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Thasos

Greek island city in the northern Aegean, rich in gold, subject to Persia 492-479 BCE

Thasos was a Greek island city off the coast of Thrace. Settlers from Paros founded it in the 7th century, and gold and silver mines on the island and the facing mainland made it rich. It came under Persian control in 492, pulled down its walls on Darius's order in 491, and fed Xerxes' army on its march to Greece in 480.

In the game: The game lists Thasos as a trade partner. Historically it was an independent Greek city until 492 and then a subject of the King that obeyed his orders, so the trading role is a simplification.

A Parian colony and its mines

In the record

Excavations by the French School at Athens, begun in 1911, have uncovered the ancient city on the north coast of the island. They have found its harbours, agora, sanctuaries of Heracles and Artemis, and a circuit of walls, and ancient mine workings survive on the island. The earliest Greek levels fit a Parian settlement of the 7th century beside an older Thracian presence. The city struck its own silver coins from the late 6th century.

Y. Grandjean and F. Salviat, Guide de Thasos, 2000

Histiaeus and the fleet of Mardonius

Ancient account

Herodotus says that after the Ionian defeat at Lade, Histiaeus of Miletus besieged Thasos with Ionians and Aeolians. He broke off the siege when he heard that the Phoenician fleet was approaching. In 492 the fleet sent with Mardonius took the island, and Herodotus reports that the Thasians offered no resistance.

Herodotus 6.28; Herodotus 6.44

Darius orders the walls down

Ancient account

Herodotus reports that in 491 neighbours accused the Thasians of planning revolt, and Darius ordered them to pull down their walls and bring their ships to Abdera. They obeyed. They had built the walls and ships after Histiaeus's siege from revenues of 200 talents in an ordinary year and 300 in the best, drawn from the island's mines and the mainland, where Scapte Hyle alone gave 80. Herodotus says he had seen the island's mines himself.

Herodotus 6.46-48

Feeding the army of Xerxes

Ancient account

In 480 Xerxes marched through Thrace past the mainland towns held by Thasos, and the Thasians had to feed his army. Herodotus says that Antipater, the leading citizen who organised the meal, reported a cost of 400 talents of silver. He adds the jest of Megacreon of Abdera, who said the cities should thank the gods that Xerxes ate only once a day. The sum is Herodotus's report and may be inflated.

Herodotus 7.118-120

Phoenician founders

Disputed

Herodotus believed that Phoenicians reached Thasos before the Greeks. He says Phoenicians searching for Europa founded the temple of Heracles there, and that a Phoenician named Thasos gave the island its name and his people opened the first mines. Archaeologists have found no clear trace of a Phoenician settlement. Many historians read the story as a Greek tale explaining the Heracles cult and the old mine workings, but others think some Phoenician contact is possible.

Herodotus 2.44; Herodotus 6.47