 In 197 BC, the Romans declared it free, but in 166 BC gave it over to Athens which retained nominal possession of it until the whole of Greece was made a province of the Roman Republic in 146 BC.After the division of the Roman Empire in 395, Lemnos passed to the Byzantine Empire.Pliny the Elder writes about a labyrinth on Lemnos which was built by the architects Zmilis, Rhoecus and Theodorus, who were all natives of Lemnos.