CHIOS, now _Scio_, in ancient days known by the name Pityusa, referring doubtless to its abundant pine-forests, was nearly as close to the mainland of Asia Minor as Lesbos, and, in size, rather more than twice that of the Isle of Wight. It was in character peculiarly rugged, its epithet in Homer [of whom it claimed to be the birthplace], of παιπαλοέσσα (the “craggy”), being literally true. In ancient and in modern times it has been famed for the beauty of its women; in the former, also, for the excellence of its wines. In an oval place, not far from its chief town, stood the temple of Cybele, whose worship the Chiotes especially affected; and, that all things might fit properly, the careless Pococke seeing there her headless statue, which he describes as that of Homer, with equal judgment converted the lions between which she is sitting into Muses! Its present chief town is said, in situation, to resemble Genoa in miniature. Traditionally, its oldest people were the Pelasgi; but Ion, a native writer, with better reason, traces them to Crete. Chios was little injured by the first Persian conquest, as the Persians, then like Timúr, eighteen hundred years later, had no fleet; but it was thoroughly sacked and plundered, subsequently, for the crime of having sent one hundred ships to fight off Miletus in aid of the Ionians (Herod. vi. 8, 32). During the Peloponnesian war, Chios at first supported the Athenians, but was afterwards ravaged by them, though they failed to take its capital. So, in the Mithradatic war, though at first supporting the king of Pontus, Chios fell under his displeasure, in that it had allowed Roman “negotiatores” to frequent and settle in its ports, and had to pay 2,000 talents, and to suffer still rougher treatment at the hands of his general, Zenobius. In modern times, Scio has suffered more perhaps than any other Greek island. Early in the fourteenth century, the Turks secured possession of it by a general massacre; in 1346, it was taken from them by the Genoese, who held it for nearly two centuries and a half, till it was recaptured by the Turks. In 1822, having been foolishly over-persuaded—though then a comparatively flourishing island— to join in the revolt of the Greeks against the Turks, a powerful Ottoman fleet attacked it, who, landing, massacred right and left, enslaved its women and children, and made, as is their wont, a well- cultivated district a desert, destroying, too, by fire and sword a town with thirty thousand inhabitants. No doubt fifty-four years is a very long time in the eyes of mere politicians; but historians might have been expected to remember “Scio,” and to have anticipated similar results at “Batak,” or wherever else these barbarians are able to repeat the habits and practices of their fore-fathers.