Editing Zakynthos (section)

==History==
{{main|History of Zakynthos}}

[[File:Dionysios Solomos statue - Zakynthos – Greek – 01.jpg|thumb|Statue of [[Dionysios Solomos]] with the Byzantine museum in the background]]

===Ancient history===
The ancient Greek poet [[Homer]] mentioned Zakynthos in the ''[[Iliad]]'' and the ''[[Odyssey]]'', stating that its first inhabitants were the son of King Dardanos of Arcadia, called Zakynthos, and his men.{{citation needed|date=November 2017}} Before being renamed Zakynthos, the island was said to have been called Hyrie. Zakynthos was then conquered by King [[Arkesios]] of [[Kefalonia]], and then by [[Odysseus]] from [[Homer's Ithaca|Ithaca]]. Zakynthos participated in the Trojan War and is listed in the Homeric [[Catalogue of Ships]] which, if accurate, describes the geopolitical situation in early Greece at some time between the [[Bronze Age|Late Bronze Age]] and the eighth century BC. In the ''Odyssey'', Homer mentions 20 nobles from Zakynthos among a total of 108 of Penelope's suitors.<ref name="John Murray">{{cite book |last1=Smith |first1=William |title=Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography |date=1854 |publisher=John Murray }}</ref>

The [[Classical Athens|Athenian]] military commander [[Tolmides]] concluded an alliance with Zakynthos during the [[First Peloponnesian War]], sometime between 459 and 446 BC. In 430 BC, the Lacedaemonians led a force of about 1,000 heavy infantry, led by the Spartan admiral [[Cnemus]], in an attack upon Zakynthos. Although the attackers managed to burn much of the surrounding countryside, the city itself refused to surrender and the attack ultimately failed.<ref>Thucydides, ''History of the Peloponnesian War'', [[wikisource:History of the Peloponnesian War/Book 2#2:66|2.66]]</ref> The Zakynthians are then enumerated among the autonomous allies of Athens in the disastrous [[Sicilian Expedition|Sicilian expedition]]. After the [[Peloponnesian War]], Zakynthos seems to have passed under the supremacy of Sparta because in 374 BC, Timotheus, an Athenian commander, on his return from Kerkyra, landed some Zakynthian exiles on the island and assisted them in establishing a fortified post. These exiles must have belonged to the anti-Spartan party as the Zakynthian rulers applied for help to the Spartans who sent a fleet of 25 to the island.<ref name="John Murray"/><ref>{{cite book |title=History of the Peloponnesian War |last=Thucydides |author-link=Thucydides |translator=[[Richard Crawley]] |at=2.8 |url=http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/History_of_the_Peloponnesian_War/Book_2 |access-date=24 July 2010}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=Library of History |last=Diodorus Siculus |author-link=Diodorus Siculus |translator=C. H. Oldfather |volume=4 |year=1946 |publisher=Loeb Classical Library |isbn=978-0-674-99413-3 |at=11.84.7 |url=https://archive.org/details/diodorussiculus09diod |url-access=registration |access-date=24 July 2010 }}</ref>

The importance of this alliance for Athens was that it provided them with a source of [[tar]]. Tar is a more effective protector of ship planking than [[Pitch (resin)|pitch]] (which is made from [[Pine|pine tree]]s). The Athenian [[trireme]] fleet needed protection from rot, decay and the [[Shipworm|teredo]], so this new source of tar was valuable to them. The tar was dredged up from the bottom of a lake (now known as [[Keri, Greece|Lake Keri]]) using leafy [[Myrtus|myrtle]] branches tied to the ends of poles. It was then collected in pots and could be carried to the beach and swabbed directly onto [[Hull (watercraft)|ship hulls]].<ref>{{cite book |title=History of Herodotus |last=Herodotus |author-link=Herodotus|translator=George Rawlinson |year=1910 |at=4.195 |url=http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/History_of_Herodotus/Book_4 |access-date=24 July 2010}}</ref> Alternatively, the tar could be shipped to the Athenian naval yard at [[Piraeus]] for storage.<ref>{{cite book |title=Lords of the Sea: The Epic Story of the Athenian Navy and the Birth of Democracy |last=Hale |first=John |year=2009 |publisher=Viking |location=New York |isbn=978-0-670-02080-5 |page=[https://archive.org/details/lordsofseaep00hale/page/107 107] |url=https://archive.org/details/lordsofseaep00hale/page/107|url-access=registration }}</ref>In addition to tar and miltos, the Athenians sourced timber for shipbuilding from various regions, as Greece's limited forest resources necessitated the import of quality wood. This practice ensured a steady supply of essential materials for constructing and maintaining their naval fleet.<ref>{{cite book |last=Casson |first=Lionel |title=Ships and Seamanship in the Ancient World |publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press |year=1995 |page=234 |isbn=9780801851308}}</ref>

[[Philip V of Macedon]] seized Zakynthos in the early 3rd century BC, when it was a member of the Aetolian League. In 211 BC, the Roman praetor [[Marcus Valerius Laevinus]] took the city of Zakynthos with the exception of the citadel. It was afterwards restored to Philip V of Macedon. The Roman general [[Marcus Fulvius Nobilior (consul 189 BC)|Marcus Fulvius Nobilior]] finally conquered Zakynthos in 191 BC for Rome. In the [[Mithridatic Wars|Mithridatic War]], it was attacked by Archelaus, the general of Mithridates, but he was repulsed.<ref name="John Murray"/>

===Medieval period===
In 459, the island was plundered by the [[Vandals]] under [[Geiseric]], who carried off 500 local aristocrats.<ref name="ODB">{{ODB|last=Gregory|first=Timothy E.|title=Zakynthos|pages=2219–2220}}</ref> Zakynthos appears to have been spared from the [[Slavic migrations to the Balkans|Slavic invasions]] of the 6th–7th centuries, as no Slavic names are attested on the island.<ref name="ODB"/>

During the middle Byzantine period (7th–12th centuries), Zakynthos belonged to the [[Cephallenia (theme)|Theme of Cephallenia]], and the local bishopric was likewise a [[suffragan]] of Cephallenia (and later of the [[Metropolis of Corinth]]).<ref name="ODB"/> In 880, the [[Aghlabids]] raided Zakynthos, but were [[Battle of Cephalonia|defeated]] by the [[Byzantine navy]] under [[Nasar]].<ref name="ODB"/> Plundered by the [[Pisa]]ns in 1099, it was captured by [[Margaritus of Brindisi]] in 1185, and thereafter formed part of the [[County Palatine of Cephalonia and Zakynthos]].<ref name="ODB"/> A [[Latin Church|Latin]] [[Roman Catholic Diocese of Cephalonia and Zakynthos|bishopric]] was installed on the island, alongside the Orthodox one.<ref name="ODB"/>

===Venetian period and modern era===
By 1460, and during the reign of [[Mehmed II]], the Ottoman Turks eventually controlled most of the [[Peloponnese]] with the exception of the remaining Venetian-controlled towns of [[Argos, Peloponnese|Argos]], [[Nafplio]], [[Monemvassia]], [[Methoni, Messenia|Methoni]], and [[Koroni]]. After the collapse of the [[Hexamilion]], which was supposed to act as a defense across the [[Isthmus of Corinth]], and hence, protect the Peloponnese, Leonardo III Tocco made an agreement with [[Venice]] to accept 10,000 refugees from this region. Leonardo III Tocco and his realm were increasingly vulnerable to Ottoman Turkish attacks. These refugees consisted of Greeks, [[Arvanites]], and some Venetian officials.<ref name="Κολυβά1989">{{cite book |last1=Κολυβά |first1=Μ. |title=Η Ζάκυνθος μεταξύ του α' και του γ' βενετο-τουρκικού πολέμου. Συμβολή στην πολιτική ιστορία και στην ιστορία των θεσμώ |date=1989 |publisher=Εθνικό και Καποδιστριακό Πανεπιστήμιο Αθηνών-Φιλοσοφική Σχολή-Τμ. Ιστορίας και Αρχαιολογίας |location=Greece}}</ref>
Zakynthos was captured by the [[Ottoman Empire]] in 1478 but conquered by the [[Republic of Venice]] in 1482.<ref name="ODB"/> It remained in Venetian hands, as part of the [[Venetian Ionian Islands]], until the [[Fall of the Republic of Venice]] in 1797. It then passed successively under [[French rule in the Ionian Islands (1797–1799)|French rule]], became part of the autonomous [[Septinsular Republic]] in 1800, and [[French rule in the Ionian Islands (1807–1814)|returned to the French]] in 1807. Seized by the British in 1809, it formed part of the [[United States of the Ionian Islands]] until the [[Union of the Ionian Islands with Greece]] in 1864.

====World War II====
{{further|Rescue of the Jews of Zakynthos|History of the Jews in Zakynthos}}

During the [[Axis occupation of Greece]], Mayor [[Loukas Karrer]] and Bishop [[Chrysostomos Dimitriou]] refused German orders to turn in a list of the members of the town's Jewish community for deportation to the death camps. Instead they hid all (or most) of the town's Jewish people in rural villages. According to some sources, all 275 Jews of Zakynthos survived the war.<ref name="Holocaust Museum">{{cite web |url=https://www.ushmm.org/information/exhibitions/online-exhibitions/special-focus/holocaust-in-greece/zakynthos |title=Zakynthos |publisher=United States Holocaust Memorial Museum|access-date=1 August 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=The miraculous story of the Jews of Zakynthos|url=http://www.jpost.com/Jewish-World/The-miraculous-story-of-the-Jews-of-Zakynthos|access-date=10 January 2018|work=The Jerusalem Post {{!}} JPost.com}}</ref> Both were later recognized as [[Righteous Among the Nations|Righteous among the Nations]] by [[Yad Vashem]]. In contrast, over 80% of Greek Jews were deported to [[Extermination camp|death camps]] and murdered in [[the Holocaust]].<ref>[http://www.afjmg.org/resources/jewingreece.pdf ''History of the Jewish Communities of Greece'', American Friends of the Jewish Museum of Greece] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070629161504/http://www.afjmg.org/resources/jewingreece.pdf |date=2007-06-29 }}, afjmg.org. Retrieved 7 December 2014.</ref>

===Earthquakes===
Zakynthos was hit by a 7.3-magnitude [[1953 Ionian earthquake|earthquake on 12 August 1953]], destroying most of the buildings on the island. Subsequently, all buildings have been strengthened to protect against further tremors. On 26 October 2018, a 6.4-magnitude earthquake south of the island caused no injuries, but damaged the local pier and a 13th-century monastery.<ref>{{cite news|title=Zakynthos earthquake: Greek island shaken by 6.4 tremor|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-45988853|access-date=26 October 2018|publisher=BBC}}</ref>