PAROS, an islann of Ein opt an Turkey, in the Grecian Archrpel .go, west or N ..:,t1 south of Delos, situated betweci, 36° 57', and 37° 13' of Nortii Lat. and 25° 12' and 25° 26' I E •st It 1,, about forty miles in cir cumference. 41 d cootains a population of 2000. Its sur face is hilly, but the soil i, ferule, and in a higher state of cultivation than the neigh' outing islands. The principal productions are, w heat, barley, vines, olives, fruits and cot ton. The olives are excellent. and when salted are much esteemed by the natives as an article of food. The pas tures arc gooei, and support numerous flocks of sheep. The island is surrounded with excellent natural harbours ; that of Nassau, in particular, on the north-east coast, is one of the most capacious and best sheltered in Greece, being capable of containing 100 sail of the line. In the middle of the last century, it was chosen by the Russians as a naval and military station, who erected batteries to de fend its entrance, and built magazines and other edifices. It is now the place of rendezvous for the Turkish galleys. Paros was formerly celebrated for its marble, which was of a dazzling whiteness, and used by the hest statuaries of antiquity. The Venus de Altcliers, the Belvidere Apollo, the Antinous, and many other celebrated works, are of Pa rian marble. There are two quarries, which are about a league to the east of Parechia, upon the summit of Mount Capresso, anciently Marpesus. These quarries were so deep, that the workmen were always obliged to employ lamps ; from which circumstance, according to Pliny, the marble was called Lychnites. They have been long aban
doned, and are now partly filled up with rubbish ; in one of them there is an ancient bas relief engraved on the rock, representing, in three departments, a festival of Silenus. The antiquities and beautiful ruins, which are every where discernible, bear testimony to the pristine opulence and splendour of Paros. The small town of Parechia, which occupies the site of the ancient Paros, and the few wretch ed villages scattered over the island, are all built of sculp tured marble, the wrecks or former monuments and tem ples. The celebrated chronological tables, known by the name of the Parian or Arundelian marbles, were engraved in this island. and preserved in it from a very remote pe riod. In 1627, they were purchased by the Earl of Arun del, and by him preserved to the University of Oxford. The celebrated statuaries Pnidias and Praxiteles were both natives of Paros, as was also the poet Archilochus.
Paros was originally colonized by the Phoenicians, and afterwards by the Cretans. When the Persians invaded Greece, the Parians sided with them, and consequently rendered themselves obnoxious to the Athenians, who made war against them, and captured the island. In the time of Pompey, it fell under the power of the Romans, and on the partition of the empire, it was subject to' the Greek emperors. In 1207, it was given to some illustrious Ve netians ; was afterwards taken by- the Turks under Barba rossa, Captain Pacha of Soliman II. ; and has languished under their sway ever since.