Encyclopaedia Britannica > Volume 21, ROT-Siam

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and katomeria. The island is, rugged and well deserves
the epithet “ craggy ” (TratTraA-oecrcra) applied to it in the
Homeric hymn. The southern part is less rocky than
the northern, and the wealth of the island is concentrated
there. The figs of Chios were noted in ancient times, but
wine and gum mastic have always been its most important
products. The climate is almost perfect, the atmosphere
delightful and healthy; oranges, olives, and even palms
crow freely. The finest wine was grown on the north¬
western coast, in the district called by Strabo Ariusia, and
was known in Italy as vinum Arvisium. The population
of Chios has always been far greater than its resources
could feed; the people have therefore been forced to import
the necessaries of life in exchange for their wine and mastic
and fruit, and alike in ancient and modern times they have
been known as merchants and traders. Pottery of Chios
and Thasos was exported to Illyria (Strab., p. 317) and
doubtless elsewhere; it formed or contained the cargo of
outward-bound trading ships. Thasian ware is familiar in
museums, where the stamped handles of Thasian amphora}
have been collected in thousands; but no pottery has yet
been identified as of Chian manufacture. An incidental
proof of the importance of Chian handicrafts lies in the
fact that early in the 7th century b.c. Glaucus of Chios
discovered the process of soldering iron, and the iron stand
of a large crater whose parts were all connected by this
process was constructed by him, and preserved as one of the
most interesting relics of antiquity at Delphi. The long
line of Chian sculptors in marble, Bupalus and Athenis, sons
of Archermus, son of Micciades, son of Melas, bears witness
to the fame of Chian art in the period 660 to 540 b.c.
The Winged Victory of Micciades and Archermus, which
was dedicated at Delos, is still preserved,—the most im¬
portant attested work extant of archaic Greek art. Marble
quarries also were worked in the island. In literature
the chief glory of Chios was the school of epic poets
called Homeridge, who carried on and gave an Ionic tone
to the traditional art of the older tEoIIc bards. Cinsethus
is said to have written the Homeric Hymn to Apollo of
Delos, and is believed by some modern critics to have exer¬
cised great influence on the text of the Iliad and Odyssey.
The Chian recension of these poems (Xta ’'EkSoo-is) was in
later times one of the standard texts. Ion the tragic poet,
Theopompus the historian, and other writers maintained the
position of Chios in literature during the classical period.
The chief city of Chios has always borne the same name as the
island. It is situated near the middle of the eastern coast, and at
the present day contains about 17,000 inhabitants. A theatre and
a temple of Athena Poliuchus existed in the ancient city. About
6 miles north of the city there is a curious monument of antiquity,
commonly called “the school of Homer”; it is a very ancient
sanctuary of Cybele, with an altar and a figure of the goddess with
her two lions, cut out of the native rock on the summit of a hill.
On the west coast there is a monastery of great wealth with a
church founded by Constantine IX. (1042-54). Starting from the
city and encompassing the island, one passes in succession the pro¬
montory Posidium ; Cape Phanse, the southern extremity of Chios,
with a harbour and a temple of Apollo ; Kotium, probably the
south-western point of the island ; Laii, opposite the city of Chios,
where the island is narrowest; the town Bolissus (now Volisso),
the home of the Homerid poets ; Melsena, the north-western point;
the wine-growing district Ariusia; Cardamyle (now Cardhamili);
the north-eastern promontory was probably named Phlium, and
the mountains that cross the northern part of the island Pelinseus
or Pellenoeus. The situation of the small towns Leuconium,
Delphinium, Caucasa, Coela, and Polichne is uncertain ; probably
most of them were in the southern part. The island is subject to
earthquakes ; a very destructive shock occurred in March 1881.
The history of Chios is very obscure. According to Pherecydes,
the original inhabitants were Leleges, while according to other
accounts Thessalian Pelasgi possessed the island before it became
an Ionian state. The name iEthalia, common to Chios and Lemnos
in very early time, suggests the original existence of a homogeneous
population in these and other neighbouring islands. CEnopium, a
mythical hero, son of Dionysus or of Rhadamanthus, was an early
king of Chios. His successor in the fourth generation, Hector,
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united the island to the Ionian confederacy (Pausan., vii 4), though
Strabo (p. 633) implies an actual conquest by Ionian settlers. The
name Hector and the fountain Helene (probably at the modern
Thelena in the north) might be expected in the island of the
Homeridae. The regal government was at a later time exchanged
for an oligarchy or a democracy, but nothing is known as to the
manner and date of the change. As in most other states of Greece,
tyrants sometimes ruled in Chios ; the names of Amphiclus and
Polytecnus are mentioned. The early relations of Chios with other
states are very obscure, but it seems to have been an ally of Miletus,
and to have been at enmity with the Phocseo-Samian alliance, to
which the neighbouring Erythrse belonged. The same form of the
Ionian dialect was spoken in Chios and in Erythrse.
When the Persians appeared on the Ionian coast Chios willingly
submitted, refused to their old enemies the Phoca-ans, who were
fleeing from the Persian yoke, a refuge on their islands (Enussai,
and even surrendered the Lydian fugitive Pactyes in defiance of
all religious scruples. Strattis, tyrant of Chios, followed Darius
in his Scythian expedition. The Chians joined in the Ionian
rebellion against the Persians (500-495) and supplied 100 ships.
After the Persian victory at Lade the island was most severely
treated, the towns and temples burned, and many of the people
enslaved. At Salamis (480) the Chian ships, led by the tyrant
Strattis, served in the Persian fleet. After the battle of Mycale
(479) the island became free and a democratic government no doubt
took the place of the tyranny. Chios was the most powerful state
after Athens in the Delian confederacy, and it was an ally on equal
terms of the Athenian empire, paying no tribute, but furnishing
ships in case of war. It remained a faithful ally of the Athenians
till the year 412, when, encouraged by the weakness caused in
Athens by the Sicilian disasters, it joined the Lacedeemonians. Its
fleet then consisted of fifty ships. The Athenians defeated them
in three battles, at Bolissus, Phanse, and Leuconium, but could not
reconquer the island. Finding the Spartan hegemony more op¬
pressive than the Athenian, Chios returned to the Athenian con¬
nexion in 394, but soon afterwards deserted and joined the Thebans.
In the wars of Alexander the Great, Memnon, supported by the
oligarchical party, held the island for the Persians. It was
afterwards involved in the rapid vicissitudes of Ionian history,
falling under the power of various dynasties among the diadochi.
In the Mithradatic wars it favoured the Roman alliance, and the
king’s general Zenobius fined the island 2000 talents and carried
off a great number of the population into slavery in Pontus. It
had many centuries of peaceful prosperity under Roman and
Byzantine rule. The Genoese held it from the 14th century till
in 1566 the Turks conquered it and the third great Chian disaster
and massacre occurred. Except for a brief Venetian occupation in
1694, Chios has remained in Turkish hands till the present day.
A fourth massacre afflicted the island in 1822, when the Turks
repressed with fire and sword the attempted Greek insurrection.
Till this terrible event the island was ruled very leniently by the
Turks ; the internal government was left in the hands of five
archons, three Greek and two Catholic, while two resident Turkish
officials represented the sultan and received through the archons
the stipulated tribute. (W. M. RA.)
SCIPIO. The Scipios,1 a memorable name in Roman
history, were a branch of the ancient and noble family of
the Cornelii. It was in Rome’s wars with Carthage that
they made themselves specially famous.
1. Publius Cornelius Scipio, the father of the Elder
Africanus, was the first Roman general to encounter
Hannibal in battle. He was consul in 218 b.c., the first
year of the Second Punic War, and, having Spain for his
province, he went with an army to Massilia (Marseilles)
with the view of arresting the Carthaginian’s advance on
Italy. Failing, however, to meet his enemy, he hastened
back by sea to Cisalpine Gaul, leaving his army under the
command of his brother Cneius Scipio, who was to harass
the Carthaginians in Spain and hinder them from support¬
ing Hannibal. In a sharp cavalry engagement in the
upper valley of the Po, on the Ticinus, he was defeated
and severely wounded, and it is said he owed his life to
the bravery of his son, then a mere stripling. Again, in
the December of the same year, he witnessed the complete
defeat of the Roman army on the Trebia, his colleague
Sempronius having insisted on fighting contrary to his
advice. But he still retained the confidence of the Roman
people, since his term of command was extended, and wc
find him with his brother in Spain in the following year,
1 The name means a “ stick ” or “ staff. ”