Greece Ancient History of
Thassos Island

Ancient Era

Greece Ancient history has a lot to offer to all of us. Indeed the impact of such a history has been of high importance to the whole world.

Thassos Island has been of great interest in greek history for thousands of years.

The first inhabitants of Thassos are said to be tribes of Thrace (Saioi, Sapes and Hedones) that settled on the island between 2000 and 1600 BC.

It is certain though that Phoenicians and other ancient travellers settled on the island attracted by its gold, snow-white marble and mild climate. The historian Herodotus claims that the Phoenicians expelled the Tracians.

Using their knowledge in mining, quarrying, shipbuilding and sailing they exploited the mines and then navigated in the nearby coastlines of Greece.

They also made walls and cultivated the land. Other ancient tribes came to help and they were taught by the Phoenicians many elements of their civilization like manufacturing and trading.

According to Greece Ancient History in time the Phoenicians were assimilated by the Greeks who were more in number and power than them. Soon Thassos was no longer under the political authority of the metropolitan Phoenicia and the inhabitants started exploiting the mines of Mount Pangeo on the mainland.

Another major Historian of Greece Thucydides the father of the scientific historiography -as he is named by many- said that the Parians were some of the first to come to Thassos. He claims that they were led by Telesiklis who had received an oracle from Delphi which said:

“Tell the Parians, Telesiklis, that you are asked to built a city in the island Aeria which can be seen from everywhere”.

So Telesiklis along with his son Arhilohos came to Thassos and found the Tracians that had already been there and is said that he had a hard time with them. Eventually, though, he managed to expel them, control the island and make Thassos one of the most developed and civilized places in ancient Greece.

What's more ,as history tells us, the Parians were on the island in the beginning of the 7th century BC. This is certified by archaeological findings which show their spread at the area since this was the time that the trading posts of Galipsos, Maronia, Neapolis, Strimi and Aisimi were established in Greece.

Thassos was a very wealthy greek place at that ancient time with lots of relations with other places and islands as findinds of copper and ivory reveal the relations with Cycladic islands, Rhodes, Ionia, Corinth and by the 6th century with Athens.

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