The oldest inhabitants are said to have been Pelasgians; and two generations before the Trojan war came Ionians under Macareus. These two races maybe said to represent respectively the first period of primitive barbarism, and the second period, when navigation brought to the island the commerce and intercourse of more advanced races; it deserves notice that the name Macareus, the Phoenician Melkarth, is taken by Curtius as a sign of the presence of Phoenician traders. But the island begins to be important in history from the time of the Aeolian immigration, which is said to have commenced one hundred and thirty years after the Trojan war; from this time it continued long to be one of the chief homes of Hellenic civilization. Homer refers to its wealth and its populous cities; its chief fame lies in its connexion with the earliest development of Greek poetry and literature. Lesches the cyclic poet, Terpander, Arion, Hellanicus, Pittacus, Alcaeus, and Sappho were all natives of Lesbos. Probably no district of Greece can boast of so many names, most of them associated with some marked advance in literature, as Lesbos can enumerate between 700 and 500 b.c.

The chief city of Lesbos was Mytilene or Mitylene, the latter spelling being general in literature while the former is the official spelling used on coins. It was originally built on an island close to the western coast of Lesbos; afterwards when the limits of the island were too narrow it was joined to Lesbos by a causeway, and the city spread out along the coast. On each side of this isthmus was a harbour; not far from the city was a place called Maloeis, but it does not appear that this name was, as some have said, given to the northern harbour. The city has always been known for its delightful and healthy climate. With the advantage of its strong situation and good harbour it soon became one of the most powerful Greek cities of Asia Minor. It was the only Aeolian city that possessed a strong navy. Its colonies were spread along Asia Minor and Thrace, and in the 6th century it maintained a long though finally unsuccessful contest with Athens for the possession of Sigeum. About its internal government little is known. After the kingly period there was a time when oligarchical and democratical factions contended with one another. The noble family of the Penthelidae, descended from Penthilus, son of Orestes, played a great part in these contentions. Its Pelopid descent may be compared with various legends that connect Pelops with the island of Lesbos. The city fell under the Persian power after the defeat of Croesus. A tyrant Coes ruled it soon after, but was expelled when the island joined the Ionic revolt in 500 b.c. It was freed from the Persian yoke after the battles of Plataea and Mycale, and was a member of the Delian confederacy. It revolted from Athens 429 b.c., and was reduced after a long siege. The story of the cruel revenge which the Athenian assembly at first resolved on, of the second meeting and the more merciful resolution, and of the arrival of the second despatch vessel barely in time to prevent the massacre of the whole male population, has been told by Thucydides. The territory of Mytilene was, however, divided among Athenian κληρούχοι. The harbour was the scene of a great battle between Callicratidas and Conon in the latter part of the Peloponnesian war; but it is impossible here to trace all the vicissitudes of its history, which are coincident with the history of Greece in the East. It continued to be a rich and prosperous city throughout ancient history, and its name came during the Byzantine period to be applied to the whole island. It was long a stronghold of the Venetians during the Middle Ages, but has belonged to the Turkish empire since 1460.

The other chief towns besides Mytilene were Methymna, Antissa, Eresus, and Pyrrha; hence the island is sometimes called a Pentapolis. There was also a town called Λrisba, which was destroyed by an earthquake before the time of Herodotus; Conze finds its site inland at Palaiokastro, north-east of the port of Calloni. Pyrrha lay on the south-east coast of this port, at a place also called Palaiokastro. Antissa, near Sigrium, was destroyed by the Romans in 168 b.c., as having sided with Perseus in the Macedonian war. Eresus, now Eresi, was also near Sigrium. Of these five cities, Mitylene was the chief; Pyrrha, Eresus, and Antissa were under its influence, and seem almost always to have followed its lead. But Methymna on the north coast, though it had not such a fine situation as Mytilene, was a very strong place; it was therefore able to maintain a constant quarrel with the more powerful city, and was always ready to side with its enemies. Mélivo, still the second city of the island, occupies the site of the old Methymna. The name Methymna or Mathymna is derived from the wine for which it was famous (Virg., Georg., ii. 90).

See Conze, Reise auf der Insel Lesbos ; Plehn, Lesbiaca ; Boutan, Archives cl. Missions Scient, et Liter., v. (according to Conze not veιy trustworthy); Zanders, Beitr. z. Kunde d. Insel Lesbos ; Newton, Travels ; and for the geography Cramer, Descr. of Asia Minor, and Forbiger, Alt. Geogr. The best maps are the English admiralty charts, and those in Conze’s work.