From the distant antiquity around 3000 years BC, various written monuments testify that there was life on the island. We have these elements from finds in the area of Kastri Theologu and from the opposite coasts of Macedonia.
The first news we have about Thassos comes from Mythology.
Thassos appears in the foreground at the beginning of the 7th BC. century. However, Herodotus says that Phoenicians lived on the island long before the Parians settled, who took advantage of the Eastern slope of Fanos (Koinira), to whom we owe the current name of the Island.
At the beginning of the 7th c. BC the Parians establish their capital of Thassos in Limena with Telesiklis as the founder. Thassos expands with new colonies on the opposite bank, such as Galipsos, Apollonia, Antisara (Kalamitsa), Neapolis (Kavala), Topiros. He becomes a member of the Athenian alliance but is destroyed by the Spartans.
The Parians came to the island with their leader Telesiklis and his son Archilochus, a great poet of antiquity who today is taught in Greek schools.
From this period a strong THASSIAN STATE begins to be created. A state that will establish colonies on the opposite coast of Macedonia, that will fortify the capital of Thassos and develop as a powerful naval power. Athens and Sparta wanted to have it under their influence. With wars they achieved it, sometimes one, sometimes the other. Because whoever ruled Thassos had many benefits, both from the island and from his colonies on the opposite coasts. During this period (5th century BC), Thassos developed a great culture, many elements of which are preserved to this day. The art of Sculpture, Theater Architecture was developed. In sports, Thassos highlighted the great Olympian Theageni. The ancient marble quarries in the area of Aliki and Thymonia are still preserved.
Philip made it a member of the Macedonian state and it flourished during the Roman period. Target of Arabs, Genoese, Turks and Venetians, it was occupied by the Turks in 1479 and liberated in 1912.
Editor: Fotini Anastasopoulou