Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition/Andros

ANDROS, or Andro, the ancient Andros, an island of the Grecian Archipelago, the most northerly of the Cyclades, lying 6 miles S.W. of Euboaa, and aboiit 2 N. of Tenos. It is nearly 25 miles long, and its greatest breadth is 10 miles. Its surface is for the most part mountainous, with many fruitful and well-watered valleys, which produce vines, grain, olives, pomegranates, lemons, figs, and oranges, and supply food for cattle, silk-worms, and bees. At Andros, the capital, a town on the east coast, containing about 5000 inhabitants, there are silk and carpet manu factures, the former of which gives rise to a considerable export trade; but the harbour does not afford accommodation except for vessels of small size, and is much inferior to that of Gaurio (Gaurium) on the west coast, near the ruins of an older Andros, the ancient capital of the island. This Andros, which was situated on the brow of a hill that commands the whole coast, contained a famous temple, dedicated to Bacchus, and a spring that was said to flow with wine during the feast of the god. The island is supposed to contain about 15,000 inhabitants, the bulk of whom belong to the Greek Church. According to the ordinary account, Andros, which is said to derive its name either from Andreus, a general of Rhadamanthus, or from a seer called Andrus, was colonised by the lonians about 1000 B.C., and soon became a place of some importance. In 480, after the battle of Salamis, Themistocles made an attempt to take the capital, wishing to punish the in habitants for their readiness to assist the Persians in their invasion of Greece; and, although he failed in this enterprise, the island afterwards became for a time subject to the Athenians. In 333 it was added to the Macedonian empire; and after the death of Alexander the Great, became part of Ptolemy's kingdom. In 200 it was taken by the Romans, who handed it over to Attains I., king of Pergamos; and in 133 it reverted to the Romans, in accordance with the will of Attalus III. On the dissolution of the empire of the East, Andros came under the rule of the Turks; but now, along with the island of Tenos, it forms a government of the modern kingdom of Greece.