It is during this period that the Aeolians build the Aeolic cities (1000 BC). (Aeolic dialect, calendar, customs). The island is divided into city-states : Mytilana (on an island), Mathymna, Eresos (present-day Skala Eresos), Antissa (Kambos), Pyrrha (Achladeri) and Arisba. Their ruins still exist. Fortifying buildings and smaller settlements with outer walls forming fortified enclosures lie scattered all over the island (over a hundred have been reported). Reference is made to smaller towns in historical sources (Aigiros, Napi, Polion, Agamede, Metaon, Killaion, Penthili etc.) ; however their exact locations have not yet been verified. (Worship of) The religion of the twelve divinities and the foreign gods (Serapis, Isis) accounts for the ruins of temples such as the Temples of Mesa, Klopedi, Dionysus (Aghios Phokas), Demeter, Cybele, Aphrodite, Apollo (Malloes), located in Mytilene.

The city of Arisba is destroyed by the city of Methymna. Sappho, Alcaeus, Arion, Orpheus, Terpandros, Lesches, Pittacus, Hellanicus, Theophrastus and Phanias bring glory to the islands through their great contribution to the world of letters, music and arts.

Lesbos and its towns participate in the Persian Wars, the Peloponnesean holocaust (431 BC - 405 BC) and the many other adventures of Hellenism, on one side of the battlefield or the other, and thus suffer much destruction.

In 331 BC Alexander the Great liberates the island from the Persians. Between 322 BC and 201 BC the island under the rule of the Epigoni (Antigonid dynasty followed by the Ptolemaic).

Round 231 BC the city of Pyrrha is devastated by earthquake (only the outskirts and port are inhabited).

In 168 BC the Romans destroy the city-state of Antissa and its territory is offered to Methymna.

In 84 BC Lucullus (Roman general) conquers the island and many are killed.

Monuments of great beauty are produced while Lesbos is under the Roman rule : The Aqueduct of Moria, the exquisite mosaic floors which decorate the villas in Epano Skala, the ancient Theatre, the Holy Altar of Thermias Artemis.