Cos (city)

Cos or Kos (Ancient Greek: Κῶς) was a city of ancient Greece on the island of the same name.[1] In 366 BCE, the inhabitants of the town of Astypalaea abandoned their town to populate Cos.[2][3] Cos was a member of the Dorian Pentapolis, whose sanctuary was on the Triopian promontory.[4] Under the Athenian rule it had no walls, and it was first fortified by Alcibiades at the close of the Peloponnesian War.[5] In subsequent times it shared the general fate of the neighbouring coasts and islands. Antoninus Pius rebuilt the city, after it had been destroyed by an earthquake.[6]

Its site is located near modern Kos.[1][7]

• 
  An Ancient Roman mosaic depicting the Abduction of Europa in the House of Europa in the Western Archaeological Zone of Kos town
• 
  Ruins of the Ancient Gymnasion
• 
  View of the Asclepeion
• 
  View of the ancient Odeon

References

1. Richard Talbert, ed. (2000). Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World. Princeton University Press. p. 61, and directory notes accompanying.
2. Strabo. Geographica. xiv. p. 658. Page numbers refer to those of Isaac Casaubon's edition.
3. Stephanus of Byzantium. Ethnica. s.v. Ἀστυπάλαια.
4. Herodotus. Histories. 1.144.
5. Thucydides. History of the Peloponnesian War. 8.108.
6. Pausanias. Description of Greece. 8.43.1. et seq.
7. Lund University. Digital Atlas of the Roman Empire.

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Smith, William, ed. (1854–1857). "Cos". Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography. London: John Murray.