Samos in 218 B.C.

Samos — Spring 218 BC · The Island of Hera.

A large and storied island off the Mycale promontory of Ionia, divided from Asia by a narrow strait; its territory in this era takes in the neighbouring island of Ikaria. Samos is crowned by the Heraion, the colossal temple of Hera — for Samos was the goddess’s birthplace and chief seat — one of the greatest sanctuaries of the Greek world, reached from the city by a Sacred Way. The island still boasts the mighty works of the old tyrant Polycrates: the great mole that shelters the harbour, the vast temple, and the famous tunnel driven by Eupalinos clean through the mountain to bring the city its water. Samos gave the world the sage Pythagoras. In 218 BC it serves as a naval base of Ptolemaic Egypt, whose fleet uses its harbour to watch the Aegean and the coast of Asia.

Samos is an island heavy with old glory. It was the birthplace of Hera, queen of the gods, and her Heraion — reached from the city by a Sacred Way along the shore — is among the largest temples ever raised by Greek hands, ringed by a forest of columns. The island still wears the marks of Polycrates, the great tyrant of three centuries past, whose three mighty works — the deep mole that walls the harbour from the sea, the vast temple of Hera, and above all the tunnel that Eupalinos drove straight through the mountain to carry water into the city — were wonders in their day and stand yet. From this island came Pythagoras, the sage of number and the soul. And in 218 BC, in this age of contending kingdoms, Samos serves a foreign master: it is a naval station of Ptolemaic Egypt, whose squadrons shelter in its harbour and from here keep watch over the Aegean and the coast of Asia.