History of the Cyclades Roman province. Under Diocletian, there existed a “province of the islands” that included the Cyclades. Christianisation seems to have occurred very early in the Cyclades. The catacombs at Trypiti on Milos, unique in the Aegean and in Greece, of very simple workmanship, as well as the very close baptismal fonts, confirms that a Christian community existed on the island at least from the 3rd or 4th century. From the 4th century, the Cyclades again experienced the ravages of war. In 376, the Goths pillaged the archipelago. When the Roman Empire was divided, control over the Cyclades passed to the Byzantine
History of the Cyclades owed to him. It was in the Bay of Drios, to the southeast of Paros, that he would drop anchor. At the same time, the Divan only very rarely sent officers and governors to direct the Cyclades in its own name. There were attempts to install kadis and beys on each large island, but Christian pirates kidnapped them in such great numbers to sell them to Malta that the Porte had to abandon such plans. Afterward, the islands were only ruled from afar. Local magistrates, often called "epitropes", governed locally; their principal role was tax collection. In 1580, the Porte,