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Samos (, also ; , ) is a Greece island in the eastern Aegean Sea, south of Chios, north of Patmos and the Dodecanese archipelago, and off the coast of western Turkey, from which it is separated by the Mycale Strait. It is also a separate regional unit of the North Aegean region.
In ancient times, Samos was an especially rich and powerful city-state, particularly known for its and wine production. It is home to Pythagoreion and the Heraion of Samos, a UNESCO World Heritage Site that includes the Eupalinian aqueduct, a marvel of ancient engineering. Samos is the birthplace of the Greek philosophy and mathematician Pythagoras, after whom the Pythagorean theorem is named, the philosophers Melissus of Samos and Epicurus, and the astronomer Aristarchus of Samos, the first known individual to propose that the Heliocentrism. Samian wine was well known in antiquity and is still produced on the island.
The island was governed by the semi-autonomous Principality of Samos under Ottoman Empire suzerainty from 1835 until it joined Greece in March 1913.
A great portion of the island is covered with vineyards, from which Muscat wine is made. The most important plains other than the capital, Vathy, in the northeast, are those of Karlovasi, in the northwest, Pythagoreio, in the southeast, and Marathokampos in the southwest. The island's population is 33,814, which makes it the 9th most populous of the Greek islands. The Samian climate is typically Mediterranean, with mild rainy winters, and warm rainless summers.
Samos's relief is dominated by two large mountains, Ampelos and Kerkis (anc. Kerketeus). The Ampelos massif (colloquially referred to as "Karvounis") is the larger of the two and occupies the centre of the island, rising to . Mt. Kerkis, though smaller in area, is the taller of the two, and its summit is the island's highest point, at . The mountains are a continuation of the Mycale range on the Anatolian mainland.
Concerning the earliest history of Samos, literary tradition is singularly defective. At the time of the great migrations, it received an Ionian population which traced its origin to Epidaurus in Argolis: Samos became one of the twelve members of the Ionian League. By the 7th century BC, it had become one of the leading commercial centres of Greece. This early prosperity of the Samians seems largely due to the island's position near trade routes, which facilitated the import of textiles from inner Asia Minor, but the Samians also developed an extensive oversea commerce. They helped to open up trade with the population that lived around the Black Sea as well as with Egypt, Cyrene (Libya), Corinth, and Chalcis. Among the colonies the Samians founded, most of them in the sixth century BC, were Bisanthe, Perinthus, and Samothrace (northern Aegean Sea), Kydonia (Crete), Nagidos and Kelenderis (southern Anatolia), Pozzuoli (Italy), and Oasis Polis (Egypt). (2025). 9789004122048, Brill. ISBN 9789004122048 The trade caused them to become bitter rivals with Miletus. Samos was able to become so prominent despite the growing power of the Persian empire because of the alliance they had with the Egyptians and their powerful fleet. The Samians are also credited with having been the first Greeks to reach the Straits of Gibraltar.
The feud between Miletus and Samos broke out into open strife during the Lelantine War (7th century BC), with which a Samian innovation in Greek naval warfare may be connected, the use of the trireme. The result of this conflict was to confirm the supremacy of the Milesians in eastern waters for the time being; but in the 6th century, the insular position of Samos preserved it from those aggressions at the hands of Asiatic kings to which Miletus was henceforth exposed. About 535 BC, when the existing oligarchy was overturned by the tyrant Polycrates, Samos reached the height of its prosperity. Its navy not only protected it from invasion but also ruled supreme in Aegean waters. The city was beautified with public works, and its school of sculptors, metal-workers and engineers achieved high repute.
In 394 BC, the withdrawal of the Spartan navy induced the island to declare its independence and re-establish a democracy, but by the peace of Antalcidas (387 BC), it fell again under Persian dominion. It was recovered by the Athenians in 366 after a siege of eleven months, and received a strong body of military settlers, the cleruchs, which proved vital in the Social War (357-355 BC). After the Lamian War (322 BC), when Athens was deprived of Samos, the vicissitudes of the island can no longer be followed.
Other notable personalities include the philosophers Melissus of Samos and Epicurus, who were of Samian birth, and the astronomer Aristarchus of Samos, whom history credits with the first recorded heliocentric model of the Solar System. The historian Herodotus, known by his Histories, resided in Samos for a while.
There was a school of sculptors and architects that included Rhoecus, the architect of the Temple of Hera (Olympia), and the great sculptor and inventor Theodorus, who is said to have invented with Rhoecus the art of Bronze sculpture.
The vases of Samos were among the most characteristic products of Ionian pottery in the 6th century.
Enrolled from 133 in the Roman province of Asia Minor, Samos sided with Eumenes III (132) and Mithridates (88) against its overlord, and consequently forfeited its autonomy, which it only temporarily recovered between the reigns of Augustus and Vespasian. Nevertheless, Samos remained comparatively flourishing and was able to contest with Smyrna and Ephesus the title "first city of lonia"; it was chiefly noted as a health resort and for the manufacture of pottery. Since Emperor Diocletian's Tetrarchy, it became part of the Provincia Insularum, in the diocese of Asiana in the eastern empire's pretorian prefecture of Oriens.
In 1572/3, the island was granted as a personal domain ( hass) to Kilic Ali Pasha, the Kapudan Pasha (the Ottoman Navy's chief admiral). Settlers, including Greeks and Arvanites from the Peloponnese and the Ionian Islands, as well as the descendants of the original inhabitants who had fled to Chios, were attracted through the concession of certain privileges such as a seven-year tax exemption, a permanent exemption from the tithe in exchange for a lump annual payment of 45,000 piastres, and a considerable autonomy in local affairs. The island recovered gradually, reaching a population of some 10,000 in the 17th century, which was still concentrated mostly in the interior. It was not until the mid-18th century that the coast began to be densely settled as well.
Under Ottoman rule, Samos (Ottoman language: سيسام Sisam) came under the administration of the Kapudan Pashas Eyalet of the Archipelago, usually as part of the Sanjak of Rhodes rather than as a distinct province. Locally, the Ottoman authorities were represented by a voevoda, who was in charge of the fiscal administration, the Qadi (judge), the island's Orthodox bishop and four notables representing the four districts of the island (Vathy, Chora, Karlovasi and Marathokampos). Ottoman rule was interrupted during the Russo-Turkish War of 1768–1774, when the island came under Russian control in 1771–1774.
The Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca that concluded the war contained clauses that enabled a great expansion of the commercial activities of the Ottoman Empire's Greek Orthodox population. Samian merchants also took advantage of this, and an urban mercantile class based on commerce and shipping began to grow. The Samian merchants' voyages across the Mediterranean, as well as the settlement of Greeks from the Ionian Islands (which in 1797 had passed from Venice to the French Republic), introduced to Samos the progressive ideas of the Age of Enlightenment and of the French Revolution, and led to the formation of two rival political parties, the progressive-radical Karmanioloi ("Carmagnoles", named after the French Revolutionary song Carmagnole) and the reactionary Kallikantzaroi ("Kallikantzaros") who represented mostly the traditional land-holding elites. Under the leadership of Lykourgos Logothetis, in 1807 the Karmanioloi gained power in the island, introducing liberal and democratic principles and empowering the local popular assembly at the expense of the land-holding notables. Their rule lasted until 1812, when they were overthrown by the Ottoman authorities and their leaders expelled from the island.
The Samians successfully repulsed three Ottoman attempts to recapture the island: in summer 1821, in July 1824; when Greek naval victories off Samos and at Gerontas averted the threat of an invasion, and again in summer 1826. In 1828, the island became formally incorporated into the Hellenic State under Governor Ioannis Kapodistrias, as part of the province of the Eastern Sporades, but the London Protocol of 1830 excluded Samos from the borders of the independent Greek state.
The Samians refused to accept their re-subordination to the Sultan, and Logothetis declared Samos to be an independent state, governed as before under the provisions of the 1821 constitution. Finally, due to the pressure of the Great Powers, Samos was declared an autonomous, tributary principality under Ottoman suzerainty. The Samians still refused to accept this decision until an Ottoman fleet enforced it in May 1834, forcing the revolutionary leadership and a part of the population to flee to independent Greece, where they settled near Chalkis.
The modern capital of the island was, until the early 20th century, at Chora, about from the sea and from the site of the ancient city.
After reconsidering political conditions, the capital was moved to Vathy, at the head of a deep bay on the North coast. This became the residence of the prince and the seat of government.
Since then a new town has grown, with a harbour.
King George II visited Samos in 1937 during the 4th of August Regime.Μιχάλης Φύλλας, «H επίσκεψη του Βασιλέως Γεωργίου β΄ στη Σάμο το 1937 μέσα από τον σαμιακό τύπο της εποχής: η περίπτωση των εφημερίδων « Σ ά μ ο ς » και « Α ι γ α ί ο ν » Δελτίον Σαμιακών Σπουδών, τομ. 5 (2019-2020), σελ.113-126 [4]
During World War II, the island was occupied by the Italians in May 1941, with the 6th Infantry Division "Cuneo" being stationed on the island. During the winter of 1941–42 Samos was affected by the Great Famine which killed 2,000 Samiots and forced thousands more to flee the island for the Middle East. In December 1942, local communists founded a branch of ELAS resistance organisation, the following month the resistance came into contact with the British military who provided them with material support. In spring 1943, the Cuneo Division launched an unsuccessful, two-month-long counter-insurgency operation in Karvouni. In June 1943, ELAS came into contact with the anti-fascist organisation within the Cuneo Division resulting in an unofficial two-month truce between the two sides. After the Fall of the Fascist regime in Italy on 25 July, Pietro Badoglio replaced division commander Mario Soldarelli with Lieutenant General Pierola and reinforced the Samos garrison with 1,500 Blackshirts. Pierola then launched another counter-insurgency operation in Kerkis, which resulted in the death of 40 resistance members. Following the Italian surrender in September 1943, the Cuneo Division joined forces with ELAS in arresting local collaborationists and freeing jailed resistance fighters. Samos was briefly taken over by the Sacred Band and British forces, but following the Allied defeat in the Battle of Leros and a fierce aerial bombardment of Vathy and Tigani, the island was abandoned by most of the ELAS members, the anti-fascist Italians and the Allied troops and taken over by Germans without a fight. The Germans then destroyed the harbours of Karlovasos and Ormos Marathokampos with explosives. On 15 September 1944, an Allied aerial bombardment destroyed the German ship "Aslan" along with three support ships in the Vathy harbour. Upon the departure of the Germans, ELAS and a 120-man unit of the Sacred Band forced the remaining 1,000 Blackshirts to surrender; ending the island's occupation on 5 October 1944.
Many of the Samiot ELAS members that abandoned the island following its occupation by the Germans, enlisted in the Greek Armed Forces in the Middle East, participated in the communist-led 1944 Greek naval mutiny and were subsequently imprisoned in British prison camps. Approximately 4,500 of them returned to the island after the end of the war. The anti-communist persecutions that came in the aftermath of the Treaty of Varkiza led many former ELAS members to create self-defence militias which gradually evolved into the Samos branch of the Democratic Army of Greece (DSE). The Samiot DSE drew manpower from nearby Icaria which was a notable place of internal exile for Greek communists, it was also able to capture large quantities of weapons and ammunition abandoned by the Italians during World War II. During the course of the Greek Civil War, Samos became one of the biggest centres of DSE resistance outside of the Greek mainland. The last DSE unit surrendered in Kerkis on 26 August 1949, the defeat of the communist resistance was followed by a celebratory visit of the Greek royal family on 15 October 1949. A total of 197 Samiot DSE fighters were killed during the course of the civil war.
On August 3, 1989, a Short 330 aircraft of the Olympic Airways (now Olympic Airlines) crashed near Samos Airport; 31 passengers and the crew died.
A substantial migrant camp has been developed on the island at the site of a Greek military camp at Vathy to cope with the influx of migrants crossing the strait between the island and the Turkish mainland. It is estimated that in April 2020 the Vathy camp held 6,800 migrants, ten times the number it was originally designed for. The presence of large numbers of migrants on the Greek islands has caused tensions and some civil unrest on the part of island residents and migrants being kept in camps. In 2020, the Greek government announced a new closed reception centre will be built near the village of Zervou to replace the current temporary open camps by 2021.
On 30 October 2020, a magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck offshore near the island, triggering a tsunami. The earthquake and tsunami resulted in two deaths and several injured in Samos, and 117 deaths and 1632 injured in Turkey. The earthquake also caused damage to a number of buildings in Vathy, Karlovasi, and their vicinities; these included residential buildings, public buildings (schools, halls, etc.), religious buildings (churches), the tower of Lykourgos Logothetis, as well as pottery collections and sculptures at some museums.
The municipality of East Samos consists of the following municipal units (former municipalities):
The municipality of West Samos consists of the following municipal units:
Samos has a sister town called Samo, which is located in Calabria, Italy.
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