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History
of Lesvos island:
The
Eastern Mediterranean was one of the first cradles of mankind. Not only
modern man (Homo sapiens sapiens) but also his predecessors Neanderthal
man (Homo sapiens neanderthalenis) and Homo erectus settled early on the
coasts, islands and inland regions of this area.
By the last phase of the Neolithic era (up to about 2000 BC), the
Eastern Mediterranean area was densely populated in comparison to
general population levels at that time. The inhabitants were racially
akin to each other and could be described in one word as
"Mediterraneans". They should be considered as the truly
indigenous population of the area.
Until today large and small towns are being discovered in Lesvos.
The oldest ruins date back to 3200-3100 BC. In Thermi acheologist W.
Lamb has been systematically excavating the area and five towns were
unearthed, one on top of the other. They represent the time period from
3200 to 2400 BC. The first three towns correspond to Troy I and the
other two to Troy II. Only in the most recent level traces of
fortifications have been found. This level was probably built by the
people of Central Asia because they had begun to constitute a threat as
they approached the coasts and nearby islands.
The next thousand years could well be called a dark age because
until today no archeological evidence of it has come to light, nor are
there any references to it in literature. It should be noted that in
Lesvos excavations are still in their early stages: Nobody knows what
astonishing surprises the future might bring. Nevertheless, we can
safely assume that during this dark age the life of the islanders did
not undergo any profound change. This all differed around 1400 BC, when
Greeks from Mycenae (Mikines) made their appearance in Lesvos and
neighboring Asia Minor. This was the time of the Trojan War and the sack
of Troy and marked the beginning of the fall of the great Trojan nation.
It would seem, however, that the Myceneans either could not or would not
establish permanent settlements in Lesvos.
Legend tells that the Argives, led by Xanthus, settled on the
island. They were followed by the Achaeans from Olenus in Achaea
(Achaea), led by Macares. But despite these influences, the newcomers
exerted on the older inhabitants. They continued to preserve the
traditions of their culture up until the Geometrical period.
Later, Aeolian Greeks arrived in Lesvos and founded colonies on
the island and on the opposite coasts of Asia Minor. They named this
area Aeolia. We cannot determine exactly when this influx occurred, but
judging from legends and the more general developments of that era,
these Aeolians must have arrived from Thessaly about 800 BC. According
to one myth, the first Aeolian King of the island was Lesvos, son of
Lapithes, King of Thessaly, and grandson of Aeolus. He sailed from
Thessaly to the island with his family and married Mithymna, daughter of
the local King Macares. King Macares appears to have been a descendent
of the Achaeans. From that time the island was called Lesvos in his
honor. The previous name of the island is not known.
As it would seem to be this myth is based on actual events and it
demonstrates that the Aeolians of Lesvos and neighboring Aeolia are
originated in Thessaly. This view is also based on the similarity of the
Aeolian and Thessalian dialects of those times. Studying the myth in
greater depth, scholars come to the conclusion that the Aeolians
probably settled peacefully in Lesvos and, as their civilization was
rather more advanced, they absorbed and in time Hellenised the local
residents. Thus from that time on Lesvos began to be regarded as an
Aeolian Greek island and its previous history was forgotten. The
Aeolians of Lesvos were in fact so powerful that for a long time they
controlled the other Aeolian towns and regions of Asia Minor, as far as
the Dardanelles.
At the outset of the Aeolian period there were six towns in
Lesvos, all governed by kings. During the 7th century BC the kings were
gradually driven out and replaced by oligarchies or tyrants. In the 5th
century BC the town of Arisbe (Arisvi) was destroyed by the Mithymnians
and this reduced the number of towns to five: Mytilene, on the site of
the modern town of the same name; Mithymna, on the site of modern
Molivos; Antissa on the coast, north of modern Antissa; Eressus on the
shore, south of modern Eresos; and Pyrrha on the deepest recess of the
Bay of Kalloni.
In 570 BC, the islanders took part in the founding of Naucrate,
the Greek colony in Egypt. Not long afterwards, Lesvos had become so
strong that all-powerful Croesus, king of a vast realm, signed a treaty
with its inhabitants. He considered them his equals, although he had
subjugated all the other Greeks in Asia Minor. At about the same time
the inhabitants of Lesvos allied themselves with the Milesians against
the tyrant Polycrates of Samos. But Polycrates defeated them and forced
them to dig a moat around his town. Finally, the Persian king Cyrus
forced the islanders to sign a treaty agreeing to pay him taxes and send
troops to aid him in his campaigns.
At the end of the same century the islanders capitulated to Cyrus
without a fight, after seeing all the towns of Asia Minor come under
Persian rule. As all on conquerors, the Persians proceeded to appoint a
friend of theirs, Coes of Exandrus, as tyrant of Lesvos. When the revolt
of Greek towns broke out in 499 BC, the islanders of Lesvos could not
remain indifferent. They rose up against Coes, killed him, and went to
the aid of the rebels with 70 ships. However, in the battle of Lade in
494 BC, the Persians were victorious and the inhabitants of Lesvos, like
the rest of the Greeks in Asia Minor, were completely subjugated to the
conquerors. Thus, when Xerxes began his campaign against the Greeks in
the Greek peninsula, the islanders fought on his side with 60 ships, but
later, after the Persians were defeated in the Battle of Mycale, Lesvos
went over to the side of the Athenians. It entered into an alliance in
477 BC.
This alliance lasted until 440 BC, when the Samians revolted
against
Athens. In many ways Athens had proved to be more tyrannical than
Persia. The people of Lesvos soon followed suit. The Athenians were able
to subdue once again, but during the fourth year of the Peloponnesian
War, the whole island rose up with the sole exception of the town of
Mithymna. Mithymna remained loyal to the Athenians. They finally managed
to vanquish the remaining towns one by one and set up garrisons in them
without razing them.
In 405 BC Lysander the Spartan conquered all the towns of Lesvos. In 392
BC Athens recaptured them, and in 387 BC the island gained its autonomy
under the Antalcideian peace. In 369 BC Lesvos entered the Second
Athenian League, but fell to the Persians again in 357 BC. They again
placed their friends in positions of power.
When Alexander the Great began to conquer Asia Minor, the
Lesbians lost no time in allying with him after his victory at the
Granicus River. It was one Memnon of Rhodes who made them submit to the
Persians once again, this time with very harsh conditions. The Persians
were soon driven out by Alexander's General Aegelogus and so the island
remained under Macedonian rule up to 167 BC, the date of the first Roman
invasion. The Romans settled permanently on the island in 88 BC. At that
time Lesvos was an ally of Mithridates, an enemy of the Romans. That was
why, although they met with no resistance when they seized the island,
the Romans demolished its chief town Mytilene, both then and today the
capital of the island.
Pompei granted the island a degree of autonomy which it kept until 70
AD, in the time of the Emperor Vespasian. Later Hadrian gave the people
of Lesvos their privileges again. The island continued to prosper into
the first centuries of the Christian era, as witnessed by the 57 early
Christian unearthed basilicas.
The islanders' peaceful life ended at the moment when Lesvos
seemed most invulnerable. Although it was part of the Byzantine Empire
it was raided by the Slavs in 769, by the Saracens in 821, 881 and 1055,
by the Venetians in 1128 and by Catalan pirates in the 13th century. In
1204 Franks occupied Lesvos and presented it to Baudouin I. From him it
passed to the Byzantine Emperor Ioannis III Doukas-Vatatzis in 1224. In
1261 it became a Byzantine Province again. In this year also the first
Genoese settled in Lesvos under a special treaty which granted them
certain commercial privileges. In 1335 Ioannis V Paleologus ceded the
island to his brother in law and Genoese Francisco Gateluzo. The Turks
captured Lesvos in 1462 and Gateluzzi state was gradually broken up. The
island then remained in Turkish hands until 1912.
