LEROS
Greece.
One of the Sporades, lying
between Patmos and Kalymnos, ca. 40 km from the
Anatolian coast (Caria). The island was inhabited in
prehistoric times and again at least from the 7th c. B.C.
A close, though not exactly definable, political relationship with Miletos is attested epigraphically and by statements of Herodotos (
5.125) and Thucydides (
8.26-27）
from at least the early 5th c. to Roman times. It has been
suggested that Leros was a deme of Miletos in Hellenistic
times, a cleruchy earlier. Habitation of the island apparently continued uninterrupted into Byzantine times.
There have been no systematic excavations. The principal ancient town may have been located on the site of
the modern Ayia Marina, where remains of a few unidentified Classical structures are visible. However, the places
where various inscriptions have been found suggest that
the administrative center was Parthenion in the N part of
the island. The temple of Parthenos (Artemis) mentioned
by Athenaeus (
Deipnosophists (14.655,b,c) and in inscriptions has not been located, but is presumed to have
been in the locality now known as Partheni (Metochion).
At the S end of the island, on top of the hill of Xerokampos, are the remains of a wall probably built in the late
4th c. B.C., usually thought to be part of a tower. This,
and a similar tower at Partheni, may link Leros to the
precautions taken by Miletos on its peripheral islands,
in order to control the sea in Hellenistic times. Architectural fragments of Classical date are built into later
structures, especially churches, in various parts of the
island (Smalu and Lakki), implying widespread habitation in Classical times. Inscriptions and some ancient
objects are in the Archaeological HaIl in the Library at
Platanos.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
L. Bürchner,
Die Insel Leros (1898);
R. M. Dawkins & A.J.B. Wace, “Notes from the Sporades: Astypalaea, Telos, Nisyros and Leros,”
BSA 12
(1905-6) 172-74; G. B. Bean & J. M. Cook, “The Carian
Coast III,” ibid. 52 (1957) 134-35; J. L. Benson,
Ancient
Leros, GRB Monographs No. 3 (1963)
MPI; G. Manganaro, “Le Iscrizioni delle Isole Milesie,”
Annuario 25-26
(1963-64) 296-317; R. Hope Simpson & I. F. Lazenby,
“Notes from the Dodecanese II,”
BSA 65 (1970) 52-54.
J. L. BENSON
