The History of Sifnos dates back to 3,000 BC

3000 BC - In early Bronze Age, settlers from Asia Minor came to the island and fused with earlier Neolithic occupants to develop what is known as the Early Cycladic culture. They worked in marble and stone and traded over sea.

1600 BC - During the Late Bronze Age, Siphnos was under the cultural and commercial hegemony of the Minoans of Crete. It is believed that the Cretans founded the town named Minoa but remains are as yet undiscovered.

In 1400 BC, when the explosion of Santorini destroyed the major centers of Minoan civilization, the Mycenaeans became the dominant power in the area and used the islands as relay stations to the near east, replacing many of the indigenous people with Greeks.

At about 1100 BC, during the dark days of the Dorian Invasion, Sifnos was colonized by Ionians from Attika, led by their chieftan Alkenor who became the island's first sovereign.

In the 8th century BC, Greeks began to think of themselves as an ethnic unity. City States began to grow up on the mainland and the islands. Sifnos was under the domination of neighbouring Milos. It was then that gold was discovered on the island and the inhabitants became quite rich, paving their capital in Parian Marble and building a treasury in Delphi.

It was said that every year the Sifniots would present a solid golden egg to the God Apollo. One year out of guilt they gave him an egg that was merely plated in Gold. The angry God destroyed their mines. It was also during this period that Samian pirates plundered the island. With the riches they took, they acquired the island of Hydra for their home. When the mines of Sifnos brought forth no more precious metal the island was reduced to poverty.

In the fifth century BC, Sifnos was part of the Greek Alliance of City States that defeated the Persians at Marathon, Salamis and Platea. Sifnos became a part of the Delian League and came under the authority of Athens. During the Peleponnesian wars, Sifnos managed to stay out of the conflict. In 338 BC, it fell under the influence of Phillip of Macedonia. When Persians captured it in 332 BC, Alexander the Great sent a squadron to expell them. When Alexander died and the empire was divided among his generals, Sifnos fell under the influence of the Ptolemies of Egypt until 146 BC when they fell to the Romans.

By 395 AD, the Roman empire was split in two, with Sifnos under the influence of the eastern half with it's capital in Constantinople. As Barbarians from the north attacked the country, the Greeks lost control of the seas and Sifnos was raided by Arab, Venetian, Frank and Byzantine pirates.

In 1207 Sifnos was under the authority of Marco Sanudo, nephew of the Doge of Venice, who had declared himself Duke of Naxos. In 1261 they became part of the Greek empire of Nicea. In 1307 a Spaniard named Antonio da Corogna declared himself Lord of Sifnos and ruled it from the town of Kastro. Later it was given as a dowry to Nicolas Gozzadino of Bologna.

In 1537 Suleiman the Magnificent ordered Kapitan Pasha Khaireddin Barbarossa to fight the Venetians in the Aegean. He expelled the Gozzadini. The Sifniots arranged to buy their safety with an annual tribute. In 1568 the Gozzadini once again took possession of Sifnos. In 1617 the Turks took back Sifnos again and ruled until 1830 except for a period during the Russo-Turkish War (1768-74) when it was occupied by the Russian fleet.

During the rebellion of 1821 when the Greeks rose to free themselves of Turkish domination, the island sent a contingent of fighters under Nikolas Chrysogelas to join the rebellion. In response the Turkish Pasha moored his fleet in Sifnos. The Turks were defeated by Greeks with the help of the great powers in the Battle of Navarino.

In 1829 Greece became a sovereign state under the protection of the Great Powers.

Used with permission from Matt Barrett's Guide to Greece