Cimolus in 218 B.C.

Cimolus — Spring 218 BC · The Isle of White Earth.

A small island just north of Melos in the southern Cyclades, famous for "Cimolian earth" — a fine white clay that the Greeks and others prize for cleaning and fulling cloth and as a remedy in medicine, dug here and shipped abroad. A modest island of one small town, it lives off its white earth and its herds, free among the independent isles that orbit sacred Delos in the seas watched by the fleets of Egypt, Macedon and Rhodes.

Cimolus is a quiet little island riding off the north shore of Melos, its fame out of all proportion to its size. From its hills the islanders dig the celebrated Cimolian earth — a soft white clay that fullers use to clean and finish cloth and that physicians keep for their cures — and ship it out to the markets of the Aegean. One small town and its herds make up the rest of the island’s life. In this age of Delian independence the great fleets watch these waters, but Cimolus is too small to be a prize: it keeps its harbour, its herds and its white earth, and is left in peace.