Naxos: Cycladic Power, Persian Sieges, and Athenian Rule

Naxos, which in earlier times had a large population, was the most fertile and largest of the Cycladic islands. The island was known for its statuary of the Naxian Stone, a gray-colored marble with calcite giving it a blue-gray shimmer depending on the light. The Naxians were known for their art, which they exported to the other Cycladic islands. The original inhabitants were said to have been from either Caria or Thrace; the Cretans or Minoans were then said to have arrived, establishing dominance on the island.

The island was well poised for Eastern trade and became an important Mycenaean outpost. The island was known for its wine production and its relationship to the supposed birthplace of the god Dionysus. It was also on Naxos that Dionysus met his Cretan bride Ariadne, who had been abandoned by Theseus. Naxos was associated with the city of Chalcis on the island of Euboea and supported them in their war against Eretria in the Lelantine War around 700.

Oligarchs or wealthy nobles, derisively called “the fat ones,” originally ruled the island. One of them, Lygdamis, established a tyranny with the help of the Athenian tyrant Pisistratus in 545. About twenty years later, with the help of a Spartan army, his opponents drove Lygdamis out and the oligarchic government was reestablished. The island then grew in prosperity and could field an army of nearly 8,000 hoplites and a large fleet as well, allowing them to become a power in the eastern Aegean. As with many of the Greek city-states, competition within the ruling party created dissensions and division.

Naxos’s wealth and strategic position made it a target of Persia and its subject Miletus, ruled by its tyrant Aristagoras. When some Naxian exiles went to the Persians and Miletus for help, Aristagoras was only too eager to help. Sending a fleet composed of Persians, Milesians, and exiles, they failed to take the island after a four-month siege. Aristagoras, humiliated after this setback, helped lead the Ionian rebellion to keep from being replaced as punishment. Naxos joined the Ionian Revolt, and in 490, when the Persians sailed across the Aegean to attack the Athenians, they destroyed the city of Naxos, which controlled the island of Naxos.

After this, the Naxians rebuilt their city and once again, their island prospered as it joined the Delian League and Athens after the Persian defeats at Plataea and Mycale. During the next twenty years, the island supported the mission of the league in its campaign against Persia. In 469, Naxos believed that the league had accomplished its task and that it was becoming an Athenian empire, so it decided it wanted to leave. The Athenians under Cimon reduced the island, forcing it to become part of their empire. The island lost its independence, and by the 450s, an Athenian colony or cleruchy was established.

After the Peloponnesian War, the island was allied first with Sparta. In 376, an Athenian fleet destroyed the Spartan fleet, making Naxos vulnerable. It then became less crucial to the political life of the Aegean, especially after Alexander’s conquest of Asia Minor when other islands and cities could contribute more to Alexander’s army and fleet.