an island in the Grecian Archipelago, belonging to Turkey, off the coast of Rumelia, 30 miles N.N.E. of Mount Athos. Its shape is nearly circular, and its area is about 85 square miles. The surface is partly mountainous, especially in the north, where there are three peaks, the highest of which is 3428 feet above the sea. These hills are for the most part covered with forests, which afford abundance of good timber; and the island also produces corn, fruit, oil, and wine. Cattle and sheep are reared in large numbers. Another valuable production is marble of a fine quality. There is a small town called Volgaro in the interior, and a village Thasos on the N.E. coast. Thasos is said to have been originally peopled by Phoenicians, and afterwards by a Greek colony from Paros; and it rose at an early period to great wealth by means of the gold-mines on the island and neighbouring coast. For a long time the Thasians were the only people who worked those mines, but at length Histiaeus of Miletus founded a city on the Strymon, and attempted, in 492 B.C., but without success, to conquer Thasos. The Thasians were, however, soon after compelled by the Persians to demolish their walls and surrender their men of war; and when Xerxes invaded Greece in 480 B.C., they had to supply provisions for his army as it marched through their territory. After the Persian war, Thasos became subject to Athens, but revolted in 465 B.C. A strong force was dispatched under Cimon to reduce them to allegiance, and after a siege of two years compelled them to surrender. The fortifications were destroyed, the men of war seized, and a heavy contribution demanded in addition to the annual tribute. When the oligarchical faction under Pisander gained the upper hand at Athens in 411 B.C., an aristocracy was established in Thasos; but this only led to a revolt of the island to Sparta. After much civil war, Thrasybulus, in 407, succeeded in restoring it to Athens, but soon after, in consequence of the battle of Argospotamos, it passed into the hands of Sparta. At a later period Thasos recovered some of its former possessions on the continent, but at length it fell first under the sway of Macedon, and finally under that of Rome.