city state · Greece and the Aegean
Paros
Origins
Paros, in the central Cyclades, was settled by Ionian Greeks in the early Iron Age. Its translucent marble, quarried in underground galleries, became the prized stone of Greek sculptors. By the 7th century BCE Paros was strong enough to colonise Thasos c. 680 BCE and later Parion on the Hellespont.
Rule and society
Archilochus, a pioneering lyric and iambic poet, was a Parian who joined the settlement of Thasos. Paros was a commercial and religious centre with a temple of Demeter. It supported Persia in 490 BCE, and the Athenian Miltiades failed to take it in 489 BCE. In the Delian League Paros paid one of the largest island tributes.
Decline and legacy
Paros came under Hellenistic kings and later Roman control by 146 BCE. Its inscribed Parian Chronicle of 264 BCE, now in Oxford, is a key source for Greek chronology, and Parian marble remained in demand.
On the connections map
Open the full map →Connections (2)
- Paros was part of Delian League478 BCE – 404 BCE
- Paros was part of Nesiotic League314 BCE – 167 BCE
More states of Greece and the Aegean →
Cite this page
- APA
- The Epoch Institute. (2026). Paros. In The Epoch Institute States Register. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/paros
- MLA
- “Paros.” The Epoch Institute States Register, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/paros. Accessed .
- Chicago
- The Epoch Institute. “Paros.” The Epoch Institute States Register. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/paros.
- Harvard
- The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Paros’, The Epoch Institute States Register. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/paros (Accessed: ).
Last reviewed October 2026Random state ↻