Chapter 66: The Conquest of the Cyclades

Naxos is the largest island in the Greek Cyclades archipelago (Aegean Sea), with an area of 428 square kilometers, the highest point of Mount Ziaoros (Ziaoros) at an altitude of about 1,003 meters, and the western coast city of Naxos as the capital and main port. At the beginning www.biquge.info of the Bronze Age, Cretans, Carians and Thessalians settled on the island. The valley is rich in water and produces fine white wines, citron and citrus, with emery as the main export.

It has been inhabited since 2000 BC and has been around for almost 1,700 years.

Naxos was colonized by the Ionians and Persians, and the Naxos Uprising under Persian rule was the trigger for the First Greco-Persian War. But its golden age was between the 7th and 6th centuries BC. During this period, Naxos had the most developed commerce and the most brilliant art, becoming the most dazzling pearl of the Cyclades islands, and deservedly an important commercial and cultural center of the Cyclades, and an important part of the Cyclades civilization. The famous poet Byron once praised this place as the island of dreams, with many places of interest and beautiful beaches, and is a tourist attraction on the Aegean Sea.

There are many legends about Naxos, and it is always believed that Dionysus, the god of wine, lived on this island. The prince of Athens rescued the princess from the Cretan monsters, but left her behind, and the princess later married Bacchus. To this day, the inhabitants of the island celebrate many festivals related to Dionysus. As for the origin of the Cyclades, the Greeks often tell curious visitors the legend that God divided the land equally among the nations when he created the world, but forgot Greece alone. Greece complained to God, so God had to scatter the only remaining sand in his hand on Greece, and this sand fell into the beautiful Aegean Sea and immediately turned into beautiful islands, and Naxos was the most beautiful and bright pearl stone among them.

The topography of the island is hilly, and other Aegean islands such as Paros, Delos, Mykonos and others can be clearly seen in good weather. Many of the dwellings are built on the hillside, and the architectural styles are mixed, but the main ones are Ionian architecture. At the bottom of the hill is the district of Grotta, so named because there is a famous cave under the hill. Hora is another town on the island, in a hilly area located on the coast. It is divided into two main parts: the lower elevation areas are the main areas of local civilian life, and the higher elevation areas are the places where the rich live. Guided by the path that turns left and right in the middle of the town, you will come across the historic castle district. The most famous town is Oia, where many artists are often gathered. The exquisite white-walled and blue-roofed houses common in the Aegean region, combined with the works of artists, give the town a romantic and artistic atmosphere. Although some of the houses are mottled due to their age, many of the houses have very fine carvings on the lattice, and there are some simple decorations, which reveal a strong sense of life. The carvings are rarely repeated, and each house is very distinctive, and some of them also depict the date of the construction of the house, and most of the current ones are Ionian style buildings rebuilt after the Greco-Persian wars. Beautiful mountain views, thriving villages, and lush olive groves, combined with the blue sky and blue sea of the Aegean Sea, combine the island's special flavor from the atmosphere of big cities such as Athens.

Polybeccon and Alexandus were very pleased with the base the king had chosen for them, and the free-loving but weak Ionians soon surrendered under the threat of a large fleet and a relatively strong army. Polybokon successfully captured the small island, and since Naxos is the largest and most suitable island for cultivation in the Cyclades, there is enough food to support the daily needs of more than 15,000 people on the island. Of course, after Polybocon's army and his family moved in, food became scarce, and the placement of personnel was also a problem, Polybocon's army was actually not much, only more than 3,000 people, and had almost the same number of sailors, while the oarsmen were more than 25,000 people, although the oarsmen were slaves or extremely poor civilians, but everyone had to eat, which could not be changed. In the end, Polybeccon had to conquer the nearby islands of Paros, Amorgos, and Ios, which had no sound administrative structure and could not organize effective resistance at all, and were soon all occupied. Polybocon stationed his fleet on several islands, most of which were anchored in the natural harbor of Naoussa on the island of Paros and the port of Naxos on the island of Naxos. In this way, the population pressure was greatly reduced, and the higher-ranking soldiers basically lived on the island of Naxos, and all the sailors began to receive daily training like the army, because they would face more than just sea voyages or naval battles, because of the lack of army numbers, they would need to participate in land battles when necessary. The boatmen were numerous, and Polybocon incorporated the able-bodied ones into the army, participated in training together, and gave them the status of freemen. In addition, Polybocon began to recruit troops on the islands, and the Ionians were not as brave and warlike as the Dorians, but as long as there was no disparity in strength, they would still have the courage to defend their right to freedom at critical moments. …,

After the occupation of the islands, Polybecon entrusted all the pacification and economic development to his son Alexander, who was a man of both civil and military skills, who not only quickly alleviated the discontent of the local people, but also vigorously developed foreign trade. The white translucent marble produced on the island of Paros, which can be used for carving, was originally the main source of income for the island, and its economy is now dominated by the production of cereals, grapes, figs, olives, tobacco, etc. Amorgos produces a delicate weave called Amolgos, made from locally grown linen and cotton, which is particularly popular in the market. Naxos is even more abundant, and the most important grain producing area of the Cyclades is here.

However, despite the occupation of these islands, Polybeccon and Alexand were not satisfied, perhaps because it was too easy to occupy these islands before, so the father and son also wanted to seize the islands of Milos, Thira, Mykonos, and the religious center of Delos. Originally, Polybocon's occupation of Naxos had caused panic in the Greek islands, but the islands had no strength to compete with them, and had to ask for help from Athens, Sparta and other city-states, and even Egypt. After the Battle of Rhodes, neither Cassander nor Antigonus had a strong enough fleet to compete with Polybocon. But that doesn't mean no, as far away as Egypt, Ptolemy, after conquering Cyrene and Syria, set his sights on the islands of the Aegean Sea, wanting to take them in his pocket in order to win Greece and Asia Minor. However, he didn't expect Alexander to be one step faster than him, and at the same time as competing with Antigonus, he sent Polybeccon to lead a fleet to occupy almost all the islands of the Cyclades, which made Ptolemy very annoyed, before Alexander suddenly occupied Tyre, which had already caused Ptolemy to lose a commercial city, and he endured it under the face of the other party's strength and tyophrastus. Of course, the most important thing is that he wants Alexander and Antigonus to fight to the death so that he can reap the benefits of the fisherman. However, now his next plan was disrupted by Polybeccon, and if he wanted to take the Aegean Sea, he would inevitably have to go to war with the king's army, and it was difficult to predict the consequences of offending Alexander and Antigonus before they could go to war. Although the strength of the Egyptian fleet is already very strong, he is not sure that he can defeat the other side, after all, this fleet has defeated the combined fleet of Cassander and Antigonus, you must know that the total number of combined fleets is far more than 300 ships, and the Egyptian fleet is only more than 200 ships, and the other party is likely to have the support of Rhodes and Crete, in that case, he has no chance of winning at all. After weighing the pros and cons, Ptolemy politely declined the islands' request for troops, but he began to actively contact the annexed and unannexed islands off the coast of Greece and Asia Minor, supporting them in their revolt against Macedonia, giving them some financial and material support, and even helping them organize mercenaries. Of course, all this remained in the shadows, and when the time came, he raised his arms, and the islands must have seen him as a savior (historically Ptolemy received the title of savior for helping Rhodes resist Dmitry I). Now, Ptolemy could only bury his head in the development of his navy, and then keep an eye on the situation in the far east and the Greek islands.