IKARIA
...The Island of Ikarus
....The first flying man

In 129 B.C. Samos and Ikaria were incorporated into the Roman province of Asia, which included the coastal area of Asia Minor. Although a Roman general undertook to repair the temple of Artemis ravaged by pirate raids during the 3^rd Century B.C. the Romans, preoccupied by domestic problems, neglected the Aegean, so by the early years of the 1st Century B.C. pirates took control of the Aegean islands. All the coastal settlements in Ikaria disappeared, and the few people who remained on the island retreated into the interior. The Emperor Augustus (29 B.C.-A.D.14) re-established order in the Aegean, and encouraged Samians to develop Icaria.

In the 14th century the Genoese ruled Chios, and Ikaria became part of the Genoese Aegean Empire. When the Turks drove the Genoese from the Aegean the Knights of St. John, who had their base in Rhodes, exerted some control over Ikaria until 1521 when the Sultan incorporated Ikaria into his realm. The Ikarians killed the first Turkish tax collector, but somehow managed to escape punishment. 

The Turks imposed a very loose administration not sending any officials to Ikaria for several centuries. The best account we have of the island during these years is from Bishop J. Georgirnees who in 1677 described the island with the 1,000 inhabitants, as the poorest people in the Aegean. In 1827 Ikaria broke away from the Ottoman Empire, but was forced to accept Turkish rule a few years later, and remained part of the Ottoman empire until July 17, 1912 when it expelled a small Turkish garrison during the IKARIAN INDEPENDENCE. Due to the Balkan Wars Ikaria was unable to officially join Greece until November of that year. The five months of independence were difficult times. The natives lacked food supplies, were without regular transportation and postage service, and were on the verge of becoming part of the Italian Aegean Empire.

The island suffered tremendous losses in property and lives during the 2^nd World War and the Italian and German occupations. There are no exact figures on how many people starved, but in the village of Karavostomos over 100 perished from starvation. Until the 1960's the Ikarians looked to the Ikarians in America (who began settling in America in the 1890's) rather than the Government for help in building roads, schools and medical facilities. The quality of life improved after 1960 when the Greek government began to invest in the infrastructure of the islands assisting in the promotion of tourism.