Plutarch, Pericles 26.3-4 and 28.1-3
(ed. Perrin )

(26.3) ... οἱ δὲ Σάμιοι τοὺς αἰχμαλώτους τῶν Ἀθηναίων ἀνθυβρίζοντες ἔστιζον εἰς τὸ μέτωπον γλαῦκας: καὶ γὰρ ἐκείνους οἱ Ἀθηναῖοι σάμαιναν. ἡ δὲ σάμαινα ναῦς ἐστιν ὑόπρωρος μὲν τὸ σίμωμα, κοιλοτέρα δὲ καὶ γαστροειδής, ὥστε καὶ ποντοπορεῖν καὶ ταχυναυτεῖν. (4) οὕτω δ᾽ ὠνομάσθη διὰ τὸ πρῶτον ἐν Σάμῳ φανῆναι, Πολυκράτους τυράννου κατασκευάσαντος. πρὸς ταῦτα τὰ στίγματα λέγουσι καὶ τὸ Ἀριστοφάνειον (CAF I fr. 64 ) ᾐνίχθαι: Σαμίων ὁ δῆμός ἐστιν ὡς πολυγράμματος.

(28.1) ... Δοῦρις δ᾽ ὁ Σάμιος (FHG II 483 F 60 = FGrH 76 F 67 = BNJ 76 F 67) τούτοις ἐπιτραγῳδεῖ πολλὴν ὠμότητα τῶν Ἀθηναίων καὶ τοῦ Περικλέους κατηγορῶν, ἣν οὔτε Θουκυδίδης (1.115-2.117) ἱστόρηκεν οὔτ᾽ (2) Ἔφορος (FHG I 265 fr. 117 = FGrH 70 F 195) οὔτ᾽ Ἀριστοτέλης (F 578 Rose³ ): ἀλλ᾽ οὐδ᾽ ἀληθεύειν ἔοικεν, ὡς ἄρα τοὺς τριηράρχους καὶ τοὺς ἐπιβάτας τῶν Σαμίων εἰς τὴν Μιλησίων ἀγορὰν καταγαγὼν καὶ σανίσι προσδήσας ἐφ᾽ ἡμέρας δέκα κακῶς ἤδη διακειμένους προσέταξεν ἀνελεῖν, ξύλοις τὰς κεφαλὰς συγκόψαντας, εἶτα προβαλεῖν ἀκήδευτα τὰ σώματα. (3) Δοῦρις μὲν οὖν οὐδ᾽ ὅπου μηδὲν αὐτῷ πρόσεστιν ἴδιον πάθος εἰωθὼς κρατεῖν τὴν διήγησιν ἐπὶ τῆς ἀληθείας, μᾶλλον ἔοικεν ἐνταῦθα δεινῶσαι τὰς τῆς πατρίδος συμφορὰς ἐπὶ διαβολῇ τῶν Ἀθηναίων ...

Aelian, Varia Historia 2.9
(ed. Hercher )

Photius, Lexicon s.vv. Σαμίων ὁ δῆμος, Τὰ Σαμίων ὑποπτεύεις
(ed. Porson )

Σαμίων ὁ δῆμος (ἐστὶν,) ὡς πολυγράμματος: Ἀριστοφάνης (CAF I fr. 64 ) Βαβυλωνίοις· ἐπισκώπτων τοὺς ἐστιγμένους· οἱ γὰρ Σάμιοι καταπονηθέντες ὑπὸ τῶν τυράννων, σπάνει τῶν πολιτευομένων, ἐπέγραψαν τοῖς δούλοις ἐκ πέντε στατήρων τὴν ἰσοπολιτείαν· ὡς Ἀριστοτέλης ἐν τῆι Σαμίων πολιτεία (F 575 Rose³ )· ἢ ὅτι παρὰ Σαμίοις εὑρέθη πρώτοις τὰ κδʹ γράμματα ὑπὸ Καλλιστράτου, ὡς Ἄνδρων ἐν Τρίποδι· τοὺς δὲ Ἀθηναίους ἔπεισε χρῆσθαι τοῖς τῶν Ἰώνων γράμμασιν * ἄρχειν· οἱ δ’ Ἀθηναίοις ἐπὶ ἄρχοντος Εὐκλείδου· τοὺς δὲ Βαβυλωνίους ἐδίδαξε διὰ Καλλιστράτου Ἀριστοφάνης ἔτεσι πρὸ τοῦ Εὐκλείδου καὶ ἐπὶ Εὐκλέους· περὶ δὲ τοῦ πείσαντος ἱστορεῖ Θεόπομπος (FGrH 115 F 155 = BNJ 115 F 155)· οἱ δὲ ὅτι Ἀθηναῖοι μὲν τοὺς ληφθέντας ἐν πολέμω Σαμίους ἔστιζον γλαυκὶ, Σάμιοι τῆ Σαμαίνη, ὅ ἐστι πλοῖον δίκροτον ὑπὸ Πολυκράτους πρῶτον παρασκευασθὲν τοῦ Σαμίων τυράννου, ὡς Λυσίμαχος ἐν βʹ Νοστῶν (FHG III 339 fr. 15 = FGrH 382 F 7 = BNJ 382 F 7)· τὸ δὲ πλάσμα Δούριδος (FHG II 483 fr. 59 = FGrH 76 F 66 = BNJ 76 F 66)· οἱ δὲ τὴν Σάμαιναν νόμισμα εἶναι.

Τὰ Σαμίων ὑποπτεύεις: αὕτη λέγεται ἐπὶ τῶν δεδιότων τινὰς ἀνηκέστους κακῶν προδοσίας· παρῆλθεν δὲ ἀπὸ τῶν γενομένων ὑπὸ Ἀθηναίων εἰς Σαμίους αἰκισμῶν· ἑλόντες γὰρ αὐτοὺς οἱ Ἀθηναῖοι, τοὺς μὲν ἀπέκτειναν, τοὺς δὲ ἔστιξαν τῆι καλουμένηι Σαμιῆι, ἥ ἐστιν εἶδος πάθους Σαμιακοῦ· ἀνθ’ ὧν καὶ οἱ Σάμιοι τοὺς ἁλόντας μετὰ ταῦτα Ἀθηναίους ἔστιξαν.

Plutarch, Pericles 26.3-4 and 28.1-3
(trans. Perrin )

(26.3) ... The Samians retaliated upon the Athenians by branding their prisoners in the forehead with owls; for the Athenians had once branded some of them with the samaena. Now the samaena is a ship of war with a boar's head design for prow and ram, but more capacious than usual and paunchlike, so that it is a good deep-sea traveller and a swift sailor too. (4) It got this name because it made its first appearance in Samos, where Polykrates the tyrant had some built. To these brand-marks, they say, the verse of Aristophanes (CAF I fr. 64) made riddling reference: — For oh! how lettered is the folk of the Samians!

(28.1) ... To these details Douris the Samian (FHG II 483 F 60 = FGrH 76 F 67 = BNJ 76 F 67) adds stuff for tragedy, accusing the Athenians and Perikles of great brutality, which is recorded neither by Thucydides (1.115-2.117), nor Ephorus (FHG I 265 fr. 117 = FGrH 70 F 195), nor Aristotle (F 578 Rose³). (2) But he appears not to speak the truth when he says, forsooth, that Perikles had the Samian trierarchs and marines brought into the market-place of Miletus and crucified there, and that then, when they had already suffered grievously for ten days, he gave orders to break their heads in with clubs and make an end of them, and then cast their bodies forth without burial rites. (3) At all events, since it is not the wont of Douris, even in cases where he has no private and personal interest, to hold his narrative down to the fundamental truth, it is all the more likely that here, in this instance, he has given a dreadful portrayal of the calamities of his country, that he might calumniate the Athenians ...

Aelian, Varia Historia 2.9
(trans. Wilson )

 

What decrees the Athenians passed, even though they were a democracy! They ordered that each Aeginetan should have his right thumb amputated so that he could not hold a spear but would be able to manage an oar. They ordered the execution of all adult Mytileneans. They passed this proposal, made by Kleon, son of Kleainetos. Captured prisoners from Samos were to be branded on the forehead, the mark being an owl; this too was an Athenian decree. By Athena Polias, by Zeus god of freedom and all the gods of the Greeks, I wish these measures had not been passed by the Athenians and that such things were not reported of them.

Photius, Lexicon s.vv. Σαμίων ὁ δῆμος, Τὰ Σαμίων ὑποπτεύεις
(trans. adapted from Whitehead)

The people of Samos, how lettered is: Aristophanes in the Babylonians (CAF I fr. 64); mocking the tattooed men; for the Samians were exhausted by the tyrants and, for want of civic numbers, decreed equal civic memebership to the slaves for five staters, as Aristotle writes in the Samian Constitution (F 575 Rose³). Alternatively because the Samians were the first people among whom the 24 letters were discovered by Kallistratos, as Andron writes in the Tripod; he persuaded the Athenians to use the letters of the Ionians * the Athenians in the archonship of Eukleides. Aristophanes directed the Babylonians with Kallistratos as producer ... years before Eukleides and in the year of Eukles. The source for the man who did the persuading is Theopompos (FGrH 115 F 155 = BNJ 115 F 155). But some say the phrase arose because while the Athenians tattooed the Samians captured in war with an owl, the Samians tattooed the Athenians with a Samaina, which is a two-banked ship built first by Polykrates, the Samian tyrant, as Lysimachos says in book two of the Returns (FHG III 339 fr. 15 = FGrH 382 F 7 = BNJ 382 F 7); and the fiction is Douris' (FHG II 483 fr. 59 = FGrH 76 F 66 = BNJ 76 F 66). But some say that Samaina is a coin.

You're suspecting what happened to the Samians: It is said about those fearing certain irreparable calamities of evils. It came across from the atrocities that were wrought by the Athenians upon the Samians: for when they captured them, the Athenians killed some, and tattooed the others with the so-called Samie, which is a kind of Samian calamity; in return for which the Samians, too, tattooed those of the Athenians that were subsequently captured.