancient Greek culture. The Roman equivalent was Victoria ....
, now known as the Winged Victory of Samothrace

Winged Victory of Samothrace

The Winged Victory of Samothrace, also called the Nike of Samothrace, is a third century B.C. marble Marble sculpture of the Greek mythology goddess Nike ....
, dating from about 190 BC. It was discovered in pieces on the island in 1863 by the French archaeologist Charles Champoiseau, and is now in the Louvre

Louvre

The Louvre Museum , located in Paris, is a historic monument, and a national museum of France. It is a central landmark, located on the Rive Droite of the Seine in the 1st arrondissement of Paris ....
in Paris

Paris

Paris is the Capital of France and the country's largest city. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the ?le-de-France Regions of France ....
.

Communities

Alonia (pop. 251)
Ano Karyotes (15)
Ano Meria (58)
Dafnes (11)
Kamariotissa (969)
Kato Karyotes (37)
Katsampas (12)
Lakkoma (329)
Makrylies (9)
Mpaxedes (0)
Pahia Ammos
Palaiopoli (25)
Potamia (3)
Profitis Ilias (214)
Remboutsadika
Samothrace/Samothraki (677)
Therma (74)
Xiropotamos (39)

Historical population

Year	Island population	Change	Density
1981	2,871	-	16.13/km²
1991	3,083	+112/+3.90%	17.32/km²
2001	2,723	-360/-11.67%	15.30/km²

External links

(in Greek)

Samothrace

History

Antiquity

Post-Roman Era

Today

Landmarks

Communities

Historical population

See also

External links