Cos (Hastings' Dictionary)

An island off the Carian coast, nearly blocking the entrance to the Ceramic gulf, very fertile (producing ointments, wheat, wines, and, above all, silk), famous for its rich and comfortable country life and tl»e beauty and character of its people, with a city of the same name at its eastern end. It was one of the six Dorian colonies.

Its famous temple of ilisculapius was the centre of one of the oldest and greatest medical schools in Greece, adorned especially by the genius of Hippo- crates in the 5th century. Amid the busy and frequent trade and intercourse between the .'I'^gean cities and the Syrian and Egyp. coasts, which existed for many centuries after the time of Alexander the Great (336-321), C, which lay on the path of all ships engaged in that trade, S. of Miletus and Samos, and N. of Rhodes (Ac 21' ; Lucan, viii.

243 f. ; Livy, xxxvii. 16), became a place of great importance and wealth. In the 3rd cent C. clung closely to the Egyp. kings ; but in the COSAM COSMOGONY 501 2iid cent, it was a good deal under the in- fluence of Rhodes, and like it a staunch ally of Rome. It IB uncertain whether C. was incorpor- ated in the Rom. province Asia in B.C.

129 along with the rest of Caria (which see) ; it had always the dignity of a free city (see Chios) as a reward for its faithful alliance ; and this perhaps implied a position of approximate autonomy until the time of^ Augustus, when C. became detinitely a part of the province (after the death or deposition of the tyrant Nicias). It suffered from earthquakes in B.C. 6, under Pius (A.D. 138-lGl), and in A.D. 554 (Agathias, p. 98, gives a vivid description of the latter).

There is a famous plane tree of great size and age in the square of the modern city, declared by tradition to be over 2000 years old. From it^ Sj-rian and Alexandrian trading con- nexion, C. was one of the great Jewish centres in the Alge&n. In B.C. 139-138 the Romans wrote to it« government in favour of the Jews (1 Mac IS" ; see Cawa). The position of C. natur- ally made it one of the great banking and financial centres of the E.

commercial world ; and the treasure of Cleojiatra, which Mithridates seized in B.C. 87, is thought by Rayet to have been deposited with the Jewish bankers of C, as certainly were the 800 talents (£192,000) belonging to Jews of Asia Minor, which Mithridates also seized there (Jos. Ant. XIV. vii. 2). In B.C. 49, C. Fannius, governor of the province Asia, wrote to the Coans urging them to observe the decree of the Rom. Senate,* and provide for the safe passage of Jewish pilgrims through C.

(which lay on their route) to Jerusalem (Jos. Ant. XIV. x. 15). The poet Meleager, who lived in C. in that century, com- plains that his mistress deserted him for a Jewish lover (Ep. 83, Antlwl. Gr. v. 160). Herod the Great was a benefactor of the Coans ; and the inscription of a statue to bis son Herod the Tetrarcb has been found at Cos. LiTKRATUR*.— Strabo, p. eS7 f. The latest and best account la by Paton and Hicka, Imtcriptiont oj Con ; Rayet, Mimoire tur Vile tie Kot {tztr.

dei archive de mifswtis, iii. 3); Dubois, De Co itifiUa ; Koss, Reuen nach Kot, u.t.w.. and his lieUen auj den yriech. lutein, ii. pp. 86-tf2, iii. pp. 126-139, are also useful. ▲ list of other works is given, Paton-Uicks, p. ix. W. M. Ram.say.