THASOS, the northernmost of these islands, had a Parian colony, and, as Paros was inhabited by Ionians, it was an Ionian colony. Before the Greeks took possession of it, it was like Cythera, one of the many settlements of the Phoenicians, whence in Cythera the worship of Mylitta, and in Thasos that of Melkarth, continued to exist. We must conceive, that in the very earliest times the Phoenicians were established on the coasts of Greece in settlements as numerous as in the historical ages were those on the African and Spanish coasts and in Cythera. Thasos has quarries of beautiful marble, but is not suited to the growth of corn, and is not a fertile island, whence it is ill spoken of by Archilochus. But Thasian wine was much esteemed. The island had also silver mines, which had been worked even by the Phoenicians, and it possessed still richer ones on the opposite coast of Thrace. For a time Thasos was powerful and wealthy in consequence of its mines and its commerce; and by this wealth the Thasians established their influence among the sea-faring nations. But when they were forced to submit to the Athenian supremacy, they found it difficult to live in that state of dependence, and twenty years after the Persian, and thirty years before the Peloponnesian war, they revolted, but were subdued by the Athenians. From that time Thasos began to decay. All these maritime places, though their lands were barren, had a numerous population as long as their navigation was flourishing; but as soon as the current of commerce turned in other directions, the population decreased with extraordinary rapidity. Such was the case at Chalcis and Aegina, and also in Thasos. THE CYCLADES. It is very convenient in treating of such a multitude of islands to consider them in certain groups, which is a great assistance to the memory. It is no trifling matter to impress upon one’s mind geography in such a manner as to know it completely, and it was a happy idea to divide the southern islands of the Aegean into Cyclades and Sporades. The Cyclades are twelve in number, and in the early times no doubt formed one confederacy, of which, however, we know no particulars. But traces of such a union occur in the Homeric hymn on Apollo. Delos was the centre. These islands, according to Thucydides, were partly inhabited by Phoenicians, but for the most part by Carians. He proves this in the case of Delos in an excellent manner by the fact, that the arms found in the newly opened tombs were Carian. However, these islands were not altogether Carian; for we find that in later times the inhabitants of Cythnos were Dryopians. This is stated by Herodotus, and the Dryopians, as we have seen, were Pelasgians. In this case, we cannot think at all of a migration; the Dryopians were a remnant of the Pelasgians.[70]