Delos in 218 B.C.

Delos — Spring 218 BC · The Holy Island of Apollo.

The sacred island of Apollo — smallest of the Cyclades, yet the holiest ground in all the Aegean. Here, by the round lake on the slope of Mount Cynthus, Leto grasped the sacred palm and bore the twin gods Apollo and Artemis, and ever since the island has belonged to her son. In 218 BC Delos is free and self-governing, the religious heart of the islanders: its sanctuary of Apollo draws pilgrims and sacred embassies — the theoriai — from every corner of the Greek world, its quadrennial festival, the Delia, is famed everywhere, and its temple is the great banker and landlord of the sea, its treasures, estates and loans managed by the hieropoioi. A cosmopolitan port-town swells about the holy precinct. By ancient law none may be born or die on sacred soil: birth and burial are carried across the strait to neighbouring Rheneia.

No place is purer or more honoured in the Greek world than this barren rock of five miles’ circuit. It is the birthplace of Apollo, and the Cyclades take their very name from lying in a circle around it. In the days of the Delian League long ago, Athens ruled here and even kept the allied treasure on the island; but since the Successors freed the Aegean, Delos has governed itself, a small sovereign polis whose business is the worship of the god and the festival in his honour. Its independence is watched over in turn by the great fleets — once the Ptolemies of Egypt patronised the League of the Islanders that centres here; now Macedon and Rhodes contend for that role. The temple of Apollo is the richest house in the Aegean: it lends silver at interest, leases sacred farms and houses across the islands, and keeps its accounts on stone for all to read. About the precinct a free harbour fills with the ships and merchants of many cities, and the sacred quarter grows year by year.