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A mountainous island in the northern Aegean. Inhabited from Neolithic times, it was settled c.700 bce by Greeks who intermingled with the local Thracian population. A member of both Athenian maritime alliances, Samothrace gained its fame as a cult centre which was heavily patronized by the Macedonian royal house and their successors. Control of the island passed among several Hellenistic dynasts, and under the Romans it became a *free city. The popular cult of twin gods, the *Cabiri, was centred in a major sanctuary near the northern coast. The sanctuary was open to all visitors, and initiates sought protection, moral improvement, and the promise of immortality. During the Hellenistic era the sanctuary was lavishly endowed by royal patrons, who constructed several grand buildings. The site has been well excavated since the 1930s by the American archaeologists, K. and P. Lehmann and J. McCredie, who have published extensive reports. Classical Samothrace intermittently controlled a *peraea on the Thracian mainland, including several Greek *poleis (Hdt.