city state · Greece and the Aegean
Naxos
Origins
Naxos was settled by Ionian Greeks in the early Iron Age, building on a long Cycladic and Mycenaean past. Its fertile valleys and white marble made it the leading island of the Cyclades by the 7th century BCE. Tradition linked it with Dionysus and with Ariadne.
Rule and society
Naxian sculptors made colossal kouroi, the Naxian Sphinx at Delphi and the Lions on Delos. The tyrant Lygdamis, helped by Peisistratus, ruled in the mid-6th century BCE, when the great unfinished temple gateway, the Portara, was begun. In 499 BCE Aristagoras of Miletus and the Persians failed to capture Naxos, a fiasco that triggered the Ionian Revolt.
Decline and legacy
Persia sacked Naxos in 490 BCE. It was the first member to try to leave the Delian League and was subdued c. 470 BCE. Later it joined Hellenistic leagues and passed under Rome by 146 BCE.
On the connections map
Open the full map →Connections (4)
- Naxos was conquered by Achaemenid Empire490 BCE
- Naxos was part of Delian League478 BCE – 404 BCE
- Naxos was conquered by Athens470 BCE
- Naxos was part of Nesiotic League314 BCE – 167 BCE
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Cite this page
- APA
- The Epoch Institute. (2026). Naxos. In The Epoch Institute States Register. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/naxos
- MLA
- “Naxos.” The Epoch Institute States Register, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/naxos. Accessed .
- Chicago
- The Epoch Institute. “Naxos.” The Epoch Institute States Register. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/naxos.
- Harvard
- The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Naxos’, The Epoch Institute States Register. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/naxos (Accessed: ).
Last reviewed October 2026Random state ↻