THASOS, an island in the north of the Aegean Sea, off the coast of Thrace and the plain of the river Nestus (Turk. Kara Su). Herodotus (ii. 44. vi. 44-8.) tells of an early Phoenician settlement, of gold mines, and of a temple of Heracles : Thasus, son of Phoenix, gave his name to the island. In 72o or 708 B.C. Thasos received a Greek colony from Paros. In a war between the Parian colonists and the Saians, a Thracian tribe, the poet Archilochus threw away his shield. The Greeks owned gold mines also on the mainland. From these sources the Thasians drew annual revenues of 200 or even 30o talents. The Athenians, after a siege of two years, compelled the Thasians in 463 to destroy their walls, surrender their ships, pay an indemnity and an an nual contribution (in 449 this was 21 talents, from 445 about 3o talents), and resign their mainland possessions. After the battle of Aegospotami (405 B.c.), Thasos again fell into the hands of the Lacedaemonians under Lysander who formed a decarchy there. In the dispute between Philip V. and the Romans, Thasos submitted to Philip, but received its freedom after Cynoscephalae (197 B.c.). After a period of Latin occupation in the 13th cen
tury it was captured by the Turks in 1462. After the close of the first Balkan War it was, by the terms of the Treaty of London, May 3o, 1913, ceded by Turkey to Greece. The capital stood on the N. coast, and had two harbours. The highest moun tain, Ipsario, is 3,428 ft. high. Besides its gold, the wine, nuts and marble of Thasos were well known.
The population, 8,000, is distributed in ten villages, mostly at some distance from the sea; for the island suffered from pirates. The people are Greek Christians, and do not differ in appearance from the inhabitants of the other Greek islands.