The great epic poet, Homer, writes about Leros and its neighbor, the island of Kalymnos as being involved in the Trojan wars fro 1193 to 1184 B.C under the command of Antifos and Feidotos, grandchildren of Hercules.
The special importance of the bays and the harbors of Leros during the period of the Peloponnesian War 431 - 404 B.C were stressed upon by Thucydides. The end of the war saw Leros under the command of the Spartans. The old town of Leros is situated near the harbor of Agia Marina and on the southern side, excavations found the Bourtzi, probably a roman fort, with mosaics of lovely colored designs.
According to the historian, Herodotus, Leros developed close commercial, political and intellectual links with the Ionians of Miletos.
In 1314, Leros was occupied by the Knights of Agios Ioannis of Rhodes. They governed it tyrannically till 1523 when the Turks took command of the entire Aegean and plundered the islands. But despite the difficult conditions during the Turkish occupation Leros did manage to preserve a kind of autonomy. When the Greek Revolution of 1821 broke out, the Lerians were some of the first to take part in it.
Leros flowered intellectually during the 5th century. This was when the satirical poet Dimodikos and the historian Pherekydes made their presence felt. Leros became part of the Athenian Alliance after the Persian Wars. The funerary steles and coins that were found on the island confirmed that forces of Alexander the Great also passed through Leros. Plutarch noted it to be an important location for shipping, referring to the captivity of Julius Caesar on the island of Farmakonissi next to Leros.
The Byzantine times saw magnificent Christian churches being built on the island. Constantine the Great incorporated Leros into the Theme of Samos and during that time the Castle and the Church of the Panagia (Virgin) were also built as was the Castle of Lepides, known today as Paliokastro. Today, the so-called "Cyclopean" walls have survived in the area. The Early Christian church in Partheni, the church of Agia Varvara built with sections of marble, column capitals, stone slabs and other materials from the ruins of ancient Leros were among the exceptional Byzantine monuments found there.
1830 saw all of the Dodecanese ceded to Turkey by the London Protocol in exchange for Euboea. 1912- 1943 saw it taken over by the Italians with the whole island turned into an arsenal. The idea was to turn Leros into an Italian naval base, this is why so many important defensive works were carried out and military installations built. A new town was set up at Lakki. Buildings were pulled down to accommodate new ones where the architecture would be unique in all of Europe at that time.
The Greek "Sacred Battalion" liberated Leros after the Italian capitulation during World War Two. After two years of English occupation finally in March of 1948, Leros, along with the rest of the Dodecanese, was united with Greece.
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