man Republic in 146 BC. After the division of the Roman Empire in 395, Lemnos passed to the Byzantine Empire.
Middle Ages and Ottoman period
As a province of the Byzantine Empire, Lemnos belonged to the theme of the Aegean Sea, and was a target of Saracen raids. Following the dissolution and division of the Empire after the Fourth Crusade, Lemnos was apportioned to the Latin Empire, and given as a fief to the Venetian Navigajoso family under the megadux Filocalo Navigajoso. Filocalo died in 1214, and was succeeded by his son Leonardo and his daughters, who partitioned the island into three fiefs between them. Leonardo retained the title of megadux of the Latin Empire and half the island with the capital, Kastro, while his sisters and their husbands received one quarter each with the fortresses of Moudros and Kotsinos. Leonardo died in 1260 and was succeeded by his son Paolo Navigajoso, who resisted Byzantine attempts at reconquest until his death during a siege of the island by the Byzantine admiral Licario in 1277. Resistance continued by his wife, but in 1278 the Navigajosi were forced to capitulate and cede the island back to Byzantium.
During the last centuries of Byzantium, Lemnos played a prominent role: following the loss of Asia Minor, it was a major source of food, and it played an important role in the recurring civil wars of the 14th century. Following the Fall of Constantinople to the Ottomans in 1453, the island was added to the domain of the Gattilusi of Lesbos, but following the fall of the Despotate of the Morea in 1460, Sultan Mehmed II gave it as a domain to the last Despot, Demetrios Palaiologos.
The island then fell under Venetian control. In 1476, the Venetians and the island's Greek inhabitants successfully defended Kotsinos against a Turkish siege, but the island was ceded to the Ottomans by the 1479 Treaty of Constantinople which ended the First Ottoman-Venetian War. During the Fifth Ottoman-Venetian War,
