h Strabo (xiv. p. 633)
implies an actual conquest by Ionian settlers. The regal government
was at a later time exchanged for an oligarchy or a democracy. The
names of two tyrants, Amphiclus and Polytecnus, are mentioned. The
products of the island were largely exported on the ships of Miletus,
with which city Chios formed a close mercantile alliance in opposition
to the rival league of Phocaea and Samos. Similar commercial
considerations determined the Chians in their attitude towards the
Persian conquerors: in 546 they submitted to Cyrus as eagerly as
Phocaea resisted him; during the Ionian revolt their fleet of 100 sail
joined the Milesians in offering a desperate opposition at Lade (494).
The island was subsequently punished with great rigour by the
Persians. The Chian ships, under the tyrant Strattis, served in the
Persian fleet at Salamis. After its liberation in 479 Chios joined the
Delian League and long remained a firm ally of the Athenians, who
allowed it to retain full autonomy. But in 413 the island revolted,
and was not recaptured. After the Peloponnesian War it took the first
opportunity to renew the Athenian alliance, but in 357 again seceded.
As a member of the Delian League it had regained its prosperity, being
able to equip a fleet of 50 or 60 sail. Moreover, it was reputed one
of the best-governed states in Greece, for although it was governed
alternately by oligarchs and democrats neither party persecuted the
other severely. It was not till late in the 4th century that civil
dissension became a danger to the state, leaving it a prey to Idrieus,
the dynast of Caria (346), and to the Persian admiral Memnon (333).
During the Hellenistic age Chios maintained itself in a virtually
independent position. It supported the Romans in their Eastern wars,
and was made a "free and allied state." Under Roman and Byzantine rule
industry and commerce were undisturbed, its chief export at this time
being the Arvisian wine, which had become very popular. After
temporary occupations by the Seljuk Turks (1089-1092) and by the
Venetians (1124-1125, 1172, 1204-1225), it was given in fief to the
Genoese family of Zaccaria, and in 1346 passed definitely into the
hands of a Genoese _maona_, or trading company, which was organized in
1362 under the name of "the Giustiniani." This mercantile brotherhood,
formerly a privileged class, alone exploited the mastic t