SAME
SAME or SAMOS (Σάμη, Σάμος: Eth. Σαμαῖος: Samo), the most ancient city in Cephallenia, which is also the name of this island in the poems of Homer. [CEPHALLENIA] The city stood upon the eastern coast, and upon the channel separating Cephallenia and Ithaca. (Strab. x. p.455.) Along with the other Cephallenian towns it joined the Athenian alliance in B.C. 43]. (Thuc. 2.30.) When M. Fulvius passed over into Cephallenia in B.C. 189, Samos at first submitted to the Romans along with the other towns of the island; but it shortly afterwards revolted, and was not taken till after a siege of four months, when all the inhabitants were sold as slaves. (Liv. 38.28, 29.) It appears from Livy's narrative that Same had two citadels, of which the smaller was called Cyatis; the larger he designates simply as the major arx. In the time of Strabo there existed only a few vestiges of the ancient city. (Strab. l.c.; comp. Plin. Nat. 4.12. s. 19.) Same has given its name to the modern town of Samo, and to the bay upon which it stands. Its position and the remains of the ancient city are described by Leake. It stood at the northern extremity of a wide valley, which borders the bay, and which is overlooked to the southward by the lofty summit of Mount Aenus (Élato). It was built upon the north-western face of a bicipitous height, which rises from the shore at the northern end of the modern town. “The ruins and vestiges of the ancient walls show that the city occupied the two summits, an intermediate hollow, and their slope as far as the sea.” On the northern of the two summits are the ruins of an acropolis, which seems to have been the major arx mentioned by Livy. On the southern height there is a monastery, on one side of which are some remains of a Hellenic wall, and which seems to be the site of the Cyatis, or smaller citadel. There are considerable remains of the town walls. The whole circuit of the city was barely two miles. (Leake, Northern Greece. vol. iii. p. 55.) |
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