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Tilos (Municipality, Greece)

Τήλος

Flag of Tilos - Image by Olivier Touzeau, 26 January 2015

Presentation of Tilos
Flag of Tilos

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Presentation of Tilos

The municipality of Tilos (780 inhabitants in 2011, 6,453 ha) is made of a small island located in the Aegean Sea and of the uninhabited islets of Antitilos and Gaidaros. Part of the Dodecanese group of islands, Tilos lies midway between Kos and Rhodes.
The municipality was not modified with the 2011 local government reform.

Tilos was successively dominated by Minoans, Mycenaeans and Dorians. The island flourished during the classical era, minting its own coinage and being famed for clothing and perfumes. Poet Erinna, said to be Sappho's equal, was said to be born on the island around 350 BC. In the 5th century BC, Tilos was a member of the First Delian League and kept its independence until the end of the Peloponnesian War. From the turn of the 4th century BC, for the next 200 years, Tilos was subject to the Seleucid Empire, Caria and then Ptolemaic Egypt under the influence of Rhodes, until in 200 BC, the island was incorporated into the Rhodian confederacy. The island was conquered by the Romans in 42 BC.
Tilos followed Rhodes into the Byzantine Empire following the death of Theodosius I and was a member of the naval Theme of Samos between the 9th and 14th century. The Knights of Saint John took control of Tilos from 1309.

In 1523, Tilos was occupied by the Ottoman Empire. Christian pirates, underthe pretext of revenge against the Turks, pillaged the island constantly.
Ottoman rule lasted until May 12, 1912, when Italian sailors landed in the bay of Eristos during the Italo-Turkish War. Tilos then became part the Italian possession of the Isole Italiane dell'Egeo. After the Italian Armistice of September 8, 1943, Tilos was occupied by German troops, and in 1948 it joined Greece together with all the Dodecanese islands. Since 1948, the population of the island has declined rapidly, as many Tilians emigrated.

Olivier Touzeau, 26 January 2015

Flag of Tilos

The flag of Tilos (Kokkonis website) is purplish blue with a Greek flag (same shade of blue) in the canton and the emblem of the island in the fly. On the emblem is a portrait of (probably) Erinna in the lower part, a cartoon-like bee and a cross on a field of honeycombs in the upper part.

Olivier Touzeau, 26 January 2015