Paros then became part of the Roman Empire and later of the Byzantine Empire, its Greek-speaking successor state. 357 BC, along with Chios, it severed its connection with Athens.ДЇrom the inscription of Adule, it is understood that the Cyclades, which are presumed to include Paros, were subjected to the Ptolemies, the Hellenistic dynasty (305вЂ“30 BC) that ruled Egypt.

Paros was included in the second Athenian confederacy (the Second Athenian League 378вЂ“355 BC). In 410 BC, Athenian general Theramenes discovered that Paros was governed by an oligarchy he deposed the oligarchy and restored the democracy. Little is known about the constitution of Paros, but inscriptions seem to show that it was modeled on the Athenian democracy, with a boule (senate) at the head of affairs.

This implies that Paros was one of the wealthiest islands in the Aegean. Under the Delian League, the Athenian-dominated naval confederacy (477вЂ“404 BC), Paros paid the highest tribute of the island members: 30 talents annually, according to the estimate of Olympiodorus (429 BC). For their support of the Persians, the islanders were later punished by the Athenian war leader Themistocles, who exacted a heavy fine. Paros also sided with shahanshah Xerxes I of Persia against Greece in the second Greco-Persian War (480вЂ“479 BC), but, after the battle of Artemisium, the Parian contingent remained inactive at Kythnos as they watched the progression of events. By means of an inscription, Ross was able to identify the site of the temple it lies, as Herodotus suggests, on a low hill beyond the boundary of the town. It was at a temple of Demeter Thesmophoros in Paros that Miltiades received the wound from which he died. But the town offered a vigorous resistance, and the Athenians were obliged to sail away after a siege of 26 days, during which they had wasted the island. In retaliation, the capital was besieged by an Athenian fleet under Miltiades, who demanded a fine of 100 talents. In the first Greco-Persian War (490 BC), Paros sided with the Persians and sent a trireme to Marathon to support them. Shortly before the Persian War, Paros seems to have been a dependency of Naxos. As late as 385 BC the Parians, in conjunction with Dionysius of Syracuse, founded a colony on the Illyrian island of Pharos ( Hvar). In the former colony, which was planned in the 15th or 18th Olympiad, the poet Archilochus, a native of Paros, is said to have taken part. It sent out colonies to Thasos and Parium on the Hellespont. The island later received from Athens a colony of Ionians under whom it attained a high degree of prosperity. Ancient names of the island are said to have been Plateia (or Pactia), Demetrias, Strongyle (meaning round, due to the round shape of the island), Hyria, Hyleessa, Minoa and Cabarnis. The story that Paros of Parrhasia colonized the island with Arcadians is an etymological fiction of the type that abounds in Greek legends.

Portes Island вЂ“ west of the town of ParosДЄ windmill in Marpissa is of the traditional Cyclades design.

The constant strong wind in the strait between Paros and Naxos makes it a favoured windsurfing location. Paros has numerous beaches including Golden Beach (ChrissГ AktГ) near Drios on the east coast, at Pounda, Logaras, Piso Livadi, Naousa Bay, Parikia and Agia Irini. In addition a dozen smaller islets surround Paros.

A car-carrying shuttle-ferry operates all day (to and from Pounda, 5В km (3В mi) south of Parikia). At its narrowest, the channel between the two islands is less than 2В km (1В mi) wide. To the west of Paros lies its smaller sister island Antiparos. The island is composed of marble, though gneiss and mica- schist are to be found in a few places. The island is of a round, plump-pear shape, formed by a single mountain (724В m (2,375В ft)) sloping evenly down on all sides to a maritime plain, which is broadest on the north-east and south-west sides. is 21В km (13В mi), and its greatest breadth 16В km (10В mi). Paros' geographic co-ordinates are 37В° N.

Paros island greece