Samos

, an island in the Ægean sea, on the coast of Asia Minor, from which it is divided by a narrow strait, with a capital of the same name, built B.C. 986. It is about 87 miles in circumference, and is famous for the birth of Pythagoras. It has been anciently called Par then i a , An them us a , Stephane , Melamphyllus , An them us , Cypari ia , and Dryusa . It was first in the po e ion of the Leleges, and afterwards of the Ionians. The people of Samos were at first governed by kings, and afterwards the form of their government became democratical and oligarchical. Samos was in its most flourishing situation under Poly crates, who had made himself absolute there. The Samians a isted the Greeks against the Persians, when Xerxes invaded Europe, and were reduced under the power of Athens, after a revolt, by Pericles, B.C. 441. They were afterwards subdued by Eumenes king of Pergamus, and were restored to their ancient liberty by August us. Under Vespas i an, Samos became a Roman province. Juno was held in the greatest veneration there; her temple was uncommonly magnificent, and it was even said that the godde had been born there under a willow tree, on the banks of the Imbrasus. Mela , bk. 2 , ch. 7 .— Pausanias , bk. 7 , chs. 2 & 4.— Plutarch , Pericles .— Pliny , bk. 5 , ch. 31 .— Virgil , Æneid , bk. 1 , li. 20 .— Thucydides. ――The islands of Samothrace and Cephallenia were also known by the name of Samos.