CEA, CIA, or Cos, in Ancient Geography, one of the Cyclades, lies opposite to the promontory of Achaia called Sunium, and is 50 miles in compass. This island is commended by the ancients for its fertility and the richness of its pastures. The first silk stuffs, if... Pliny and Solinus are to be credited, were wrought here. Ceos was particularly famous for the excellent figs it produced. It was first peopled by Aristaeus, the son of Apollo and Cyrene, who being grieved for the death of his son Acteon, retired from Thebes, at the persuasion of his mother, and went over with some Thebans to Ceos, at that time uninhabited. Diodorus Siculus tells us, that he retired to the island of Cos; but the ancients, as Servius observes, called both these islands by the name of Cos. Be that as it will, the island of Ceos became so populous, that a law prevailed there, commanding all persons upwards of sixty to be poisoned, that others might be able to subsist; so that none above sixty were to be seen in the island, being obliged, after they arrived at that age, either to submit to the law, or abandon the country, together with their effects. Ceos had, in former times, four famous cities, viz. Julis, Carthaea, Coressus, and Precossa. The two latter were, according to Pliny, swallowed up by an earthquake. The other two flourished in Strabo's time. Carthaea stood on a rising ground at the end of a valley, about three miles from the sea. The situation of it agrees with that of the present town of Zea, which gives name to the whole island. The ruins both of Carthaea and Julis are still remaining; those of the latter take up the whole mountain, and are called by the modern inhabitants Polis, that is, the city. Near this place are the ruins of a stately temple, with many pieces of broken pillars, and statues of most exquisite workmanship. The walls of the city were of marble, and some pieces are still remaining above 12 feet in length. Julis was, according to Strabo, the birthplace of Simonides, Bacchylides, Erasistratus, and Aristo. The Oxford marbles tell us that Simonides the son of Leoprepis invented a sort of artificial memory, the principles of which he explained at Athens; and add, that he was descended of another Simonides, who was a poet no less renowned than himself. One of these two poets invented those melancholy verses which were sung at funerals, and are called by the Latins meniae. Strabo says, that the Athenians, having besieged the city of Julis, raised the siege, upon advice that the inhabitants had resolved to murder all the children under a certain age, that useful persons might not be employed in looking after them. Ceos was, with the other Greek islands, subdued by the Romans, and bestowed upon the Athenians by Mark Antony the triumvir, together with Ægina, Tinos, and some other adjoining islands, which were all reduced to one Roman province by Vespasian. The island is now called Zea.