Kos

In Homer's Iliad, a contingent of Koans fought for the Greeks in the Trojan War.[19]

In classical mythology the founder-king of Kos was Merops, hence "Meropian Kos" is included in the archaic Delian amphictyony listed in the 7th-century Homeric hymn to Delian Apollo; the island was visited by Heracles.[20] Kos was said to be the birthplace of the goddess Leto; the mother of Apollo.[21] Supposedly Leto's father Coeus was the first inhabitant of the island.[22]

The island was originally colonised by the Carians. The Dorians invaded it in the 11th century BC, establishing a Dorian colony with a large contingent of settlers from Epidaurus, whose Asclepius cult made their new home famous for its sanatoria. The other chief sources of the island's wealth lay in its wines and, in later days, in its silk manufacture.[23]

Its early history–as part of the religious-political amphictyonic league that included Lindos, Kamiros, Ialysos, Knidos and Halicarnassus, the Doric Hexapolis (hexapolis means 'six cities' in Greek),[24]–is obscure. At the end of the 6th century, Kos fell under Achaemenid domination but rebelled after the Greek victory at the Battle of Mycale in 479. Archaeological finds have shown the existence of a small shrine to Hemera and Helios; gods of the day and the Sun respectively.[25]

During the Greco-Persian Wars, before it twice expelled the Persians, it was ruled by Persian-appointed tyrants, but as a rule it seems to have been under oligarchic government. In the 5th century, it joined the Delian League, and, after the revolt of Rhodes, it served as the chief Athenian station in the south-eastern Aegean (411–407). In 366 BC, a democracy was instituted. In 366 BC, the capital was transferred from Astypalaea (at the west end of the island near the modern village of Kefalos) to the newly built town of Cos, laid out in a Hippodamian grid. After helping to weaken Athenian power, in the Social War (357-355 BC), it fell for a few years to the king Mausolus of Caria.

Proximity to the east gave the island first access to imported silk thread. Aristotle mentions silk weaving conducted by the women of the island.[26] Silk production of garments was conducted in large factories by female slaves.[27]

During the course of the Fourth War of the Diadochi Ptolemy I Soter captures Kos from Antigonus I Monophthalmus, incorporating it into his kingdom.[28] In the Hellenistic period, Kos attained the zenith of its prosperity. Kos was valued by the Ptolemies, who used it as a naval outpost to oversee the Aegean. As a seat of learning, it arose as a provincial branch of the museum of Alexandria, and became a favorite resort for the education of the princes of the Ptolemaic dynasty. During the Hellenistic age, there was a medical school; however, the theory that this school was founded by Hippocrates (see below) during the Classical age is an unwarranted extrapolation.[29] It was the home of the major Hellenistic poet-scholar Philitas.

Despite the incorporation of Kos to the Ptolemaic Kingdom, the island kept its political autonomy (shown in a 3rd-century BC decree found at Kos and well-studied by experts in Greek history).[30][31] The island was ruled autonomously through to its citizens' assembly and magistrates (the monarch, the prostates, the exegetes, etc). The fact that the city could legislate decrees and apply its own laws shows political independence regarding the Ptolemaic Kingdom. The city-state remained in control of its political institution and civil rights.

Kos also became a center of production of unrefined silk, oars and amphorae.[32] Kos economic development during the period can further be exemplified by the 3rd- and 2nd-century BC construction of a theater, a new market with multiple stoas, a temple to Apollo at Alisarna, construction and expansion of the Asclepeion, fortification works at Alisarna and multiple richly decorated houses.[33] In 240 BC, Ziaelas of Bithynia, Seleucus II Callinicus and Ptolemy III Euergetes provided guarantees for the transformation of Kos Asclepeion into an asylum. This decision made Kos a more attractive destination for merchants and pilgrims.[34]

Diodorus Siculus (xv. 76) and Strabo (xiv. 657) describe it as a well-fortified port. Its position gave it a high importance in Aegean trade; while the island itself was rich in wines of considerable fame.[35] Under Alexander the Great and the Ptolemies the town developed into one of the great centers in the Aegean; Josephus[36] quotes Strabo to the effect that Mithridates I of the Bosporus was sent to Kos to fetch the gold deposited there by queen Cleopatra of Egypt. Herod is said to have provided an annual stipend for the benefit of prize-winners in the athletic games,[37] and a statue was erected there to his son Herod the Tetrarch ("C. I. G." 2502 ). Paul briefly visited Kos according to Acts 21:1.

Except for occasional incursions by corsairs and some severe earthquakes, the island's peace has rarely been disturbed. Following the lead of its larger neighbour, Rhodes, Kos generally displayed a friendly attitude toward the Romans; in 53 AD it was made a free city. It was known in antiquity for the manufacture of transparent light dresses, the coae vestes.[38] The island of Kos also featured a provincial library during the Roman period. The island first became a center for learning during the Ptolemaic dynasty, and Hippocrates, Apelles, Philitas and possibly Theocritus came from the area. An inscription lists people who made contributions to build the library in the 1st century AD.[39] One of the people responsible for the library's construction was the Kos doctor Gaius Stertinius Xenophon, who lived in Rome and was the personal physician of the Emperors Tiberius, Claudius, and Nero.[40]

The bishopric of Kos was a suffragan of the metropolitan see of Rhodes.[41] Its bishop Meliphron attended the First Council of Nicaea in 325. Eddesius was one of the minority Eastern bishops who withdrew from the Council of Sardica in about 344 and set up a rival council at Philippopolis. Iulianus went to the synod held in Constantinople in 448 in preparation for the Council of Chalcedon of 451, in which he participated as a legate of Pope Leo I, and he was a signatory of the joint letter that the bishops of the Roman province of Insulae sent in 458 to Byzantine Emperor Leo I the Thracian with regard to the killing of Proterius of Alexandria. Dorotheus took part in a synod in 518. Georgius was a participant of the Third Council of Constantinople in 680–681. Constantinus went to the Photian Council of Constantinople (879).[42][43] Under Byzantine rule, apart from the participation of its bishops in councils, the island's history remains obscure. It was governed by a droungarios in the 8th–9th centuries, and seems to have acquired some importance in the 11th and 12th centuries: Nikephoros Melissenos began his uprising here, and in the middle of the 12th century, it was governed by a scion of the ruling Komnenos dynasty, Nikephoros Komnenos.[41]

Today the ecclesiastical metropolis of Kos remains under the direct authority of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, rather than the Church of Greece, and is also listed by the Catholic Church as a titular see.[44]

Following the 11th century, Kos passed under Genoese control, although it was a bizantine territory and kept for a while by the Empire of Nicaea. Genoese ruled as protectorate and lasted over four centuries.[41] In the 1320s, Kos nominally formed part of the realm of Genoese Vignolo de Vignoli but then was attacked by Turkish corsairs until about the 16th century, and the Knights Hospitaller were hosted over the island paying a rent to Genoese republic.[41] The last Hospitaller governor of the island was Piero de Ponte. The island passed , on Hospitalier retractment, few more years back to Genoese rule, and then fell to Ottomans in 1566.

The Ottoman Empire captured the island in early 1566.[41] The Ottomans ruled Kos until 1911.

During the course of the Orlov revolt, a Russian fleet anchored off the Kos castle. On the night of 5 August 1773, the Russians dispatched a landing party intending to capture the castle. They suffered heavy casualties in the ensuing battle and the Russian ships departed Kos two days later, having failed to achieve their objective.[45]

According to the Ottoman General Census of 1881/82–1893, the kaza of Kos (Istanköy) had a total population of 12,965, consisting of 10,459 Greeks, 2,439 Muslims and 67 Jews.[46]

Kos was transferred to the Kingdom of Italy in 1912 after the Italo-Turkish War.[47] The Italians developed the infrastructures of the island, after the ruinous earthquake of 23 April 1933, which destroyed a great part of the old city and damaged many new buildings. Architect Rodolfo Petracco drew up the new city plan, transforming the old quarters into an archaeological park, and dividing the new city into a residential, an administrative, and a commercial area.,[48] In World War II, the island, as Italian possession, was part of the Axis. It was controlled by Italian troops until the Italian surrender in 1943. On that occasion, 100 Italian officers who had refused to join the Germans were executed in what became known as the Massacre of Kos. British and German forces then clashed for control of the island in the Battle of Kos as part of the Dodecanese Campaign, in which the Germans were victorious. German troops occupied the island until 1945, when it became a protectorate of the United Kingdom, which ceded it to Greece in 1947 following the Paris peace treaty.

Gazi Hasan Pasha Mosque in Kos

In the late 1920s about 3,700 Turks lived in Kos city, slightly less than 50% of the population, who settled mainly in the west part of the city.[49] Today, the population of the Turkish community in Kos has been estimated at about 2,000 people.[50][51] A village with significant Turkish population is Platani (Kermentes) near the town of Kos.

Cathedral of Kos

The people of Kos are predominantly Orthodox Christians – one of the four Orthodox cathedrals in the Dodecanese is located in Kos. In addition, there is a Roman Catholic church on the island and a mosque for the Turkish-speaking Muslim community. The synagogue is no longer used for religious ceremonies as the Jewish community of Kos was targeted and destroyed by occupying German forces in World War II. It has, however, been restored and is maintained with all religious symbols intact and is now used by the Municipality of Kos for various events, mainly cultural.

The Byzantine Antimachia Castle

The island has a 14th-century fortress at the entrance to its harbour, erected in 1315 by the Knights Hospitaller, and another from the Byzantine period in Antimachia.

View of the municipal market, built in 1934–35 by architect Rodolfo Petracco

The ancient market place of Kos was considered one of the biggest in the ancient world. It was the commercial and commanding centre at the heart of the ancient city. It was organized around a spacious rectangular yard 50 metres (160 ft) wide and 300 metres (980 ft) long. It began in the Northern area and ended up south on the central road (Decumanus) which went through the city. The northern side connected to the city wall towards the entrance to the harbour. Here there was a monumental entrance. On the eastern side there were shops. In the first half of the 2nd century BC, the building was extended toward the interior yard. The building was destroyed in an earthquake in 469 AD.

In the southern end of the market, there was a round building with a Roman dome and a workshop which produced pigments including Egyptian Blue. Coins, treasures, and copper statues from Roman times were later uncovered by archaeologists. In the western side excavations led to the findings of rooms with mosaic floors which showed beastfights, a theme quite popular in Kos.[52]